Lagu SMS — Frequently Asked Questions

Messages are automatically grouped into buckets like Personal, OTP, Banking, Bills, Orders, Travel, Offers, Government, Spam, and Other, so you can find things faster.

Yes. Open the conversation menu and move the sender to another bucket.

Unread counts appear on each bucket chip at the top of the Inbox — tap a bucket to filter and see its conversations.

Yes. Use the "mark all as read" action available for a bucket in the Inbox.

Long-press a conversation to enter selection mode, then choose to mark read/unread, archive, label, or delete the selected conversations.

Yes, swipe the conversation in the Inbox to archive it.

Pull down on the Inbox to sync or rescan recent messages.

Archive removes a conversation from the main Inbox but keeps it in the app. Snooze hides it until a chosen time, then brings it back automatically. Delete removes it permanently.

No. Deleting a conversation permanently removes it and its messages. If you just want it out of the way, use Archive instead.

Yes, tap Compose to start a new SMS to any contact or number.

Open the conversation and type your reply. Replying is only available when the sender accepts replies — some sender IDs are send-only.

Yes. Long-press a message to copy the whole message, or use quick-copy actions for detected codes, numbers, and links.

Yes, from inside the conversation you can save an unknown number to your contacts.

They are one-tap suggested replies and your own saved templates, shown above the keyboard when relevant.

Pin the conversation from its menu. The number of pinned conversations is limited, so reserve pins for your most important threads.

Open the conversation and mute it for 8 hours, 1 week, or always.

Yes, use Snooze to hide it until a chosen time — it returns to the Inbox automatically, or you can restore it early from the Snoozed screen.

Open the conversation menu and choose "Move to bucket."

Yes, block or unblock a sender from the conversation menu.

Open the conversation and tap the eye icon in the top bar to move it to the Private folder.

Yes, that option is available from the conversation menu.

Lagu SMS flags messages that pressure you to act urgently, ask for OTPs or PINs, claim your account will be blocked, offer fake prizes, or contain unexpected links.

You can still read and act on the message as normal — the warning is only advisory. If it keeps happening for a trusted sender, review Spam quarantine in case it's also being filtered there.

No. Never share OTPs, PINs, passwords, CVV numbers, or card details by SMS, even if the message looks official.

The OTPs tab shows recent verification codes with a one-tap copy button. New OTPs can also appear directly in notifications with a copy action.

Yes, use the copy action shown right on the OTP notification.

Yes. Turn on automatic deletion in Settings to remove OTP messages after 24 hours.

It may have been auto-deleted after 24 hours if that setting is on, or the message may have been filtered into Spam — check Spam quarantine.

When a message contains an amount and a due date, Lagu SMS can create a reminder automatically.

Overdue and upcoming bills, credit card bill details (total due, minimum due, due date), delivery updates (ordered, shipped, out for delivery, delivered), and travel updates for flights, trains, and buses.

Open the Reminders tab and mark the bill as paid from its card.

Yes, snooze a bill reminder by 1 day.

Yes, open the original message directly from the reminder card.

It reads debit and credit SMS from your bank to build a private spending view, including totals, categories, top merchants, and individual transactions — all on your device.

Yes, use the month arrows at the top of the Spends tab to move between months.

Yes. Tap a transaction in Spends to change its category or open the original SMS.

Yes, tap a category in the Spends tab to filter the transaction list to that category.

It can show balance hints when the bank SMS includes that information.

Once enabled in Settings > Spends, you may see comparison with last month, average spend per day, biggest category changes, recurring subscriptions, monthly budgets, and account balance chips.

Go to Settings > Spends and enable it there.

Yes, built-in categories can be hidden in Settings > Spend categories.

Yes, and you can also change its icon and colour. Custom categories can be deleted entirely, while built-in ones can only be hidden.

Yes, under Settings > Spend categories, you can set monthly budgets for expense categories you use.

Yes. Use the export button in the Spends tab to save the current month's transactions as a CSV file.

