An SMS app for Android that lets you edit your own message history.
Features · How edits work · App lock · Settings · Getting started · Roadmap · License
Textwright is a native Android messaging app built with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose. It starts from one idea: the messages stored on your phone should be yours to edit. Today it is a working SMS client that can change the text and timestamp of stored messages, restore the originals, and keep itself behind a pattern or fingerprint lock. The goal is a complete, modern default messaging app.
Status: early development (
v0.3.0). Usable and tested on a small number of devices, but expect rough edges and breaking changes. See the roadmap.
- Edit message text: change what a stored message says.
- Edit message date and time: change the timestamp a message shows.
- Restore original: undo any edit and bring back the original text and date. Textwright keeps the first original, however many times you edit.
- Add a message: write a message back into a conversation as received or sent, with its own date and time. Meant for putting back a message you deleted. Nothing is sent.
- Undo delete: a deleted message can be put back for a few seconds, with its edit history.
- Edited marker: tap a message to see whether it was edited, along with its time.
- Syncs with other messaging apps: edits are written so that Google Messages shows them when it becomes the default app again (see How edits work).
- Crash-safe edits: an edit interrupted by a crash or app kill is finished or cleaned up on the next launch.
- App lock: require a pattern, or your fingerprint, every time the app is opened (see App lock).
- Settings: light, dark or system theme, wallpaper colours, notification privacy, screenshot blocking (see Settings).
- Search: find conversations by name, number or any message text, with matches highlighted; filter by unread, known or unknown senders, and by SIM; start a chat from a matching contact.
- Conversation view: grouped message bubbles under time headers, tappable links, tap a bubble for its time, contact avatars, unread counts, and a call shortcut.
- Send and receive SMS: conversation list, threads, new message, reply.
- Delivery reports: optionally ask the network to confirm each sent message was delivered; the result shows under the message. Depends on carrier support.
- Dual-SIM support: pick the SIM to send from; replies default to the SIM the conversation last used.
- Contact names: conversations show contact names when the contacts permission is granted.
- Notifications for incoming messages.
- Copy and delete messages.
- MMS (receiving is stubbed; sending and viewing are not implemented)
- RCS, group messaging, attachments
- Backup and restore, archived and blocked conversations
- Tablets and foldables (layout not tuned)
Android lets only the default SMS app write to the system SMS store, so Textwright must be set as the default to edit anything.
- Edits are local. They change the copy stored on your device. The other person's phone and your carrier's records are not affected, and nothing is sent.
- Edits are written as a replacement row. Other messaging apps (Google Messages, Samsung Messages) keep their own database and ignore messages changed in place. When you save, Textwright inserts a new row with the same address, SIM and read state but the new text and date, then deletes the old one. Apps that re-sync on becoming the default then see the edited message.
- Originals live in Textwright's private database (
edits.db) so they can be restored. Uninstalling the app, or clearing its data, loses them. - Known limitation: another messaging app only shows an edit after it becomes the default app again. Android has no way to tell it to reload.
Verified with Google Messages on a physical Pixel 6 and on an emulator. Samsung Messages and other apps are untested. See Contributing if you can help.
Textwright can ask for your fingerprint, a pattern, or either one each time it is opened. Set it up in Settings → App lock.
- Fingerprint: uses the fingerprints already enrolled in Android. It can be the only lock, with no pattern; the phone's own screen lock (PIN, pattern or password) then works as the fallback.
- Pattern: join at least four dots on a 3×3 grid. Only a salted, stretched hash of the pattern is stored (PBKDF2-HMAC-SHA256), never the pattern itself.
- Both: either one unlocks. The lock screen asks for the fingerprint and shows the pattern pad only if you choose Use pattern.
- When it locks: on every cold start, and whenever you leave the app. Rotating the screen does not lock it.
- Wrong attempts: five wrong patterns in a row force a 30-second wait.
- Changing or removing the pattern requires the current pattern.
What the lock does not do:
- It does not encrypt your messages. They stay in the system SMS store, where the default SMS app and anything with SMS permission can read them. The lock stops someone holding your unlocked phone from opening Textwright.
- It does not hide notifications by itself. Turn off Settings → Show message text to keep message text out of notifications.
- It does not hide the app in the recent apps screen by itself. Turn on Settings → Block screenshots for that.
- There is no pattern recovery. If you forget the pattern and have no working fingerprint, the only way back in is to clear the app's data, which also deletes the saved originals of edited messages.
- Removing every fingerprint from the phone turns a fingerprint-only lock off, so that it cannot lock you out.
