Clear SMS

Clear SMS is an open-source SMS application for Android that organizes incoming messages locally on the device. It is intended for people who want messaging, transaction information, alerts, and one-time passwords handled without sending their data to external servers. Its categorization and core processing work offline, with the application designed around privacy.

The smart inbox sorts messages into Important, Promotional, Personal, OTP, and Unknown categories using a transparent, regex-based rules engine. Each rule is stored as human-readable JSON that users can inspect and edit, and every release includes more than 390 community-maintained rules and a 715,000-entry sender-ID directory. Full-text search supports category and time filters, while heuristic scam-awareness flagging helps identify potentially suspicious messages. Users can contribute categorization rules or report gaps through the project repository.

The finance dashboard extracts debit and credit transactions from bank SMS and presents them through accounts, credit cards, spend summaries, and locally generated charts. It also supports balance tracking with an optional biometric balance lock, while the Alerts view brings together upcoming bills, autopay items, insurance notices, and credit-card due dates. Train and flight journeys, package deliveries, courier details, and tracking IDs can also be handled from relevant messages. Clear SMS provides full SMS and MMS sending and receiving, including default-SMS-app support, dual-SIM operation, scheduling, drafts, delivery reports, pinned conversations, and on-device image compression for MMS.

OTP messages can appear as large, copyable notifications with optional automatic copying and configurable automatic deletion. A recycle bin retains deleted items for 30 days and supports undo for deletion and archiving, alongside blocked senders and keywords. The application requests no INTERNET permission and includes no servers, telemetry, analytics, trackers, Firebase, or Play Services; local backup and restore keep messages and settings on the device, with the Android system’s carrier-managed MMS transaction as the only network activity. Material You support provides dynamic color on Android 12 and later, along with light, dark, and system themes. In the Finance & Shopping category, MirrorNest distributes the official Android build directly from its own storage after scanning it for malware before publication.