The Best SMS Tracker Apps Reviewed

If you want to know what the best SMS tracker app is - read on

Top Apps to help you spy on text messages

Top Pick

$9.99

FEATURES

Text Content

MMS Content

Spoof SMS

Remote Delete

Invisible

Resolve to Contacts

SIM Change Notification

Battery Life

Auto Updates

Remote Upgrade

Viewer App


2

$29.99

FEATURES

Text Content

MMS Content

Spoof SMS

Remote Delete

Invisible

Resolve to Contacts

SIM Change Notification

Battery Life

Auto Updates

Remote Upgrade

Viewer App


3

$29.99

FEATURES

Text Content

MMS Content

Spoof SMS

Remote Delete

Invisible

Resolve to Contacts

SIM Change Notification

Battery Life

Auto Updates

Remote Upgrade

Viewer App


4

$19.95

FEATURES

Text Content

MMS Content

Spoof SMS

Remote Delete

Invisible

Resolve to Contacts

SIM Change Notification

Battery Life

Auto Updates

Remote Upgrade

Viewer App


5

$19.99

FEATURES

Text Content

MMS Content

Spoof SMS

Remote Delete

Invisible

Resolve to Contacts

SIM Change Notification

Battery Life

Auto Updates

Remote Upgrade

Viewer App


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The Best SMS
Tracker Apps Reviewed

We've tested five of the top selling SMS tracker apps and – while many of these apps can do more than just track SMS messages – this review focuses mainly on the ability to spy on text messages.

If all you want to do is spy on text messages at the lowest possible price, then the clear winner is FlexiSPY as it offers the most powerful SMS Tracking features starting from $9.99/mo.

FlexiSPY installation is really easy with no rooting required and there is an easy upgrade path to more powerful versions should you need more spying capabilities.

None of the SMS tracker apps below will work on iPhone unless it's jailbroken. To jailbreak an iPhone, the operating system must be iOS 9.0.2

phone with sms message coming out of screen

Features You Need To Spy On Text Message

While these apps all promise alot of monitoring capabilities,
here are the features that are most useful for an SMS Tracker app to have

text content icon
Text Content

Capture the contents of text messages sent to and from the monitored phone. The best quality phone tracker apps can capture text messages regardless of their length or language.

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MMS Content

Capture Multi Media Messages sent to and from the phone. MMS can contain multiple media types, but not all tracker apps can support all formats. The best spy apps will be able to capture any media format in full resolution without degrading the quality of the image sent.

spoof sms icon
Spoof SMS

Gives your app the ability to remotely send an SMS from the phone on which the SMS Tracker is installed and remove the SMS from the SMS log. The best SMS tracker apps allow you to view and send spoof SMS to the contact list completely disguised as a number from the contact list.

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Remote Delete

Specify keywords to look for in incoming SMS messages, and immediately delete the SMS. Use this to protect children from sexting or being cyberbullied.

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Resolve to Contact

See the phone numbers and contact details of any of the message senders, whether the message was incoming or outgoing, and the time it was sent or received by the target phone.

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Battery Life

See the target device's battery status throughout the day and when it's getting close to low. No more excuses of the phone dying or running out of battery!

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Invisible

In some cases, parents and employers may choose to make the SMS Tracker App tamper proof. This option allows the spy app to be invisible by not having an icon and removing its program name from the device's application manager. The best SMS tracker apps even remove traces of the download and installation from the web browser so that its users will not suspect they are being tracked – so you can really know what's going on.

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Sim Change Notification

Receive an SMS notification if the SIM card is changed on the tracked device.

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Auto Update

Auto update invisibly when there's a new version of the SMS Tracker available.

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Remote Update

Many tracker apps have various packages with an increasing number of monitoring features you can unlock. If you wish to upgrade to a more powerful version, check to see that your SMS Tracker app lets you upgrade without requiring physical access to the device again.

