Today, it’s easier than ever to peek into someone’s private life and know their location, listen to phone calls, and read messages. Modern smartphones are armed with the latest security features and technologies, but they still have vulnerabilities. Some smartphones have built-in features for remote surveillance, while others can only be monitored with phone tracking apps. Let’s discuss several methods of how to intercept text messages from another phone without installing software free. Some of these options are entirely remote, while others require one-time access to the target phone.
Reasons to Spy On Text Messages
The reasons why people want to monitor someone’s smartphone can be ethical and legal or unethical and illegal. For example, parents have the legal right to track their children’s phone activity. But according to United States law, it is illegal to install a surveillance application on adults over 18 years old without notifying them. Punishment for doing so is at least one year in jail. So let’s discuss the options for how spyware can be used.
- Parental control: Spying on text messages and the overall phone activity of children is a great way for parents to keep their children safe. It is legal and ethical to monitor your kids’ phones as your main concern is their safety and well-being.
- Catch a cheating spouse: You can catch a cheating spouse easily by tracking their text messages and social media chats. Many spy apps and built-in smartphone features allow you to access the target phone remotely and get the required information. However, it’s illegal to spy on your spouse and access their personal information without their consent.
- Employee monitoring: Some companies install spyware on their employees’ phones to track their phone calls and text messages. By doing so, they try to prevent employees from sharing confidential files and corporate information about the company.
- Stealing financial data: hackers and cybercriminals use spyware to steal the target person’s identities, passwords, and financial data. Such an action is considered to be a felony and is punishable by law.
Options To Spy On Text Messages
While most people prefer to install spy apps, others use the built-in features of target phones to access them remotely. Let’s discuss several options for how you can monitor text messages on target phones.
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Use Spy Apps
Spy apps are mobile software designed for monitoring someone’s text messages, phone calls, location, chats, and browser history anonymously. Usually, they have dozens of features. Let’s highlight some of them.
- Undetectable: Spy applications run in the background and don’t interfere with the phone’s performance. After installation, they take up very little memory (e.g., 2MB) and delete the app icon from the menu. The only way to detect the spyware is to check the list of installed apps in the settings.
- No rooting or jailbreaking is necessary: Most sophisticated spyware allows tracking text messages of the target phone without rooting Android devices or jailbreaking iOS phones. Moreover, you don’t want to compromise the security of the target device as it will become vulnerable to all sorts of cyber threats.
- Most spy apps require little to no access to the target device to track text messages or chats. After successfully installing the app, you can access the spyware dashboard on your laptop via browser and view the target device’s media files, messages, and geolocation.
- Keylogger feature: Most surveillance apps track not only sent, received, and deleted messages but also drafts. The keylogger feature records every keystroke made on the target device, which allows you to read even those messages that have been typed but not sent yet.
- Social media monitoring: Nowadays, most people prefer social media chats over SMS. So, spy apps also monitor social media conversations on Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, or Viber.
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Spy with Apple ID
If you don’t want to install a spy app, worrying that a third party will also access the content on the target device, you should take advantage of the built-in feature of the phone. People note that you and your target should use iPhones for spying with Apple ID.
- Launch “Settings” on your device and choose “Messages.”
- Then open the “Send and Receive” option.
- Here you’ll see the Apple ID of the target device. Click “Add an Email” and enter your Apple ID here.
After saving the changes, the device will share all incoming and outgoing text messages with you. The only downside to this method is that it isn’t anonymous. The target phone’s owner can open the settings anytime and see your Apple ID.
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Message Synchronization
The message synchronization option also works for iPhones only. You should know someone’s Apple ID credentials to read their text messages. Then, use the username and password to sign in to their iCloud account on your device. After that, message synchronization will be activated, and you’ll receive all the messages that the target phone receives. But you should use this feature carefully as message syncing works both ways, i.e., your messages will also be forwarded to the target phone.
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Extract Backup Files
If the backup feature is activated on an iPhone, it automatically backs up all its data on iCloud. So, if you can access the target phone’s iCloud account, you get free passage to all the backup files. Then, you can download the file on your device and restore it. This way, you can not only read incoming and outgoing messages but the deleted ones as well.
The same tricks work with Android devices as well. Usually, their backup files are stored on Google Drive. So, if you discover its credentials, you can download and restore the backup files, including messages.
Conclusion
People spy on other people’s text messages to ensure the safety of their children, catch a cheating spouse, monitor employees’ activities, and steal their targets’ identities and financial data. Some mobile devices, e.g., iPhones, have built-in surveillance features, while others can only be monitored via spy applications. You can choose the method suitable for you.
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