Everything Smart SMS can do

Every text is sorted automatically into one of four tabs: Personal, Transactions, OTP and Promotions. All shows everything together. Swipe left or right, or tap a tab, to switch. The red badge on each tab counts its unread messages.

Reading a conversation row

• Bold text and a colored count — unread messages. A plain dot instead of a number means you marked the conversation unread yourself.
• Pin icon — the conversation is pinned to the top.
• Eye with a line through it — this conversation has Private notifications. A bell with a line means its notifications are off.
• Draft: — you started typing a message here and haven't sent it.
• Reminder chip, like Due tomorrow · ₹4,500 — a bill or booking was found in the message (see Reminders).

Tap a conversation to open it. It opens where your unread messages start, so you never have to scroll to find them.

The New button at the bottom starts a new message, the magnifier opens Search, and the alarm clock opens Reminders (its badge shows how many are due).

Acting on conversations

Long-press a conversation to select it, then tap others to add them. The top bar offers:

The ⋮ menu

• Unread only — hides everything you've read. Tap Show all to go back.
• Read all — marks every message in every tab as read, after asking first.
• Trash, Blocked and Settings open those screens.

Messages are grouped by day. Your own messages are on the right in your theme color, and links in any message can be tapped to open them.

Delivery ticks

• Clock — sending.
• One tick — sent from your phone.
• Two ticks — delivered to the other phone.
• Red “Not sent — tap to resend” — it failed. Tap it and confirm to try again.

Calling and replying

The phone icon at the top opens your dialer with the number filled in. Type in the box at the bottom to reply. Anything you leave unsent is kept as a draft for that conversation.

Banks, shops and other businesses often send from a name like HDFCBK or a short code. Those senders can't receive texts, so the reply box is replaced with “You can't reply to this sender” and there is no call button.

Working with messages

Long-press a message to select it, then tap more messages to add them. The top bar shows:

Share, Star and the last three live under ⋮. Reply, Select text, Remind me and Message details appear only when one message is selected.

The conversation menu

With nothing selected, ⋮ in the top bar offers:

• Mark as unread — leaves the conversation marked unread in your inbox.
• Move to — puts the sender in a different tab. Smart SMS remembers the choice, so this sender's past and future messages all appear there.
• Notifications — overrides the notification style for just this conversation (see Notifications). The menu shows the current choice under the label.
• Block — blocks the sender and moves the conversation to Blocked.

Starting a new message

Tap New in the inbox. In the To field, type a name or number and pick from your contacts as they appear.

To text several people, separate them with a semicolon (;). Each person gets the message in their own conversation, the same as texting them one by one. It isn't a group chat.

If you already have a conversation with someone, Smart SMS opens it instead of starting a new one. The same happens when you tap Message on a contact in your phone's Contacts app.

The buttons next to the text box

• Contact card — attach a contact. Pick someone and their name and number are added to your message.
• Clock — schedule the message (see below).
• SIM — on a dual-SIM phone, choose which SIM sends the message.
• Arrow — send now.

Scheduled send

1. Type your message.
2. Tap the clock button and choose a date, then Next.
3. Pick a time and tap Schedule.

The message waits in the conversation in a lighter bubble showing when it will go out. Tap Cancel on the bubble to stop it. A time in the past isn't allowed.

Tap the magnifier in the inbox and start typing. Results appear as you type, split into Conversations (matching names and numbers) and Messages (matching text, with the words highlighted). Tap a result to open it.

The Unread only chip narrows results to messages you haven't read. It starts switched on if your inbox is showing unread only.

Messages in Trash don't appear in search.

A new message notification shows the sender's saved contact name and the message, with three buttons:

• Reply — answer right from the notification. It only appears for real phone numbers, not for business senders.
• Mark as read — clears it without opening the app.
• Delete — moves the message to Trash.

Tap the notification itself to open that conversation. If you already have that conversation open on screen, no notification is shown.

Show, Private or None

Go to Settings → Notifications to choose how each tab notifies you:

A different setting for one conversation

Open the conversation, tap ⋮ → Notifications, and pick Show, Private or None. Default hands it back to its tab's setting. A message at the bottom lets you undo the change.

Back in Settings → Notifications, a line tells you how many conversations have their own setting, with Reset to clear them all.

One-time passwords get their own OTP tab, so they never bury your personal messages.

Copy the code in one tap

When a code arrives, the notification shows just the code in large digits. Tap Copy OTP to put it on your clipboard, then paste it into the app or website asking for it. You never need to open Smart SMS.

