I recently switched to GrapheneOS from IOS, and was wondering if there was a way to transfer my message history from my IPhone to my Pixel 8a. I never saw an option to transfer data from my old phone to the new one during the GrapheneOS setup compared to the pixel setup (at least I don't think I did). I was wondering if this is possible since from what I researched, transferring contacts from IOS to Graphene seems relatively doable.

    I just did that.

    What I did was install an app (can't remember the name now and I've already deleted it). You give it permission to access your messages, on your old phone. It makes a copy of all the messages to a file. You copy the file to your new phone (I used thumb drive)
    Then you install the app on the new phone. And process the new messages file, which your messages app on the graphene app has access to.

    Looking it up now, I think the app was SMS Backup and Restore.

    13 days later

    Thanks for the solution. Now while the app itself may be privacy friendly, carriers can still see SMS messages. Will my carrier be able to see my transferred messages?

    • Sbpr replied to this.

      Thimble0548 Your carrier saw them when you originally sent them unless they went through iMessage. Are you asking if they'll see them again during the transfer process? No. You're not sending or receiving messages during the transfer process. You're just importing data into your phone's SMS database from an iPhone backup.

      The only apps that can see your messsges atter that are the apps that you grant SMS permissions to.

        Sbpr Do you know if the current message platform sees them? Like if I see my transferred messages on google messages (unlinked to any account), can google see them?