sms tracker

Best SMS Tracker Apps to Spy Mobile SMS

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What is an SMS Tracker?

SMS tracker is a downloadable mobile phone monitoring app which main feature is to allow you to monitor, track, or spy on text messages. SMS tracker and mobile SMS spy are interchangeable terms used to refer to software applications that monitor and track text messages, MMS, emails and chat. This feature usually comes in bundle with capabilities of tracking call logs, GPS locations, web browsing history, social media activities and to some extent almost all running applications and activities of the target mobile device. Some providers even offer running it on stealth mode. In general, the key feature of mobile SMS spy is its monitoring of text messages on the default message inbox, but most may function also as Viber spy, WhatsApp spy or for any other supported mobile messaging application.

Best SMS Tracker

I have listed uses and benefits of SMS trackers and a comprehensive guideline in choosing the best SMS tracker for your need at the last part of this article. Whether you are looking for an iPhone tracker, an Android keylogger or a WhatsApp spy app, the guidelines plus our top five list below will definitely help you.

Here are five of the best SMS trackers for you to choose from, comparing their features and all other elements that you might be looking for.

 

mspy

mSpy ranked as our top one among the reviewed SMS trackers. It is an advanced smartphone monitoring software that believes in their product to “help people lead a safer and less stressful life.” It is the most powerful and comprehensive mobile phone spy software today.

For more information, please read our mSpy Review

This mobile monitoring software is recommended for use in business establishments to monitor employees that may have the tendency to procrastinate or worst, leak confidential company information. mSpy also claims that their software is a great tool for family protection against people threatening the children’s security.

Features:

  • Call Logging
  • SMS Logging
  • GPS Tracking
  • Access to Web History
  • WhatsApp Spy
  • Viber Spy
  • Skype Tracking
  • Keylogger
  • Recording Phone’s Surroundings

Compatibility: Compatible with all Android OS and iOS versions.

Cost: This mobile phone spy is available in 3 different subscription packages:

  • mSpy Basic Subscription from $39.99
  • mSpy Premium Subscription from $69.99
  • mSpy Business Subscription from $499.95

The mSpy paid subscriptions are inclusive of varying numbers of features with a 10-days money back guarantee. It provides a demo of each feature and if questions arise, mSpy customer support is available to answer your call 24/7.

 

iKeyMonitoriKeyMonitor is the next generation of parental control software and SMS tracker for mobile phones and tablets. It’s a mobile phone tracking software that offers your child’s (teenagers) protection against potentially dangerous practices involving their mobile device.

This powerful software gives you the ability to filter and monitor all activities of the target mobile device. It also offers to protect you against abusive employees in your company.

For more information, you may read our iKeyMonitor Review.


Features:

  • Monitoring calls
  • Text message spy
  • Messenger Logs: Viber Spy, WhatsApp Spy, iMessage
  • GPS tracker
  • MMS viewer
  • Website Browsing monitor
  • Social Network Logs
  • View Contacts
  • Remote Camera
  • Remote Uninstall

Cost: You can purchase iKeyMonitor for a one-time price of $69.99 with no additional charges and no monthly fees!

Compatibility: iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets

 

flexispy boxFlexiSpy is currently our number two on the rankings. It is the most powerful and most flexible mobile monitoring software available today. It runs silently in the background of a smartphone, tablet, or any other “smart” device.

It is the only spy software that can spy completely on WhatsApp, Facebook, Skype, Viber, WeChat, LINE and BBM. FlexiSpy is also committed to ensure that your children or your employees “are not abusing their SMS and internet privileges.”

For more information, you may read our FlexiSpy Review.

With FlexiSPY you’ll see all SMS messages sent or received on an iPhone, Android, Blackberry or Symbian Target phone, even those that may have been deleted.

  • See Target’s SMS inbox and sent messages
  • Read full contents of all messages
  • See details such as contact names and numbers associated with SMS messages
  • Get time and date stamps

Features:

  • Monitor mobile devices silently and remotely
  • Complete tracking on text message
  • WhatsApp Spy, Viber Spy and iMessage monitor
  • Get GPS locations as often as you wish
  • Monitor Facebook and Twitter messages
  • Record call details and websites visited
  • View photos and videos of the phone
  • View memos, contacts and email
  • Block Apps from running on the phone
  • View LIVE Screen with LIVE Panel Option

Cost: FlexiSpy is available in 2 different subscription packages:

  • Premium Subscription starting from $68
  • Extreme Subscription from $199

Compatibility: Compatible also with iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Nokia Symbian.

