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Written by Michael Steiner
Fact checked by Nick Zelver
Updated Aug, 2024

SMS monitoring has come a long way, and the good news is that mSpy also offers this feature. Let me share with you my actual experiences and opinions about this function.

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Initial thoughts

The ability to monitor SMS on Android and iOS devices is nothing new, but it’s an important feature that can’t be taken for granted. The first time I came across SMS monitoring was with mSpy, and I found it fascinating that this tool allowed me to directly access text messages from monitored devices.

I decided to put together an elaborate guide on how to use this tool. This article comes with my personal insights and experiences that should help you understand and use this feature efficiently.

mSpy SMS monitoring
mSpy SMS monitoring

 

The dual-faced approach: Android and iOS

mSpy approaches SMS monitoring differently depending on the operating system used by the target device:

  • On Android, mSpy provides direct access to text messages. As a result, you will get comprehensive logs of sent messages as well as those received. Each log entry contains not only message content but also sender/recipient information and timestamps.

This method allows for comprehensive real-time monitoring because as soon as a message lands in their inbox, you can view it via the control panel.

  • On iOS, things are more complicated because of Apple’s restrictions. You cannot directly access messages on an iPhone or iPad, even if it’s jailbroken (take note that mSpy does not require jailbreaking for SMS monitoring). Instead, the surveillance app syncs with iCloud backups.

This method seems less intrusive because it doesn’t require jailbreaking but also comes with some drawbacks:

  1. First of all, its effectiveness depends on how often a monitored device makes backups in iCloud (they have to be made at least once every 24 hours).
  2. Secondly, there's a risk of delays when retrieving messages using this approach.
  3. Last but not least, there may be gaps in surveillance because some data won’t make it into the iCloud backups.

 

Recovering deleted messages: a tricky terrain

It’s hard to give a straight answer whether you can recover deleted text messages using mSpy because much depends on the operating system used by the target device.

Here’s what I've learned:

  • With Android, you may get back some deleted text messages if they were erased after mSpy was installed on a monitored device. The reason why we have this “if” clause here is that the tool retrieves deleted texts from internal logs that are maintained by the Android OS itself. If a message was deleted before being backed up by the Android (or if it was deleted after being backed up), there is no chance for to recover them.

If someone who is very tech-savvy gets their smartphone rooted, they could use dedicated tools or an adb shell command line utility to read someone else’s texts stored locally by their phone.

  • With iOS, there is another “it depends” here. Again, we may recover some erased text messages if they were included in one of recent backups stored in iCloud.

Apple protects user data with strong encryption mechanisms that thwart most recovery attempts including mSpy. If someone enabled end-to-end encryption for iMessage service or encrypted their entire phone storage with an impossible-to-crack passphrase (or worse – biometric authentication), the app won’t be able to help you recover these specific text messages.

 

Ethical considerations: balancing monitoring with privacy

I’ve been writing about spy apps for years now and let me tell you one thing: each time I sit down to write about another surveillance tool I feel like I need to remind my readers about ethics.

Monitoring other people is wrong unless we do that within legal boundaries defined by our local legislations and only when we have good reasons to do so.

SMS monitoring seems particularly dangerous when discussing ethical issues because these little snippets of text often carry sensitive information between friends or family members.

We’re talking about:

  • Passwords sent between two trusted people who think no-one would ever eavesdrop on them
  • Sexting between lovers
  • Bank account numbers shared within families
  • Details about surprise birthday parties discussed between close friends

All these are examples from real life where spying upon someone’s texts might reveal more than we bargained for when using spy apps.

At the same time, there are legitimate uses for such tools like:

  • Maintaining open relationships within families where parents monitor kids’ digital lives without breaching trust
  • Employers who make sure company-owned phones are used solely for work-related tasks
  • Catching cheating spouses red-handed – although spying on loved ones feels kind of wrong, it should prompt couples towards talking openly about their problems instead of sneaking behind themselves’ backs!

 

Conclusion

As a self-proclaimed tech nerd who likes analyzing technology dimensions through practical experiments, my deep dive into the SMS surveillance capabilities offered by mSpy resulted into several important insights:

Each platform requires individualized approach hence demands different strategies.

Android allows instant observation while iOS demands regularity plus patience waiting towards backup happening.

It might prove difficult regaining access onto deleted texts due various reasons mentioned above.

mSpy seems to be the perfect match for those who are looking for an efficient smartphone surveillance solution provided that they aren’t afraid of dealing with the technicalities of rooting plus handling the installation process.

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