How to back up Android texts and call logs to Google Calendar

What ends up in your calendar

• A text becomes a short private event with the message in the description. It is marked free, so it does not block your time.
• A call becomes an event that carries the duration, whether it was incoming, outgoing or missed, and the contact details.
• Where they go is up to you. One calendar for texts and one for calls works well, or put both in the same one. We suggest a separate calendar so your own events stay uncluttered, and you can hide it with one tick.

Google's Calendar API describes a private event as one where "only event attendees may view event details". On a calendar only you use, that means you.

How to set it up

1. Install MessageMirror. It is in closed testing, so ask us for early access if you do not have it yet.
2. Sign in with your Google account and allow access to Google Calendar. There is no app password to generate.
3. Allow access to your texts and your call log when Android asks.
4. Pick the calendar for texts and the calendar for calls.
5. Choose how often it runs, from hourly to daily, or in real time as messages arrive. The first backup covers up to 90 days, then new messages follow as they arrive.

Nothing is deleted from your phone, and nothing passes through our servers. Your phone talks to your Google account directly.

The other ways, and where each one stops

• SMS Backup+. Its README says to select Calendar sync in Advanced settings and pick a calendar. The same README calls the project "in maintenance mode", lists problems logging phone calls into calendars, and its issue tracker shows the Play Store listing was removed in early 2024. We cover the details in our comparison of MessageMirror, SMS Backup+ and SMS Backup & Restore.
• IFTTT. A published applet logs each answered incoming call to Google Calendar with the time, the number and the contact name. It fires when an incoming call ends, so missed calls need a separate trigger, and the applet says nothing about texts.
• Android's own backup. Google's backup includes SMS, MMS and call history, uses your 15 GB of free storage, and restores to the original phone or to other Android phones. Its help page describes restoring, not browsing or searching your messages somewhere else.
• Backup files. If you want XML files in cloud storage rather than a calendar, SMS Backup & Restore is the better pick, and we say so in the comparison.

Why Calendar and not Gmail

We started with Gmail, and the reason we moved is not a technical one. To add a message to a mailbox, an app needs Gmail's insert permission, and Google classes that as a restricted scope. Google's rule is that an app with restricted scopes must pass a security assessment by an approved lab, repeated at least every 12 months.

We argued that our app has no server, because the data goes from the phone to your account. Google replied that the rule covers local client apps too. We found no Gmail permission that can add a message and sits below restricted.

Calendar is different. Google's own example of a sensitive scope is access to events in Google Calendar. It gets a review, which ours passed on 9 October 2026, and no yearly assessment. A yearly assessment is a real cost, and at the price we plan to charge, it would not have added up. So the calendar is not a clever trick. If you want your texts as email instead, our Gmail guide covers what still works. It is the route that let us build a small, low priced app that keeps your data out of our hands.

What it cannot do

1. No RCS. Google Messages upgrades chats between Google Messages users to end-to-end encryption, and Google says "no one can read the content sent between you and the other person". Its archival feature is for managed work phones. Google documents no export of those chats for consumer apps, and ours cannot read them. Some forwarding apps say they handle RCS. We have not tested how, and we would not call that a backup of the chat history.
2. No MMS. Pictures and group messages are not backed up.
3. No restore. It mirrors your history into Calendar so you can search it. It does not put texts back onto a phone.
4. Search has a cap. Google Calendar search on the computer version is limited to 200 events per search, so a broad word returns a slice, not everything.
5. The first backup is 90 days. It does not import older history.
6. It is early. MessageMirror is in closed testing, with paid plans not switched on yet. See the pricing page for where that stands.

Frequently asked questions