Lagu SMS

Getting started

Lagu SMS is a private SMS app that keeps your inbox organised automatically. It sorts messages into useful sections, helps you copy OTPs quickly, reminds you about bills, tracks spends from bank SMS, and gives warnings for suspicious messages.

The app is designed to work offline. In the release app, there is no internet permission, so your SMS data stays on your phone.

1. 1Open Lagu SMS.
2. 2Tap Make this my SMS app when prompted.
3. 3Allow Android to set Lagu SMS as your default SMS app.
4. 4Wait while the app organises your existing inbox.

Main tabs

The bottom navigation has five main areas:

• Inbox — your organised SMS conversations.
• Reminders — bills, card dues, deliveries, and travel updates.
• Spends — a private spending view created from bank transaction SMS.
• OTPs — recent OTP codes with one-tap copy.
• Settings — privacy, appearance, backup, labels, and app controls.

Inbox

The Inbox groups your messages into buckets so you can find things faster:

• Personal — regular conversations.
• OTP — one-time passwords and verification codes.
• Banking — account, card, and banking messages.
• Bills — payment reminders and due-date messages.
• Orders — shopping and delivery-related updates.
• Travel — flight, train, bus, and trip messages.
• Offers — promotions and marketing messages.
• Government — public service and government messages.
• Spam — messages that look unwanted or unsafe.
• Other — messages that do not clearly fit another bucket.

Use the bucket chips at the top of the Inbox to filter conversations. Unread counts appear on buckets when there are new messages.

Inbox actions

From the Inbox, you can:

• Open any conversation.
• Pull down to sync or rescan recent messages.
• Search messages by name, number, or message text.
• Compose a new SMS.
• Select multiple conversations and mark them read, unread, archive, label, or delete.
• Swipe a conversation to archive it.
• Mark all messages in a bucket as read.

Conversations

Open a conversation to view messages and reply.

Inside a conversation, you can:

• Send a reply when the sender accepts replies.
• Search within that conversation.
• Copy a message, code, number, or link.
• Save an unknown number to contacts.
• Use suggested quick replies and your saved reply templates.
• Mark the conversation as unread.
• Pin important conversations to the top of the Inbox.
• Mute notifications for 8 hours, 1 week, or always.
• Snooze a conversation until later.
• Move the sender to another bucket.
• Archive or unarchive the conversation.
• Block or unblock the sender.
• Move the conversation to the Private folder.

Scam warnings

If a conversation looks suspicious, Lagu SMS shows a scam warning at the top of the thread. The warning may appear for messages that:

• Pressure you to act urgently.
• Ask for OTPs or PINs.
• Claim your account will be blocked.
• Offer fake prizes.
• Push unknown links.

OTPs

The OTPs tab shows recent verification codes. Tap the copy button next to a code to copy it instantly.

New OTPs also appear in notifications with a copy action, so you can use them without opening the app.

In Settings, you can turn on automatic deletion for old OTP messages after 24 hours.

Reminders

The Reminders tab helps you track important dates found in SMS messages. It can show:

• Overdue and upcoming bill reminders.
• Credit card bill details — total due, minimum due, and due date.
• Delivery updates — ordered, shipped, out for delivery, and delivered.
• Travel updates for flights, trains, buses, and trips.

Bill reminder actions

For bill reminders, you can:

• Open the original message.
• Mark a bill as paid.
• Snooze a reminder by 1 day.

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

Spends

The Spends tab turns debit and credit SMS into a private spending view on your phone. You can see:

• Monthly total spent.
• Monthly total received.
• Spending by category.
• Top merchants.
• Individual transactions.
• Account balance hints when available.

Use the month arrows to move between months. Tap a category to filter the transaction list. Tap a transaction to change its category or open the original SMS.

Spend analytics

Optional analytics can be enabled in Settings > Spends. When enabled, the Spends tab may also show:

• Comparison with last month.
• Average spend per day.
• Biggest category changes.
• Recurring subscriptions.
• Monthly budgets.
• Account balance chips.

Spend categories and budgets

Open Settings > Spend categories to:

• Hide categories you do not use.
• Create your own categories.
• Change category icons and colours.
• Set monthly budgets for expense categories.

Built-in categories can be hidden, while custom categories can be deleted.

Exporting transactions

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

Search

Use Search to find conversations by:

• Contact name.
• Phone number.
• Message text.

Search results can be filtered by bucket when matches appear in more than one category. You can also save searches for later. Long-press a saved search to remove it.

Quick replies

Quick replies are reusable message templates.

Open Settings > Quick replies to:

• Add a reply template.
• Edit an existing template.
• Delete a template.

Saved quick replies appear inside conversations, along with smart suggestions when available.

Custom labels

Custom labels let you organise conversations in your own way.

Open Settings > Custom labels to:

• Create a new label.
• Choose a label colour.
• Rename a label.
• Delete a label.

After creating labels, you can apply them from the Inbox selection actions. Labels appear as filters in the Inbox.

Blocking & spam

You can block unwanted senders from a conversation menu. Blocked senders are filed as spam and no longer notify you.

Open Settings > Blocked senders to:

• View blocked senders.
• Unblock a sender.
• Add keywords to block sender names or numbers that contain those words.

Open Settings > Spam quarantine to review messages kept out of your main Inbox. If something is not spam, move it back to the Inbox.

Private folder

The Private folder hides selected conversations from the Inbox and Search.

Moving a conversation to the Private folder

1. 1Open the conversation.
2. 2Tap the eye icon in the top bar.

To open the Private folder, go to Settings > Private folder. The app asks you to confirm with your phone lock or fingerprint before opening it.

Archived & snoozed

Archived conversations are removed from the main Inbox but kept in the app. Open Settings > Archived conversations to view or restore them.

Snoozed conversations are hidden until the chosen time, then return to the Inbox. Open the Snoozed screen to restore them early.

Compose & send SMS

Tap Compose from the Inbox to start a new message. You can:

• Search contacts by name or phone number.
• Type a phone number manually.
• Choose a SIM on dual-SIM phones.
• See the SMS character count and message parts before sending.

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

Appearance & language

Open Settings > Appearance to change:

• Theme — system, light, or dark.
• Background style — plain, doodle, bubbles, stars, or hearts.
• Language — system language, English, or Hindi.

You can also set a profile name and photo in Settings.

Privacy & security

Open Settings > Privacy & security to manage:

• App lock — require fingerprint or screen lock to open the app.
• Auto-lock — lock immediately, after 1 minute, or after 5 minutes.
• Block screenshots — prevent screenshots, screen recording, and app previews.
• Private folder — open hidden conversations.
• Blocked senders — manage blocked senders and block keywords.
• Spam quarantine — review spam messages.
• Archived conversations — view archived threads.

Backup & restore

Lagu SMS supports encrypted local backup. Open Settings > Encrypted backup to:

• Choose a backup folder, or use the share sheet each time.
• Export an encrypted backup file.
• Restore from a backup file.

Restoring a backup merges messages and app data back into the app. It is designed to avoid overwriting or duplicating existing data.

Auto-delete

Open Settings > Auto-delete to enable:

• Delete OTPs after 24 hours.
• Delete promotions after 30 days.

These options also remove matching messages from the phone's SMS store.

Rescan messages

If messages look out of date, open Settings > Data and tap Re-scan device inbox. This asks Lagu SMS to re-organise messages from the phone.

Safety tips