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Viewer App

Most SMS Tracker apps let you view your SMS data using a web browser on a computer which is not always convenient. A viewer app lets you access your tracked SMS messages using an iPhone or Android mobile app so you can monitor while you're on the go.

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Trade In

Some SMS tracker apps can be expensive and the seller may not refund your money. Some companies will offer you a discount in exchange for the license for your old SMS Tracker app that you are unhappy with.

Read detailed reviews of the best SMS Trackers apps to find out which give you the most monitoring features and options to spy on text messages.

FlexiSPY website

FlexiSPY has been the most unique and feature rich spy software on the market for 10+ years and their new hidden SMS Tracker App does not let down. They offer a great product and the most cutting-edge SMS Tracker currently available. Without having to root the target phone, you will be able to spy on text messages, track contact details, send spoof SMS, track SIM card changes and more. You can get all these awesome features for just $9.99 per month – currently the best value for the price. FlexiSPY also offers more advanced packages that allow customers to record phone calls, listen to live calls, capture video, social media monitoring and more. However, these come at a different price scale depending on the additional spy features you need.

The Appmia SMS Tracker app is one of the newer apps to offer a big variety of powerful features for both Android and iOS – some that actually rival their competitor, mSPY. Appmia's SMS Tracker features allow users to spy on text messages, set up keyword alerts based on preset keywords being used in a message and also see who the sender of the message is. These are all useful capabilities, however it falls short of providing a higher quality SMS Tracker. Appmia is limited in the amount of characters it can capture from text messages being sent to the target phone, it is not able to recover deleted text messages from the phone history and it does not have the ability to send spoof SMS. These are features that are easy to implement and a lot of the competition already offers them; however, Appmia limits their SMS Tracker capability for some reason. While they are not really an industry leader or a trend setter in the SMS Tracker market, they do offer other spy features like call recording – but at a fairly steep price.

mSpy is one of the most popular cell phone tracker apps due to its decent variety of features, but probably more for its in-your-face marketing. When we tested this app, we found that while it promises users a lot of features, their usability is not always consistent. This SMS Tracker is one of the easiest features to install and start using and they advertise that customers will be able to spy on text messages, monitor social media and IMs, track browser history, track GPS location, block calls and a few other features. This wasn't necessarily true when we tested the app and we found that several of the features, like the ability to spy on text messages, would stop working after a few days and then reappear several days later. They offer a good number of features with several affordable price packages, but the feature reliability is spotty and inconsistent.

GizmoQuip SMS Tracker website

Claiming to be the most comprehensive SMS Tracker on the market, GizmoQuip has been creating software since 2011. GizmoQuip is almost synonymous with SMS Tracker technology, which is credited to their early leap into developing an app that allowed users to spy on text messages. However, their actual app has not seen any updates since 2014 which should already be a red flag. But it's FREE! Or so we thought when we were downloading this app. Upon further testing we were a bit let down by the fact that most of the promised features such as capturing MMS content, capturing call logs and tracking browser history did not really work until we ended up paying for it. While it is free to download, it's not completely free for use as claimed on their website.

The TruthSpy website

This is a newcomer to the SMS Tracker market and while it has been able to make itself known quickly, its actual monitoring abilities still need a lot of development. The TruthSpy, while aiming to be a competitive and powerful product, is actually a shell of its potential. When we tested this app, we asked the same thing many hopeful customers have also – is this a scam?. After playing around with the TruthSpy SMS Tracker App, we found that most features did not work. The ability to spy on text messages, however did capture sent text messages but not all the time. It was the same case with the rest of the features which either worked inconsistently or did not work at all. While it may be tempting to purchase their SMS Tracker because they offer one of the cheapest products out there, we seriously warn customers against wasting their money on this application because chances are high that it will not give you the quality of service that you are looking for.

What is an SMS Tracker?

