Forward SMS to Telegram on Android: receive your texts anywhere
SMS Forwarder is a free Android app that automatically forwards the text messages your phone receives to your Telegram. It uploads each SMS to the SMS Forwarder service, which relays it to your Telegram and then forgets it — there's no server to set up, the app ships ready to connect. Leave a phone plugged in at home with your SIM, and every verification code, bank alert, or carrier message reaches you wherever you are — no roaming, no carrier forwarding fees.
Why forward SMS to Telegram?
Plenty of accounts still send one-time codes and alerts by SMS to a specific number. If that SIM lives in a phone at home, in a second device, or on a number you keep for banking, you can't read those texts while you're out — and roaming or swapping SIMs is a hassle.
Forwarding those SMS into Telegram solves it cleanly: Telegram is already on your main phone and laptop, delivery is instant and push-notified, and threads are searchable. You keep the SIM where it is and simply read its messages in a chat you already watch.
This is ideal for keeping an old number alive, receiving codes for a home-country SIM while abroad, or funneling a business/shared line's alerts to a place the whole team can see.
How SMS Forwarder delivers your texts
The app is a thin client — it captures SMS and hands them to the SMS Forwarder backend, which does the routing:
- Capture — a broadcast receiver plus a foreground-service poll of the SMS inbox catch every new message, using a monotonic id cursor so nothing is skipped, even on ROMs that withhold SMS broadcasts.
- Upload — each message is sent to the SMS Forwarder backend over HTTPS from the live foreground service (not a background scheduler the OS throttles), and retried until it succeeds.
- Relay — the backend delivers to your Telegram via a shared bot, then deletes the message body; a server-side idempotency key means a text is never delivered twice.
Relay-and-forget
SMS Forwarder holds no Telegram tokens in the app. The SMS Forwarder backend — operated by ShuttleLab — relays each message and then deletes the body; message bodies live there only until delivered, then they are deleted, leaving just a metadata log (result, time, sender).
Signing in uses a per-device token you can revoke at any time, and your Telegram binding is tied to your account, so a message can only ever reach you. Because routing lives on the server, new channels can be added there without rebuilding or reinstalling the app. Both the app and the backend are open source.
How to set up SMS forwarding to Telegram
- 1
Install the app
Download the APK from GitHub and install it on the phone that holds the SIM (Android 8.0 / API 26 or later). On Huawei, disable Pure Mode first.
- 2
Sign in & bind Telegram
Create an account, then tap Bind Telegram, open the bot, and press Start. Your chat is now linked — no tokens to copy, and no server to configure.
- 3
Start the service & keep it alive
Grant SMS + notification permissions and tap Start. Allow battery-optimization exemption and auto-start so the OS keeps it running on a plugged-in phone.
What it handles for you
- Long / multipart SMS are reassembled and, if needed, split under Telegram's message-length limit so nothing is truncated.
- Aggressive ROMs (Samsung, Xiaomi / MIUI / HyperOS, OPPO, vivo, OnePlus, Realme, Honor, Huawei / HarmonyOS) — capture keeps working via inbox polling where SMS broadcasts are blocked.
- Reboots and process kills — the service auto-restarts on boot and the upload queue survives, so a restart doesn't lose messages.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to set up a server?
No — the SMS Forwarder backend is already running, operated by ShuttleLab. Install the app, sign in, and bind Telegram; there is nothing to deploy and no token to paste. The app and backend are open source.
Which apps can it forward to?
Telegram, via a shared bot. Because channel routing lives on the backend rather than in the app, more destinations can be added server-side without rebuilding the app. Binding Telegram is one tap — open the bot and press Start; no tokens to copy on the phone.
Will it keep working on Samsung, Xiaomi, OPPO, vivo, OnePlus, Realme, Honor or Huawei / HarmonyOS phones?
Yes. On aggressive ROMs (Samsung, Xiaomi/MIUI/HyperOS, OPPO, vivo, OnePlus, Realme, Honor, Huawei / HarmonyOS) the system often withholds SMS broadcasts from third-party apps and throttles background work. SMS Forwarder captures with both a broadcast receiver and a foreground-service poll of the SMS inbox, and uploads directly from the live service. Add it to the auto-start whitelist and battery-optimization exemption for best results.
Are my messages stored anywhere?
The app reads incoming SMS only to forward them. On the backend it is relay-and-forget: a message body lives only until delivered, then it is deleted, leaving just a metadata log (result, time, sender). The backend is operated by ShuttleLab and keeps no message bodies after delivery. There are no ads, no analytics, and no tracking SDKs.
Is it free? Where do I get it?
SMS Forwarder is free, for personal use — no ads, no in-app purchases. Download the APK from GitHub and install it directly. The Android client and the backend server are separate repositories.