ChatMend SMS Backup Privacy Policy
Last Updated: October 22, 2026
This policy covers the ChatMend SMS Backup Android app, published by ChatMend LLC ("we", "us"). It is a separate app from ChatMend, our conversation-analysis app and website, which has its own privacy policy.
In short: the app reads the text messages on your phone so you can back them up to a file. Your messages and contacts are processed on your phone and are never sent to us. They leave your phone only as a backup file that you choose to save or share. There is no account and no advertising, and the app does not analyse your messages.
1. What the app reads, and why
- SMS and MMS messages (with your permission): message text, the time, whether you sent or received it, the phone number, its status (for example a draft or a failed send) and MMS attachments such as photos, videos and audio. This is the app's only purpose: making a backup of your conversations that you can keep and reopen.
- Contacts (optional): only to show contact names next to conversations and in the backups you make. You can decline and every feature still works; numbers are shown instead.
The app asks for these permissions only after explaining them, and you can say no. Without SMS access you can still open a backup file you made earlier.
Messages and contacts are not used for advertising, profiling, personality or relationship analysis, or any purpose other than the backup you ask for. They are never sold or shared with us or with third parties.
2. Where your data goes
- Nowhere, unless you send it. The app has no server, no account and no analytics, and it does not send your messages or contacts over the internet.
- Backup files you export. When you make a backup, the app creates a file (JSON, XML, CSV, text, PDF or a ZIP with photos) and opens Android's share sheet. You choose where it goes: Google Drive, the Files app, email or anywhere else. Once you send it there, that service's own privacy policy applies to the file. Backup files are not encrypted, so keep them somewhere you trust.
- Android backup and device transfer are turned off for this app, so Android does not copy its data to Google Drive or to a new phone. Your exported backup files are how you move your messages.
3. What is stored on your phone
- The most recent System Backup you made, kept inside the app so you can reopen it with "Last backup on this device".
- Photos unpacked from a backup you reopened, so you can view them.
- Temporary copies of the exports you share, which the app clears automatically the next time you open it.
All of this is private to the app. You can remove it at any time with Tools → Delete the copies kept on this phone, and uninstalling the app removes it too. Neither removes backup files you saved elsewhere (for example in Google Drive), and the app never deletes anything from your phone's Messages app.
Reopening a backup shows your conversations inside ChatMend SMS Backup only. The app does not write messages back into your phone's Messages app.
4. Tips
Tipping is optional and changes nothing in the app. Tips are paid through Google Play, which handles the payment and your payment details under Google's own privacy policy. We do not receive your card details, and the app does not send any purchase information to us.
5. Links
The app can open web pages, such as this policy, in your browser. Visiting chatmend.com is covered by the ChatMend privacy policy.
6. Children
The app is not directed at children under 13, and we do not knowingly collect information from them. The app collects no information about anyone, of any age, for us.
7. Changes
If the app ever changes how it handles your data, this page will be updated before that version is released, and the date at the top will change.
8. Contact
Questions about this policy: support@chatmend.com.