An SMS Tracker App is software that you can install on any mobile phone and monitor detailed information, including content within picture and text messages. With this spy app anyone can access and view any individual text message or a collection of text messages to track sender identity, delivery frequency patterns, encoding and system setting changes, as well as other details. A proper SMS Tracker app can access, store and recover text message data such as real-time details of text messages queued to send, successful message delivery, message deletion and any system changes made to the phone settings.

If you are a parent or a company executive, you may feel anxious about your child's phone use habits or whether employees are taking advantage of company time and confidential information. Tracking their phone use and seeing what they are really talking about can help you to alleviate your fears and feel more at ease. With almost 95% of the population using text messaging – more than phone calls or online chats combined – being able to track or spy on text messages gives you the information you need to make informed decisions. An SMS Tracker App can do this and more.

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What to look for in an SMS tracker?

While there may be hundreds of different companies advertising their spy software as an SMS Tracker, most are not true SMS Tracker apps – while a big handful are borderline scams. It is crucial to be able to identify and review SMS Tracker features and price packages to tell which apps will provide real SMS Tracker capabilities. There are actually very few real SMS Tracker apps on the market now and in our reviews we make it clear what makes them stand out in the market place.

The first things anyone looking to purchase an SMS Tracker app should look for is the feature and capability list offered from the spy app they are interested in. Some of the best SMS Tracker apps will function as hidden SMS Tracker apps and offer the following features:

paragraph iconSpy on text message content

paragraph iconSpy on MMS content

paragraph iconResolve message to contact list

paragraph iconRemote delete SMS by preset keywords

paragraph iconInvisible on target phone

paragraph iconSpoof SMS to phone or phone contacts

paragraph iconSIM change notification

paragraph iconMonitor battery life

paragraph iconAuto update the SMS Tracker app

paragraph iconRemotely upgrade your monitoring package

paragraph iconViewer app for monitoring from your smartphone

lupe over undefinied messages

Why would you want to track SMS?

The most common uses for an SMS tracker are to either monitor a family member's messages for their safety (usually a child or teenager) or in a business environment to ensure that employees do not misuse company mobile devices.

Parents know all too well how stressful it can be to raise a child, especially in a single parent mhousehold. If that isn't enough, the introduction of smartphones and social media has only increased the types of dangers kids might face, not only outside their home but also on their mobile device. While technology has made life more convenient it has also made it easier for kids to be targeted by cyberbullies, drug dealers and pedophiles.

Unfortunately, as children get older it is impossible for parents to be with their kids around the clock – and even more difficult to spend time with them if you are a single parent. In the time they are on their own, we expect our kids to be safe and know how to make good decisions regardless of the situation.

However, this is not always the case as a survey by National Institute of Health reported that 30% of teens admitted to being offered and pressured into drug use by their older peers. As a parent, you have a responsibility to know where your kids are, who they are with and who your kids regularly text. By installing a hidden SMS Tracker app on your child's phone, you can alleviate your worry and be more informed about their communication and if there are any causes for concern or parental intervention. If you use an SMS Tracker app, you will be able to see all messages being sent to and from your child's phone as well as who the message senders are.

An SMS Tracker App is software that you can install on any mobile phone and monitor detailed information, including content within picture and text messages. With this spy app anyone can access and view any individual text message or a collection of text messages to track sender identity, delivery frequency patterns, encoding and system setting changes, as well as other details. A proper SMS Tracker app can access, store and recover text message data such as real-time details of text messages queued to send, successful message delivery, message deletion and any system changes made to the phone settings.

If you are a parent or a company executive, you may feel anxious about your child's phone use habits or whether employees are taking advantage of company time and confidential information. Tracking their phone use and seeing what they are really talking about can help you to alleviate your fears and feel more at ease. With almost 95% of the population using text messaging – more than phone calls or online chats combined – being able to track or spy on text messages gives you the information you need to make informed decisions. An SMS Tracker App can do this and more.

two phones exchaning sms

5 Frequently Asked Questions about SMS Tracking