Text on your terms: powerful, personal, private.

Portus is a modern Android SMS app with full-text search across every message, per-thread themes and notification controls, and backup that survives your next phone. No ads, ever.

Coming to Google Play

Now in closed testing. Join the test →

Available now

Local backup to a folder you control. Nothing sent to us.
Restore from any backend (local folder or cloud) on any install, including a fresh one. Restoring your data is always free.
Full-text search across every message you've ever received.
Smart categorization — people, 2FA codes, businesses, deliveries, promos. Runs on device.
Group MMS with named threads, custom per-thread themes and bubble colors.
Per-thread notification behavior — mute, hide preview, or set a custom accent.
Keyword blocking, archive, and pinned threads that actually stay pinned.
Snippets, scheduled messages, and rich attachments (photos, contacts, location).

Help test the beta

Portus is in closed testing on Google Play ahead of a public launch. Testers get early builds, a direct line to the developer, and a low-key ask to report anything that misbehaves.

To join, request access at the portus-sms-testing Google Group using the Google account tied to your Play Store. You'll get the closed-test opt-in link once you're in the group. The testing guide covers what to try and lists gaps that aren't bugs yet.

Pricing

Free forever

The SMS app itself with every feature listed above.
Local backup to a folder you own.
Restore from any backend, local or cloud. Your data is always yours.
Full-text search, on-device categorization, snippets, themes, per-thread controls.

Pro (one-time)

Ongoing cloud backup to Google Drive, WebDAV, and other user-owned destinations.
Cross-device sync of rules, snippets, and themes via the same cloud.
Bulk export.
Premium content packs.

One-time purchase, no subscription. Restoring your own data is always free, so a reinstall never leaves you locked out.

Coming next

Auto-expiring 2FA and delivery messages.
Priority contacts and richer per-contact controls.
Extra folders and rule-based categorization refinements.

Feedback shapes what comes next.

What Portus won't do

No ads, ever. SMS content is too sensitive for ad-supported.
No cloud ML on your messages. Categorization and search run on-device. Nothing about your texts is uploaded for training or analysis.
No side-channel SMS use. The SMS permission drives the default-SMS-app function and nothing else — no data-SMS transport, no reading messages for unrelated features. That's a Play Store policy line we sit well behind.
No auto-converting free trials. No nag screens. No dark patterns around cancellation. Pricing is shown upfront; if you don't want it, that's fine.