Shadow Clone

Your texts, forwarded to your inbox.

No ads. No BS. Just Shadow Clones.

Shadow Clone copies every SMS your Android phone receives — and, if you want, the ones you send — straight to your email. Verification codes, delivery updates, the message you can only read on the phone you left at home.

One-time purchase. Works forever. No subscription, ever. Pay by card through Stripe; your licence key arrives by email within a minute.

One price for life

$9.99 buys the app and the forwarding relay, for as long as they exist. No monthly fee, no “pro” tier, no upsell.

No ads, no tracking

No ad SDK, no analytics, no crash reporter, no account. The app talks to exactly one server: ours, to hand off your message.

Nothing kept

Your text passes through the relay only long enough to be turned into an email. It is not stored, not read, not sold.

Auditable

The Android manifest is short on purpose. SMS, internet, notifications. No contacts, no storage, no location.

How it works

Buy — the button above opens Stripe Checkout. Your licence key (SC-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX-XXXXX) is emailed to you.
Install — get Shadow Clone from Google Play (testing), or download the APK directly (signed by Hardin Systems; allow installs from your browser if asked). The Play listing goes public once review finishes.
Activate — open the app, paste the key under Licence, tap Activate. The app receives its own private relay credential; the key is never typed again.
Forward — turn on Forward by email, enter the address to forward to. Every incoming SMS now lands in your inbox as “SMS from +1 504 …”. Optionally turn on messages I send too.

What it does not do. It does not send SMS from your phone (no SEND_SMS permission, so it can never run up your bill). It cannot see RCS “chat” messages except through the optional notification listener, which you switch on yourself. It never deletes or changes a message on your phone.

On iPhone

iPhone does not let any app read your texts — not ours, not anyone's. So the iPhone edition of Shadow Clone works with Apple's own Shortcuts app: a one-time automation hands each incoming text to Shadow Clone, which sends it straight from your phone to your own Telegram chat. No relay, no account, nothing in between — and on iPhone it is free.

Telegram — message @BotFather, send /newbot, paste the token into Shadow Clone, open your bot and press START, then tap Find my chat ID and Send a test message.
Automation — in Shortcuts: Automation → New → Message, pick a sender or words like “code” (or leave it open for every text), choose Run Immediately, add Shadow Clone → Forward Message to Telegram, and set Message to Shortcut Input → Content and Sender to Shortcut Input → Sender.
Check — text yourself from another phone. It lands in Telegram, and the app's History tab shows every forward (kept on your phone only).

The iPhone app is in testing now; the App Store link goes here when Apple approves it. Email forwarding through our relay stays an Android feature for now.

Privacy, in plain words

When a text arrives, the app sends the sender, the time and the text over HTTPS to our relay. The relay wraps it in an email from [email protected] and hands it to the mail server for delivery to the address you chose. That is the whole trip.

The relay keeps a delivery log line (time, your licence key, the destination address) so we can answer “did it send?” — it does not keep the message text. Your licence record holds the email you bought with, your key, and a daily count of forwarded messages (limit 300 per day, to keep spam from ever being routed through us).

We have no advertising, no analytics and nothing to sell. The full privacy policy says the same thing at greater length.

Questions

Is it really one payment?

Yes. $9.99 once. The licence has no expiry. If we ever had to shut the relay down we would say so here and by email first.

Can I use it on two phones?

One licence runs on one phone at a time. Activating on a new phone moves it; the old one stops forwarding. Buy a second licence for a second phone.

Why does it need SMS permission?

Because it forwards SMS. Android requires the RECEIVE_SMS and READ_SMS permissions for an app to see incoming texts. It asks for nothing else it does not use.

Does it forward RCS / iMessage-style chats?

RCS is not readable by any app. Optionally, Shadow Clone can read the notification Google Messages posts and forward that; it is off unless you turn it on, and it needs the Notification-access permission you grant in system settings.

Where is the relay?

On hardware we own and operate in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA. It is the same relay we use for our own business lines.

Notification access is greyed out ("Restricted setting")

Android 13 and newer blocks Notification access for any app installed from a downloaded APK until you allow it once: Settings → Apps → Shadow Clone → the three dots top right → Allow restricted settings, then tap Grant notification access again. Installing from Google Play avoids this entirely. It only affects the optional RCS/chat forwarding; SMS forwarding never needs it.

Can I hide the permanent notification?

Yes. It only exists while "Also forward messages I send" is on, because Android requires a notification for a service that stays alive. Long-press the notification and turn off the Outgoing SMS watcher category, or Settings → Apps → Shadow Clone → Notifications. The watcher keeps running silently and restarts itself after a reboot. Plain incoming forwarding never shows a notification at all.

Does it work on iPhone?

Yes, differently: iPhone apps cannot read texts, so a Shortcuts automation passes each message to Shadow Clone, which forwards it to your Telegram. See On iPhone. The iPhone edition is free and needs no licence.

Refunds?

If it does not work on your phone, email [email protected] within 14 days and we refund you. See the terms.