FlexiSpy is the first mobile SMS spy to have a LIVE control panel, an add-on option which allows you to view the phone’s screen and current location on a Live map. With a 24/7 customer support.

 

 

uMobixuMobix is an advance real-time parental control software and SMS tracker for mobile phones and tablets. It can monitor 30+ popular apps and social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, Messenger, WhatsApp, Zoom, Gmail and more. Parents can also view all incoming and outgoing calls with timestamps, duration, caller info. You can also get an accurate real-time location of the user along with visited places history. You can also pull all media files stored on target device and save the files locally if needed. These are just the few features of uMobix. Read our full uMobix review or visit their website at https://umobix.com to know more.

For more information, you may read our uMobix Review.


Features:

  • View all incoming and outgoing calls.
  • Monitor all sent, received, or deleted SMS. Get timestamps and contact info.
  • Read messages sent and received via WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, and more.
  • Pull all media files stored on target device. Save files locally if needed
  • Get an accurate real-time location of the user along with visited places history.
  • Log everything that user types, including keystrokes and passwords.
  • Monitor every website visits while using a browser. Restrict access to unwanted websites.
  • Be aware of all the applications installed in the device and monitor how long was used each day.
  • Disable device’s connection to Wi-Fi when needed.
  • Configure application settings remotely.

Cost:

  • Basic 1 Month – $29.99
  • Full 1 Month – $59.99
  • Full 3 Months – $33.33/mo.
  • Full 12 Months – $14.99/mo.

Compatibility: iPhone, iPad and Android phones and tablets

 

Mobistealth Parental ControlMobiStealth is a great mobile SMS tracker software that allows you to guard to family and your company. This mobile phone spy app is a comprehensive solution to monitor iPhone, BlackBerry, Android, Nokia and Windows Mobile phones.

For more information, you may read our MobiStealth Review.


Features:

  • Call Monitoring
  • Text Message Spy
  • Viber Spy, WhatsApp Spy, Facebook Monitor
  • Spy Call (Listen liv to cellphone surroundings)
  • Video logging
  • Web history
  • Picture logging
  • Location reporting
  • Phone data wipe
  • Sim Change Notification

Cost: At around $0.50 a day, this mobile SMS spy, allows you spy on text messages and a lot more on stealth mode.

Compatibility: Compatible with All Android and iPhone (all other features included), Blackberry, and Symbian OS.

As a monitoring software for kids and employees, MobiStealth aims to empower you to protect your children and your business assets. With this mobile monitoring software you can protect your children from cyberbullying, keep your teen away from Sexting and keep your employees on their toes and increase their productivity.

 

highster mobile proThis Highster Mobile SMS spy works by extracting information from the target phone and displaying it on your secure online control panel.

This application is very easy to install either through over the air links (OTA) by directly typing into the cell phone’s web browser or by directly transferring the application from computer to the target mobile through USB cable or via Bluetooth connection.

For more information, you may read our Highster Mobile Review.


Features:

  • Record all Calls
  • Spy on text messages (read all)
  • Secret microphone activation
  • NEW! WhatsApp Spy, Viber Spy, Facebook
  • NEW! Instagram, Skype
  • NEW! Stealth Camera
  • NEW! Remote Uninstall
  • View pictures and Videos
  • View call logs
  • Read emails
  • GPS Tracking
  • Browser History Log
  • Contacts Log

Cost: You may purchase this mobile SMS spy for a one-time price of $69.99 with no additional charges and no monthly fees!

Compatibility: All Android and iOS devices which including all versions of iPad.

The Highster Mobile SMS spy is an easy and fast install text message spy and more. Their customer support is available every Monday-Friday 9am-5pm EST.

How Does SMS Tracker Work

As sophisticated as the system may sound (and function I suppose), generally an SMS tracker functions with these four elements: A target phone, a server, the cloud, and your control panel.

  • The target phone which maybe your child’s or your employee’s device that you would want to protect or monitor.
  • A server is where all the mobile SMS spy monitored data are uploaded and stored.
  • The cloud is the channel where the magic of data exchanges takes place – a good internet connection is a key to make the whole operation functional.
  • And your control panel, designed distinctively varying from one SMS tracker software to another, but mainly functions as the heart of the application. This requires you to log-in into your mobile SMS spy account, then shows you all the data that had been uploaded into the server (text messages, call logs, viber spy and whatsApp spy logs, and etc.). This is the main cockpit where you spy on text messages, monitor the target device’s activities, and as well as control functions on the device remotely, without the user knowing it.
How to Choose the Best SMS Tracker

Before checking on the wonderful features that a specific mobile SMS spy can offer, you will need to consider the following general guidelines. Add-ons and special functions can be easily hand-picked afterwards once you’re done with this mini-checklist:

Compatibility
The first thing you have to consider is the compatibility of the app to your target phone. Yes, consider this example, although the text message monitoring is now a widely-used application, you will not be able to use it as iPhone or Android unless it is specified in its features. Yes, it may operate as a Viber Spy or a WhatsApp spy for most mobile devices, but these applications had been created with different specs for each operating system. So always check the target phone’s model and operating system first, then its compatibility to the tracking software. You can even consider the ability to sync on other devices like your tablet or computer.

