Switch your SMS and dialer apps safely. Keep every thread. Change everything else.
The default phone and SMS apps change. Threads stay on the SIM and in the phone's SMS store. A bad switch can make you miss a code for a few minutes; set the old app back.
The number stays the same. The app that shows the calls and the threads does not have to. Fossify Phone and Fossify Messages are the examples: no account
Before you start
- Both apps installed, or just the one you are swapping.
- A recent backup of SMS if you have a tool you already trust. TODO: no v1 verification of any SMS backup app; do not invent one here.
- You can receive a text (you'll send yourself one).
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Step 1 of 6
Install the dialer and the SMS app.
Fossify Phone and Fossify Messages from F-Droid, or another pair that can be set as default.
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Step 2 of 6
Set the default phone app.
Settings, Apps, Default apps, Phone app. Pick Fossify Phone.
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Step 3 of 6
Make a test call.
Call voicemail or a second phone. Hang up. Confirm the recents list.
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Step 4 of 6
Set the default SMS app.
Settings, Apps, Default apps, SMS app. Android will warn you. That's expected.
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Step 5 of 6
Send yourself a message.
From a second phone, or a web SMS tool. Confirm it appears in the new app, not only the old one.
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Step 6 of 6
Leave the old apps installed for a week.
Disable, don't uninstall, until you have seen a real two-factor code arrive. ## Undo it Default apps, Phone app and SMS app, pick the ones that came with the phone. ## Next guides Contacts next, so the names match the new dialer.
Undo it
Default apps, Phone app and SMS app, pick the ones that came with the phone.