Auto Text Backup?

[JustMe84]

Are text messages automatically backed up by Google on my Android phone or do I need to manually do something in my settings first? I've read contradicting posts about this and would just like to know the right answer!

(I'm not using messages app but one I downloaded called Pulse - not sure if that makes any difference).

Thanks for your help!

 

[Milo Williamson]

Are text messages automatically backed up by Google on my Android phone or do I need to manually do something in my settings first? I've read contradicting posts about this and would just like to know the right answer!

(I'm not using messages app but one I downloaded called Pulse - not sure if that makes any difference).

Thanks for your help!

If you are using Messenger Plus, they can be backed up for countless years

 

[JustMe84]

Thanks for your fast reply! Do you know if apps other than messenger or messenger plus are automatically backed up?
Thanks again!

 

[Hadron]

Texts are not automatically backed up on most devices. At one point Google offered this for Pixel users (I don't know whether they still do), but most apps on most phones will not do this. Some apps have their own backup options, some don't. If Pulse has such an option it will be in the app's settings.

There are of course dedicated SMS backup apps that you can use regardless of which message app you prefer, e.g. the venerable and widely-used SMS Backup & Restore, which can also run scheduled backups and upload those to Google Drive. That's probably a better bet than installing a second message app and occasionally remembering to switch to it and let it make a backup.

Of course if you also use other message apps (WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, whatever) they either have their own backup facilities or they don't, but they are quite distinct from SMS.

 

[JustMe84]

Thank you a ton for taking the time to answer my question so thoroughly!

 

[radzey]

I prefer exporting messages directly to internal storage or MicroSD, so I can browse them on the PC and avoid vendor lock-in. With root, the directory they are stored in, presumably somewhere in /data/, would be directly accessible.

 

[Hadron]

I prefer exporting messages directly to internal storage or MicroSD, so I can browse them on the PC and avoid vendor lock-in. With root, the directory they are stored in, presumably somewhere in /data/, would be directly accessible.

It would be, but you'd find they were in a database rather than a set of files, so you'd need the right tool to browse them that way.

One reason backup tools don't just make a copy of the database is that it's not reliably portable between different models of phone. The other will presumably be that like any SMS app they access the messages through an API rather than having direct access to the database (which is owned by a dedicated message storage app rather than any individual SMS app).