Before *Android OS 16*'s last update (to build # BP3A.250905.014), it was possible to use programs such as *Google Messages* to send or receive **SMS** messages. But as of BP3A.250905.014, **SMS** messages sent to you (which are required to login to your government accounts, or to use social services, or bank apps such as *Well's Fargo*, or to login to your *Google* account if you are stuck with 2-factor-authentication) are not shown, and you can not send **SMS** messages:  . If you click "More ways to veridy", Google's 2-factor-authentication has an option to enter a code for account access, but [build BP3A.250905.014 breaks the input box (the text input which you enter the code into)](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/262261/after-system-update-to-bp3a-250905-014-you-cannot-use-bluetooth-keyboard-to) . If you can disable 2-factor-authentication, that is a possible solution, but do not know how to. How to restore **SMS**? - Do you have to undo the update (roll back to the old version) to restore this ("Alt + Tab" switches)? Have the stock *Android OS* (not [**AOSP**](https://source.android.com/) , which includes sudo); is it possible to go back to the old version on devices without sudo? - Do you have to purchase a new phone (and remember to disable all processes related to "updates" / "provisioning" (and *Google* still asks, refuse those))? - If you can not refuse those: use without the **SIM** card (so *Google* can not force those), or [switch to a new **OS** (such as *Ubuntu Phone*) which allows you to use your phone](https://android.stackexchange.com/questions/57674/ubuntu-for-android) ?

I've been looking on the internet for an answer, to no avail. I have a phone mostly used in France, I recently brought to the US with a US sim card. Unfortunately, most contacts were added with the default French format (ten-digit number starting by "06" or "07"). Unfortunately, here in the US, one would need to have the country code in front of the number (+336 instead of 06) for the text to go through the US network. And this is where Android shows its weaknesses. Indeed, even if you: 1. delete a complete SMS conversation 2. add the country code to the contact, and then change one digit at the end of the contact so the number associated to the conversation should be removed from the system 3. reboot the phone 4. wait 1 day for anything delayed to take effect 5. change the digit back into the real number, this time with country code 6. try to send a text by explicitly typing in the number (not the contact name) with +33 Then, it does not matter that you have done steps 1-5, Android will still "snap" your complete number with country code, to the default one he had (and still remembers somehow), which was without. It now comes to the extent that I especially pay attention when writing a new contact, to *always* add the country code, since the first time the system sees the number, so that it can never dream of removing that country code by itself. I have tried installing a third-party SMS app like Pulse SMS, but it uses Android's built in SMS contact book, so same "snap" problem. What I would like instead, would be an SMS app that ignores the contact book, or recreates its own from the real contact book (not the image of the contact book stored in the SMS app), so that I can finally "force" the country code onto the SMS app (or more simply, that adding the country code in the address book would add it in the SMS app, which would be normal behavior), so the SMS can be sent, otherwise, it can't! Does anyone know of such a low-level SMS app, or of a way to trick the built-in app to finally use the country code? Thanks!

Problem: I have an A51 Samsung. I can't forward a text video that was attached and text to me from another A51 (my wife's). What I tried: I tried saving smaller since I cannot trim it. It just doesn't make sense to me that my wife can attach and text me a 7 MB video but I can't do the same, having the same identical phone.

Okay, I use GoSMS Pro for my SMS, and I use SwiftKey for my keyboard. GoSMS just updated because of a "copyright issue" with their emojis, and now the only emojis available aren't really ideal for me. I am fairly new to Android and I have no idea how all of these installable "Emoji plugins" interface with my keyboard and/or GoSMS or other third-party SMS apps. **Here are my main questions:** 1. Does anyone know of an Emoji pack that mimics the default Emoji style of Kik? 2. Do I *have* to use Emojis from GoSMS/by their developer as a plugin? 3. Will my downloaded Emoji plugins interface with SwiftKey and show to others I send SMS to the same as they look to me? **TL;DR Ultimately I just want to pick a set of Emojis and have it work with SwiftKey and GoSMS. If anyone can help I would really appreciate it! :)**

On a ULEFONE NOTE15 running Android 12, fully up to date, and am trying to get the QR code reader to launch from Google Messages on the phone in order to pair with Google Messages on a desktop computer. I installed the Gamma Play QR code reader to scan the QR code for Google Messages and confirmed that, indeed, I am currently using Google Messages. However, there's no option within the setting for Google Messages as expected in order to pair the phone's Google Messages with the website for desktop access. Scanning the QR code from the website with Gamma Play simply launches a browser on the phone, saying to select device pairing from Google Messages. There's no such option available from the phone version of Google Messages for some reason. version messages.android_20250 708_01_RC00.phone.go.dynamic Shows in app info. How can I pair this phone with a desktop for SMS?

