So, you've downloaded the app, set up a forwarding filter, but your SMS aren't being sent to the destination you specified. Next, we'll look at the most common causes of these issues.
Task #1: Identifying the Cause of the Problem
To determine the cause of SMS forwarding issues, you need to complete several steps.
- Open your newly created filter, save it without changing anything. The app will prompt you to send a test message; accept. Check that this message is delivered to the destination you specified.
- Open the app, keep it running, and keep your device's screen active. Initiate the receipt of the SMS you want to forward; it should be a real SMS that arrives on your device at that moment. Check that this message is delivered to the destination you specified.
- Close the app (completely, removing it from the list of open apps). To ensure a clean experiment, you can wait a few hours or allow your battery to reach a low level (these are triggers for your OS to prevent the app from running in the background and notifying you of new SMS messages). Initiate the arrival of the SMS to be forwarded in some way; this should be a real SMS that arrives on your device at that moment. Check that this message is delivered to the destination you specified.
Whenever data is sent through our server, it is queued. Since there can be many messages, the delay in delivery may be somewhat time-consuming.
So, you've completed all three steps; now let's move on to explaining the results of this test.
Step 1.
If the test message successfully arrives at the destination you specified, the message sending mechanism is working properly (this is good). Proceed to Step 2.
If the message doesn't arrive at the destination you specified, the most common reasons are listed below (depending on where you're sending the SMS).
To email
- You selected your work or unpopular email service (popular ones include @gmail.com, etc.) as the sending destination, and the forwarding method is "Our Server." Solution: Go to the app settings and change the sending method to Gmail API or SMTP. Don't forget to disable "Our Server" to prevent your emails from being sent through it.
- Be sure to check your Spam folder (some emails may end up there due to templated content).
- Make sure your internet connection is active and stable.
To another phone
- Most likely, some necessary permissions are missing. Sending to another phone number requires the SEND_SMS permission and sometimes READ_PHONE_STATE (Android requires this permission so the app can properly process SMS messages and understand which SIM card they were sent to). Solution: Go to your phone settings, find the app in the list of apps, and in the permissions section, remove all permissions and then re-grant them (this may update the app's data and resolve the issue).
- Since the app uses standard SMS messaging from your phone, you need to ensure that the data is being transferred to the default SMS app on your device. Open it and find the conversation with the phone number you specified in the app. The SMS should appear there (sometimes an error message will immediately appear explaining the problem).
To URL
- The most common issue is incorrect data processing on the server. Please review our instructions for sending to URLs. It's best to have this processing performed by a professional programmer; they will quickly figure out the problem.
- Make sure your internet connection is active and stable.
Other methods
- If you're sending to Telegram, Max, or VKontakte, you likely haven't added the bot or haven't granted it permission to send messages to you or to a group chat. Please review the help articles for these sending methods on this website.
- There may be server issues. We monitor their performance, but sometimes stability is affected. In this case, choose "Contact the developer" from the app menu and report the issue.
Step 2.
This step tests how the app responds to real SMS messages. It's important to keep the app running to rule out issues that arise when the app is running in the background.
If the SMS was successfully forwarded, that's great, and everything is working properly in the app so far.
If the SMS wasn't delivered, and Step 1 was successful, here are the most likely issues:
- Incorrect filter settings. This is most often due to certain forwarding rules you've specified—for example, by text, or only from certain contacts, etc. In this case, we recommend creating a simple filter for testing (without going into advanced settings) and repeating Step 2 for this filter. If it works, you should examine the main filter settings to determine which filter rule rejected the message.
- RCS messages. This is a new type of chat message used by Google. These messages aren't regular SMS messages, and Android OS treats them as MMS, so they're forwarded the same way. To filter their messages, you need to enable MMS forwarding for the filter or disable RCS messages in your phone settings.
- If RCS messages are disabled and creating a simple filter doesn't help with step 2, then "Contact the developer" from the app menu, and we'll investigate the situation.
Step 3.
If this and the previous two steps are successful, the app should most likely be working properly. If not, then "Contact the developer."
If this step isn't successful, but the previous two steps work properly, the issue is with background OS operation. Here are possible causes and solutions:
- First, make sure "Battery optimization" is disabled for the app; this is the most likely problem.
- If the app stops working after restarting the app or after a long period of time, then you need to check your phone's Autostart setting (it's available on some device models, but not on others) and be sure to add the app there. If this doesn't help, then contact Google for more information (it's best to ask their AI, they explain things quite well). Your query should sound something like "how do I prevent phone *your device model* from disabling background app work?" This query will return several possible solutions and tell you exactly where in your phone's settings you need to enable/disable.
Conclusion
If you're having trouble with any of these steps, first read this guide and try to resolve the issue yourself; in most cases, the problem is easily resolved.
If you can't resolve the issue yourself, then "Contact the developer," describe what you've tried to resolve the issue, and the results of completing the three steps. This will help us pinpoint the problem more quickly and accurately.
