The app needs various permissions to be able to backup and restore messages and call logs. Not all of the permissions declared are requested or required for its functioning. It will only request the permissions it needs when it needs them.
- SMS
- Read SMS – To backup messages.
- Write SMS – To restore messages.
- Receive SMS – To handle messages received while the app is the default messaging app (during restore or when deleting messages).
- Send SMS – The app does NOT request this permission and never sends any messages, however, some phones bundle and display this permission when the app requests the permission to Write SMS and become the default SMS app.
- Call Logs
- Read Call Logs – To backup call logs.
- Write Call Logs – To restore call logs.
- Contacts
- Read Contacts – To store contact names in backups and to display the contact names when viewing the backups in the app.
- Write Contacts – Required by Android to restore call logs.
- Storage
- Only used on phones running older versions of Android to store the backups on SD cards or external storage on the phone. This permission is not requested on newer phones as the backups are stored in the app’s internal folder by default.
- Location
- Only requested when using the app’s built-in transfer feature. This is a requirement of Android to be able to discover nearby devices.
- Network state/connections
- Only requested when using the app’s built-in transfer feature. It uses these permissions to make Wi-Fi Direct connections as well as reset network if needed.
- Accounts
- To authenticate with Google Drive and Gmail for cloud uploads.
- Prevent Phone from Sleeping
- To prevent the phone from going to sleep/suspended state while a Backup or Restore operation is in progress.
- Run at start-up
- Start scheduled Backups.