I want to read incoming SMS's from my computer, through an API. Preferably in Python but I can write the Python code myself if the API is plain HTTP or JSON. The phone uses the same WiFi as the computer, but the phone is not rooted and is not cable-connected to the computer. Is there a way to do so?

I have a Pixel 4XL on Android 12. I would like to get in my car and have one app that controls my hands-free texting and music like Android Auto used to. Google Maps navigation mode has the ability to do this, but only when I enter a destination. With a destination, it is great. Exactly what I need. But unless I enter my destination every single time, it doesn't work safely. I am aware that I can put a widget that enters drive/navigation mode when pressed and have added that widget. However, it still requires me to enter a destination before it will control text and music. If I simply leave it w/o a destination there is text control but no music control. Is there a way for Maps-Driving mode to show me my map, have the music control at the bottom, and control texting without having to enter a destination every single time?

Where in the file system are SMS messages stored? I'm using ES File Explorer to browse around but can't seem to find this - is it on the phone or the SD, and where? I have an HTC Wildfire but I would imagine it doesn't vary hugely from vendor to vendor (although I am an iOS developer who knows little about Android).

I've been using Textra for many years. I'm currently on Textra version 4.80 under Android 14. I recently learned that Textra keeps its own internal database of SMS and MMS messages and uses that in conjunction with the Android device's message-storage database ... and possibly even instead of the device's message-storage database. I have set Textra to keep only 25 SMS for each conversation and only 10 MMS for each conversation. This ends up being a total of a bit more than 400 messages total. And I have specified numerous times that Textra delete extra message storage, which Textra always says is successful. However ... when I examine my device's SMS/MMS actual message storage, there are several tens of thousands of messages being kept, most of them being very ancient. I want to totally and completely and permanently get rid of all SMS messages that are older than 25 per conversation and all MMS messages that are older than 10 per conversation. I have used Textra's "Resync Textra" function, and it does not get rid of any of those tens of thousands of ancient messages. All other SMS apps still see all of this huge quantity of messages. And if I ever change the SMS app, I want all other Android SMS apps to not see tens of thousands of ancient messages in the SMS/MMS database which I am trying to delete, and to only recognize the 400-or-so messages that I want to keep. How can I clean up my SMS/MMS message storage so that only the 400 or so messages remain for Textra and for all other SMS apps, with all of the other older messages being totally and permanently deleted? **UPDATE**: It's important to me to use an SMS client which allows me to also record and send and receive voice messages directly from the message client (not voice-to-text). As far as I know, Textra and Google Messages are the only clients which allow this. And Google Messages does not offer the deletion-of-old-messages function that Textra offers (I'm talking about the deletion-of-more-than-25-SMS-and-10-MMS-per-conversation that I mentioned above). Therefore, my options for switching to something other than Textra seem to be quite limited. **NOTE**: I got rid of the "Further Update" section that I had previously written here, because now I solved this problem in the "Answer", below.

For a few days now, the Message app keeps crashing. There has not been a system update for a while, but I do check and update all apps daily. - If I open the Messages app, it opens - I can scroll up and down - As soon as I select a person, it crashes in a few seconds - Sometimes I can press a few letters, but they are lost after the crash. I have restarted the phone, to no effect. I am having to call back everyone that messages me. This is the built in Messages app for sms. I am using Samsung Note20 Ultra. Any ideas anyone?