Spend data is parsed from bank SMS text, so formatting differences between banks can occasionally cause a miss. You can manually recategorise or check the original SMS from the transaction.

Use Search to find conversations by contact name, phone number, or message text.

Yes, open the conversation and use its search to find text within that thread.

Yes, save searches for later, and long-press a saved search to remove it.

When matches appear across more than one bucket, Lagu SMS lets you filter search results by bucket.

Reusable message templates you can send with one tap inside a conversation.

Open Settings > Quick replies and add a new template.

Yes, both editing and deleting templates are available in Settings > Quick replies.

They let you organise conversations in your own way, separate from the built-in buckets.

Open Settings > Custom labels, create a label, and choose its colour.

Yes, both are available in Settings > Custom labels.

Select one or more conversations in the Inbox and use the label action from the selection menu.

Yes, labels appear as filter chips in the Inbox alongside buckets.

Yes, from the conversation menu, or by adding block keywords in Settings > Blocked senders.

Blocked senders are filed as spam and no longer notify you.

Yes, open Settings > Blocked senders to view and unblock any sender.

They automatically block sender names or numbers that contain the keywords you add, without blocking each sender individually.

Open Settings > Spam quarantine and move it back to the Inbox.

It hides selected conversations from the Inbox and Search. Opening it requires your phone lock or fingerprint.

Open the conversation and tap the eye icon in the top bar.

Go to Settings > Private folder and confirm with your phone lock or fingerprint.

No, they are hidden from both the Inbox and Search once moved.

They're removed from the main Inbox but kept in the app — view or restore them from Settings > Archived conversations.

Yes, open the Snoozed screen and restore it early.

Tap Compose from the Inbox, then search contacts by name or number, or type a number manually.

Yes, on dual-SIM phones you can choose the SIM before sending.

Yes, the compose screen shows the character count and how many message parts it will send as.

After sending, the app opens the conversation and shows delivery status when available.

Yes, choose system, light, or dark theme in Settings > Appearance.

Yes, pick from plain, doodle, bubbles, stars, or hearts backgrounds in Settings > Appearance.

Yes, you can set the language to system language, English, or Hindi in Settings > Appearance.

Yes, both are available in Settings.

Enable App lock in Settings > Privacy & security, which requires your fingerprint or screen lock to open Lagu SMS.

You can choose to lock immediately, after 1 minute, or after 5 minutes under Auto-lock.

Yes, enable Block screenshots in Settings > Privacy & security to prevent screenshots, screen recording, and app previews.

No. Lagu SMS does not use ads, analytics, trackers, accounts, or cloud upload in the release app.

Open Settings > Encrypted backup to export an encrypted backup file, protected by a passphrase you choose.

You can choose a specific backup folder, or use the share sheet to save or send it each time.

The backup file cannot be opened without it, so keep your passphrase somewhere safe — there is no recovery option.

No. Restoring is designed to merge messages and app data back in without duplicating or overwriting what's already there.

Yes, install Lagu SMS on the new phone, then use Settings > Encrypted backup > Restore with your backup file and passphrase.

Yes, open Settings > Auto-delete to enable deleting OTPs after 24 hours or promotions after 30 days.

It removes matching messages from the phone's SMS store as well, not just from the app's view.

Open Settings > Data and tap Re-scan device inbox to have Lagu SMS re-organise messages from your phone.

If messages seem missing, miscategorised, or out of sync after restoring a backup, changing devices, or a long period without opening the app.

Never share OTPs, PINs, passwords, CVV numbers, or card details by SMS — no legitimate bank or service will ask for these.

Be skeptical of urgency. Verify through the official app or website rather than tapping links in the message.

Avoid opening links from unknown or unexpected senders, even if they look like they're from a known brand.

Use the Private folder for sensitive conversations, and enable App lock for the whole app.

Keep them somewhere safe and remember your passphrase, since backups can't be opened without it.

Yes, review it occasionally in case a wanted message was filtered there by mistake.