Glossary

Automatic SMS reply

An automatic SMS reply is a text message written in advance and sent without any manual action when a specific event happens, most often a missed call. It stands in for the reply you would have written yourself if you had had the time.

How is an automatic reply triggered?

It starts with an event detected on the phone. For calls, the app watches the call log: when a call shows up as missed or declined, it prepares the message and sends it. With CallReply you choose which calls count: missed, declined, or both. Detection works while the phone is locked or asleep, and calls missed while the device was switched off are caught up when it restarts.

Automatic SMS reply vs voicemail

Voicemail waits for the caller to speak. Many hang up before the beep, and the voice message still has to be listened to and returned. An automatic SMS reply works the other way round: you text the caller within a minute. They keep a written record, can reply by SMS with the details of their request, and know what to expect. The two complement each other: one collects a message, the other confirms the call was seen.

Personalise without rewriting

A single template can still adapt to each caller. Variables such as {first_name} or {name} are replaced with the first name or full name saved in the address book. If the caller is unknown, the fallback wording still reads naturally, with no gap in the sentence. CallReply offers one French and one English template, and the preview shows how many SMS segments the text uses before anything is sent.

The guardrails you need

Automatic sending has to stay under control. The useful settings: one SMS per number per day, even if the person calls three times; a daily cap on sends; a minimum gap between two texts; a STOP list for numbers that must never receive anything. Every send, and every skipped send with its reason, should show up in a history you can check.

Works with