Is there any way (application or other) to have PC receive notifications about text messages on an Android phone (ability to reply is also welcome)? I don't want to have my messages uploaded to the cloud due to the privacy concerns, so it is preferable to have messages sharing only when using the same WiFi network. I tried using AirDroid and PulseSMS - however, both are cloud-based as far as I can tell. I also tried Samsung Flow, but did not like it very much (it uses Bluetooth instead of WiFi for communication). If it's relevant, I have a Samsung Galaxy S8 as a phone and use Windows 10 on my desktop. Cortana is unavailable in my language.

I am using the Android Messages app to send an SMS to more than one person at a time. I get prompted with a message that "Messages needs your phone number" and a button labelled "Fix". I then get this dialog: " class="img-fluid rounded" style="max-width: 100%; height: auto; margin: 10px 0;" loading="lazy"> I have two questions: - Why does Android Messages need my phone number? Doesn't it know it already? Will I have to change it later if I change SIM card? I don't get this prompt when sending an SMS message to one person. - Is Android Messages doing something other than sending normal SMS messages here? I'm using Android 6 and the latest version of Android Messages from the Play store.

Is there any way to backup/restore SMS and MMS messages using ADB, when the device is not rooted? * adb pull won't work here, as the corresponding database (/data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db) cannot be read by ADB if it's not running in insecure (root) mode * adb shell "cat /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db > /sdcard/mmssms.db doesn't work either without root access * adb backup for some reason doesn't cover this database on the device I've checked with (empty backup – just the 41 bytes of the backup header in the resulting file) I especially wonder why adb backup doesn't cover this. If it's for "privacy reasons", then the same should apply to the contacts database – which clearly is backed up. **References:** * [Can adb be used to recover SMS messages while in permanent “Safe Mode”?](https://android.stackexchange.com/q/37492/16575) covers the same topic – but other than there, I'm not restricted to [tag:safe-mode] * [backup full sms/mms contents via adb](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12266374/backup-full-sms-mms-contents-via-adb) (on our developers sister-site) is for a "rooted solution" (and, apart from that, a bit of age: question and answers are more than 3 years old) So: Any solution on a non-rooted device? Note that I'm ***NOT*** asking for an app-based solution. I'm fully aware there are [several apps available for this](http://android.izzysoft.de/applists/category/named/file_backup#group_133) . I specifically want a "shell based solution", to be used via ADB.

How do I search and or sort individual text messages by date/time? I am using an AT&T Samsung Galaxy S5.

I have got an old Samsung mobile that exports all the SMS messages in .vmg format. How can I restore those messages on my Android? Is there any tool to convert .vmg messages to .xml so I could restore using SMS Backup & Restore? Or is there any app to restore from .vmg files directly like the one, SDBackup, unfortunately, which didn't work for me?

Android phones seem to support 2 kinds of SMS: Text SMS and Data SMS. I think I know what a text SMS is, but what is a Data SMS, and how / for what is it used (by the way, as far as I can tell, Data SMS are not MMS)? I recognize that this might not be Android-specific, but I encountered the term first on my Android handset, so here I go.

Motorola doesn't have a flashing persistent indicator on standby for messages or calls. This was an excellent old feature. You could see the light across the room and didn't need to physically pick up and click buttons on your phone. If the device doesn't support it natively, is there an alternative to show a persistent flashing indicator?

Regardless of the messaging app, messages randomly disappear from threads. Usually it's my response but not always. I thought maybe it was Apple users and RMS messages but there is no consistency. Recipients still have copies of the full thread. I have cleared cache, deleted old messages, restarted my phone, had support take over my phone, all to no avail.

I use Redmi 9 Prime. On that, I use the Truecaller app. I want to use Truecaller only for calls and strictly not for SMS. So I never give SMS read permission to the Treucaller app. But still, sometimes Truecaller read new personal SMS. Till now did not see any service or OTP SMS in Truecaller. Don't know how come. What can be the reason or source for getting this possible? How can I stop Truecaller from strictly touching my SMS?

I'm using a Samsung phone and I recently got an anonymous message via Class 0 Message > **Class 0 Message** > > URGENT MATTER ,CONTACT > ME MY EMAIL NOW > (email redacted) > > From: (phone no. redacted) I saw a concerning article regarding the issue, it said that it can apparently reboot your phone? Is that true? What I did was I responded to the email not knowing it might be a scam.