Purpose
What are you going to need this application for? For whom and why? You will need to establish your purpose on purchasing a mobile phone tracker so that it will be easier for you to choose which software is best, given that they may have almost similar features. At the same time, it may become costly for you if you will not be able to use the some of the features that you don’t actually need. To simplify this, decide who you are monitoring and why. Is it your family, who might need your guidance and protection from browsing violent or pornographic sites, receiving text messages and phone calls from strangers who might be a threat to their security? Or is it your employees, who might have been playing around with your company’s time and resources? Once you’ve identified the person and the purpose then you’ll be able to choose wisely and economically.

Connectivity
As mentioned on the elements above, the channel with which this technology relies on the connectivity and the signal strength of your mobile service carrier. The target phone should be supported by at least a “good” connectivity to the cloud. Not that it is only necessary for uploading and downloading call logs and messages, most messaging applications makes use of the cloud to retrieve their data, thus a poor connectivity would make it impossible to track and retrieve data.

Value
By value, I mean the cost. Some people may not even consider this; however, this is not included here to gauge who can afford, or who is wiser, and all. Here you will weigh the cost versus the benefits. And by benefits, I mean to determine if the specific and significant features of a particular mobile phone spy are tailored to your individual needs. I will discuss the benefits and the costs separately below, but what I am saying is, there are SMS trackers that would cost reasonably higher but you would actually not need everything in it. Or another one that sells for a really low price, only to discover later on that you will need to purchase individual feature thatyou need as an add-on. We could go on with a dozen or more scenarios but only you could define for yourself the value you are looking for.

Uses and Benefits of Mobile SMS Spy

I have been throwing here and there features, uses, benefits of a mobile phone spy all throughout this article. Below is a list of general uses and benefits of mobile phone tracker available in the market have in common.

  • SMS Tracking – monitor on text messages sent and received by the target phone. Some mobile phone tracker can even retrieve deleted messages. This app began with the concept of a text message spy, and then were later improved to do functions other than to spy on text messages. This feature had been made available to almost all devices, from iPhone, Android, Blackberry and a lot more. Monitoring text messages do come in handy to monitor family and/or employee activities, arresting whatever may be potentially harmful.
  • Call Tracking – a mobile phone tracker has the ability to retrieve call logs, to and from the target device. It usually can record call details, time, and duration.
  • Web Browsing and Email Monitoring – You can also monitor sent and received emails of a target device. As we all know that smartphones are greatly capable of web browsing, kids might be in danger of accessing prohibited sites, and this could also be tracked and remotely accessed to block unwanted sites for protection and for whatever purpose it will serve you best.
  • GPS Tracking – another cool feature is its ability to track the target phone’s real-time GPS location. Whether it is as simple as locating the target phone’s owner for a surprise lunch, an impromptu meeting, or as crucial as aiding the police chasing an abduction, the GPS tracking feature, whether prompted by the text message sender tracker or via an advanced GPS system, would accurately lead you to your loved ones or colleagues.
  • Social Media and Other Messaging App Monitor – social media such as Facebook and Twitter are other means with which an individual communicates in his/her mobile device, more so with messaging applications such as Viber, WhatsApp, and Skype where communication is very cheap and most of the time free. Most of the monitoring app can also log activities from WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook and Twitter.

There are a lot of mobile phone tracking app available out there but at the end of the day, the choice is still up to you. Again, I do encourage you to check your options properly so you could have the perfect package for you. A mobile SMS spy offers more than just a monitoring tool. They sure do remind us that there is something we could do against situations that might break our careers, our families, and our relationship with other people. I could only hope that we were able to assist you in involving yourself in securing your family and your future, by choosing the best SMS tracker that would help you the most.

Related Posts:

 

Sexting Statistics & Facts

From Visually.

 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_phone_tracking

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About Franklin White

A resourceful and detail-oriented professional with keen observational, analytical and reporting skills honed by more than 10 years of experience in investigation and surveillance work.

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