Open settings with the gear icon on the conversation list.
| Section | Setting | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Appearance | Theme | System default, light or dark |
| Appearance | Wallpaper colours | Use Android 12+ dynamic colours instead of the Textwright palette |
| Notifications | Show message text | Off shows only "New message" in notifications |
| Notifications | Sound, vibration and more | Opens the system notification settings for the app |
| Privacy and security | App lock | Pattern and fingerprint lock (see App lock) |
| Privacy and security | Block screenshots | Blocks screenshots and hides the app in the recent apps screen |
| Messaging | Delivery reports | Ask the network to confirm delivery of each sent message (off by default) |
| Messaging | Default SMS app | Opens the system default apps screen |
| About | About Textwright | Version, how edits work, source and license links |
Textwright edits the copy of your messages on your own device. It is not a tool for fabricating evidence, impersonating others, or misleading anyone about what was said. It deliberately does not let you change who a conversation is with. Messages can be added to a conversation by hand so that a deleted message can be put back; these are stored on your phone only, never sent, and tapping one shows an "Added" marker. Tapping an edited message in Textwright shows an "Edited" marker. Please use it lawfully.
| Android | 8.0 (API 26) or newer |
| Hardware | A device with telephony (SMS). Dual-SIM supported. |
| Role | Textwright must be the default SMS app to edit, send or receive |
Prerequisites: JDK 17 and Android Studio (or just the Android SDK with platform 36).
git clone https://github.com/zamansheikh/Textwright.git
cd Textwright
./gradlew assembleDebug
adb install -r app/build/outputs/apk/debug/app-debug.apkSigned APKs are attached to each GitHub release. Download the APK on an Android 8.0+ phone and open it.
To sign your own release build, create a keystore.properties file in the repo root with storeFile, storePassword, keyAlias and keyPassword, then run ./gradlew assembleRelease. The file is ignored by git.
- Open Textwright and tap Set as default (grant the permissions it asks for).
- Open a conversation, long-press a message, and choose Edit.
- Change the text, the date or the time, then Save.
- Optional: open Settings → App lock to turn on fingerprint unlock, set a pattern, or both.
- To use another messaging app again, make it the default in Settings → Apps → Default apps → SMS app.
Back up first. Editing replaces messages in your system SMS store. Try it on a test conversation before relying on it, and keep a backup of messages you care about.
| Permission | Why |
|---|---|
READ_SMS, RECEIVE_SMS, SEND_SMS |
Read, receive and send text messages |
RECEIVE_MMS, RECEIVE_WAP_PUSH |
Required to qualify as a default SMS app (MMS is not yet implemented) |
READ_CONTACTS |
Show contact names instead of numbers |
READ_PHONE_STATE |
List the active SIMs for the SIM picker |
POST_NOTIFICATIONS |
Notify you of incoming messages |
USE_BIOMETRIC |
Fingerprint unlock for the app lock (added by the AndroidX Biometric library) |
Textwright has no network permission and sends no data anywhere.
Single-module Android app, package com.silifton.textwright.
app/src/main/java/com/silifton/textwright/
├── MainActivity.kt entry point, default-SMS role handling
├── data/
│ ├── SmsRepository.kt reads and writes the system SMS store, row replacement and crash recovery
│ ├── EditStore.kt private SQLite store: originals and the in-flight edit journal
│ ├── AppSettings.kt user preferences (theme, notification privacy, screenshot blocking)
│ └── Models.kt Conversation, Message, Sim
├── security/
│ └── AppLock.kt app lock state, pattern hash, attempt lockout
├── sms/ receivers (incoming, send result, delivery report), sender, SIM helpers, notifications
└── ui/ Compose screens (messages, search, settings, about, lock), view model, theme
- UI: Jetpack Compose, Material 3.
- State: a single
MainViewModelexposingStateFlows; I/O runs onDispatchers.IO. - Storage: the system SMS provider (
Telephony.Sms) plus a privateedits.db. - App icon: an adaptive icon built from vector drawables, with a monochrome layer for themed icons. The README artwork is in docs/.
The aim is a full-featured default messaging app. Rough order of priority:
- Samsung Messages and other apps: test and handle their re-sync behaviour
- MMS and attachments
- Unit and instrumented tests, CI
- Search: jump to the matching message inside a conversation
- Backup and restore, including Textwright's saved originals
- Archive, mute, block and spam handling
- Group messaging
- Scheduled sending
- RCS
- Tablet and foldable layouts, accessibility pass, localization
Ideas and priorities are open for discussion in issues.
Contributions are welcome, from bug reports to new features. By submitting a pull request you agree to the contribution terms in section 4 of the LICENSE.
- Open an issue describing the bug or idea first for anything non-trivial.
- Fork the repo and create a branch from
main. - Keep changes focused, and match the surrounding code style.
- Test on a real device or emulator. SMS behaviour differs between devices and OS versions, so please say what you tested on.
- Open a pull request with a clear description.
Particularly useful right now: testing edits against Samsung Messages and other default apps, and writing tests.
Textwright is source-available, not open source. You can read the code, build it for your own personal use, and contribute to this repository. You may not copy or reuse the code in your own project, redistribute it, or publish your own builds. Contributions are licensed to the project owner as described in the license.
See LICENSE for the full terms. For any use it doesn't allow, contact the owner.
Developed by Zaman Sheikh at Silifton.
- GitHub: github.com/zamansheikh
- Facebook: facebook.com/zamansheikh.404
Built with Kotlin and Jetpack Compose.