Codes clean themselves up

Many OTP messages say how long the code is valid, for example “valid for 10 minutes”. When that time is up, Smart SMS moves the message to Trash automatically, so old codes don't pile up. You can still restore it from Trash.

To clear out older OTPs that don't state a validity, set up an auto-clear rule for the OTP tab.

Smart SMS reads incoming messages for things you need to act on, such as credit card bills, EMIs, renewals and recharges, bookings and check-ins, travel, appointments and deliveries, and turns them into reminders.

A found reminder shows as a chip on the inbox row, like Due tomorrow · ₹4,500.

The Reminders screen

Tap the alarm clock in the inbox. Reminders are grouped into Today, Tomorrow, This week and Later. Use ⋮ on a reminder to Mark as done or Remove.

Add or edit a reminder yourself

In a conversation, long-press a message and choose ⋮ → Remind me. Fill in:

• What for and an optional Amount.
• Due — tap Change date to pick the day.
• Set a time — switch on for a timed reminder, like a check-in. Without a time, the reminder is included in the daily summary.

Tap Save, or Remove to delete an existing reminder.

How you're reminded

• Daily summary — once a day, at the time you choose, you get a notification for each reminder still outstanding.
• Timed reminders — reminders with a time also alert you ahead of time. You choose how far ahead: at the time, or earlier.

Each reminder notification has Done (or Mark paid for bills and EMIs) and Snooze 1 day.

Reminder settings

In Settings → Reminders you can:

• Turn Find reminders in messages on or off.
• Turn the Daily summary on or off and change its Summary time.
• Set Alert me before for timed reminders.
• Under What to look for, choose which kinds to find: Bills, EMIs and loan payments, Renewals and recharges, Travel, Bookings and check-ins, Appointments, Deliveries and Other.

Deleting a message or conversation moves it to Trash first. You can delete from the inbox, from inside a conversation, or with Delete on a notification. Open Trash from the inbox ⋮ menu.

• Messages stay in Trash for 30 days, and each shows how long it has left (“deletes in 25 days”). After that they're deleted for good.
• Trashed messages are grouped by sender. Tap the arrow to expand a group.
• Restore (curved arrow) puts messages back where they were. Delete (bin) removes them permanently, after asking first.
• Restore all and Empty at the top act on everything in Trash.

Block a spammer from the inbox (long-press → Block) or from inside the conversation (⋮ → Block). You can block several senders at once from the inbox.

• The conversation moves to Blocked, which you open from the inbox ⋮ menu.
• Future messages from that sender go straight to Blocked. You get no notification, and they don't appear in your inbox.
• Blocked messages are deleted automatically after 7 days.
• Changed your mind? Tap Unblock to bring the sender's messages back to your inbox. Delete forever and Delete all clear them right away.

Keep the inbox tidy without lifting a finger. In Settings → Auto-clear rules, switch on a rule for any tab and choose how long to Keep for. Messages older than that move to Trash on their own.

• Rules run once a day, and straight away when you switch one on or change it.
• Cleared messages go to Trash first, so you still have 30 days to restore them.
• Starred messages are never cleared.
• Messages from a person's phone number are never cleared, whichever tab they're in.

Switch a rule off anytime and messages are kept until you delete them.

Open Settings → Backup and Restore. Backups are encrypted with a password you choose, so they can be restored on a new phone. Along with your messages, they carry your stars, pins, drafts, reminders, blocked senders, rules and notification settings.

1. Set a backup password

Tap Set next to Backup password, then type it twice, or tap Generate a strong one for me. You can Change it later.

2. Back up

Tap Back up now and choose where to save the file (it ends in .smsbak). Save it somewhere off your phone too, such as a computer or your cloud storage, so it survives if the phone is lost.

3. Restore

On the new phone, install Smart SMS and make it your default SMS app. Tap Restore, pick the backup file and enter its password. Messages you already have aren't duplicated.

Automatic backup

Choose Daily, Weekly or Monthly to back up on a schedule using your backup password. These backups are saved in the app's storage folder on your phone. Uninstalling the app removes that folder, so copy important backups somewhere else.

Backups made by very old versions of the app are locked to the phone that made them. They still restore there, but take a fresh backup to move your messages to a new phone.

Keep prying eyes out of your messages. In Settings → App lock, switch it on and confirm with your fingerprint or screen lock.

• After that, opening Smart SMS shows “Smart SMS is locked” until you tap Unlock and confirm it's you.
• Ask again after sets how long the app stays unlocked when you step away briefly: 30 seconds, or 1, 2, 5, 10 or 30 minutes.
• Whatever screen you were on is still there after you unlock.

Make Smart SMS look the way you like under Settings → Appearance:

Changes apply immediately, with no restart.