How to Transfer Messages from Android to Android

Get a message backup app on your first Android phone. There is no official method for transferring messages between Android phones. The fastest way to do this is to use a messenger app. There are many such apps on the Google Play Store (Google App Store). Some popular free apps include “SMS Backup+” and “SMS Backup & Restore”.

Open the SMS backup app. Open the app on the device containing the message. Operation on the “SMS Backup+” and “SMS Backup & Restore” applications are quite similar and will be described in detail in this section.

Connect a Gmail account (for SMS Backup+). SMS Backup+ will back up messages to your Gmail account. Tap “Connect” to select an account. Remember to use the same account you signed into your phone with to make the recovery process easier. ^[1]

Start the backup process. For both apps, tap the “Backup” button to proceed.

Set your backup location (for SMS Backup & Restore). SMS Backup & Restore creates an internal backup file that contains your text messages and can be stored on a cloud service.

• Click “Local Backup and Upload” to choose a cloud storage service or send the backup file to your email address.
• Check the “Include MMS Messages” box to select both group messages and messages with attachments such as images.

Wait for the backup to complete. You will have to wait a long time if your phone has a lot of messages that need to be backed up. Alternatively, you can disable MMS backup (if you think it’s unnecessary) to make the process faster.

Transfer the backup file to your new phone (for SMS Backup & Restore). Once a backup has been created using SMS Backup & Restore on your old device, you’ll need to transfer the file to your new Android device. If you only created a local file when performing a backup, you can connect your phone to your computer and copy the XML file from the “SMSBackupRestore” folder to your new device. If, after creating, you uploaded the file to a cloud storage service, you don’t need to worry about transferring the messages.

• When you connect your Android phone to your computer, you’ll be able to find it in the “Computer” window (Windows), or on the desktop (Mac). When copying the XML file to the new machine, put it in the root directory so it can be found later.

Install SMS backup app on new phone. After creating a backup using the app on your old device, you’ll need to reinstall the same app on your new phone.

• If you are using SMS Backup+, make sure you connect your new phone to the same Google account.

Click “Restore” to start the message recovery process. Both apps have a “Restore” button on the home screen. Click to get started.

Select the backup file (for SMS Backup & Restore). After starting the recovery process, you will be asked to select the recovery file. If you copied the file and saved it to your phone, use a file manager app to browse and open the file. If you have uploaded the file to a cloud storage service, tap the ⋮ button and select the service from the list.

Set the backup app as the default messaging app. Before starting the restore, you will be asked to set the backup app as the default messaging app for your device. You need to do this before you can recover the messages. You should be able to default back to the regular messaging app once the restore is complete.

Wait for the messages to be recovered. This will take a while, especially if the backup is large.

Change back to default messaging app. Once you’ve finished restoring your messages, you can set the regular messaging app back to default to view and send new messages. ^[2]

• Open the Settings or Settings app.
• Click “More” in the “Wireless & networks” section.
• Tap “Default SMS app” and select the messaging app you want to use.