If you're usually quick to respond to text messages, people might worry when you don't reply for a while. And while auto-reply functionality isn't built into the platform, it's thankfully easy to set up automatic text replies on Android.
Using a few apps, you can send auto-responses to people who try to contact you while you're driving, in a meeting, on vacation, or otherwise occupied. Here's how to auto-reply to texts on Android.
Automatically Respond to Texts While Driving With Android Auto
If you're primarily interested in automatic responses while driving, Android Auto lets you auto-reply to incoming texts with one tap. This works whether your car has an Android Auto-compatible head unit or you use the Android Auto app on your phone display.
To make sure you're ready to use automated text responses in Android Auto, first open the Android Auto app. Note that on Android 10 and above, Android Auto functionality is built into your device if you use it with your car's screen. Thus, you'll need to install the Android Auto for phone screens app to make this change.
In the Android Auto app, slide out the left sidebar and choose Settings. Under the Notifications section, you'll see some options related to incoming alerts for texts and other messages.
Make sure you have Show message notifications (and Show group message notifications, if you want) selected here. Otherwise, you won't know when a message comes in and can't auto-respond quickly. You may also want to enable Silent notifications to avoid your SMS tone blasting through your car's speakers.
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Older versions of Android Auto had an Auto reply field, where you could customize the response that you sent while driving. However, this isn't available anymore. You'll have to stick with the default I'm driving right now response.
Now, when you see a notification come in for a message, you can hit the auto-response field to send your automated reply with one quick tap. When you're using Android Auto on your phone's screen, the message will stay on the Home menu. This lets you reply to it a bit later if you missed the initial notification.
This auto-reply works for all Android Auto-supported messaging apps (such as WhatsApp and Telegram), not just SMS. While it's not fully automated, it's a safer way to respond on the road when needed. To reduce distractions, you can also tap Mute conversation after sending an automatic reply to suppress future notifications from that chat.
Be sure to check out the best Android Auto apps to get more out of the service.
Use the SMS Auto Reply App
The above method is great for sending automatic responses while driving, but there's much more you can do to auto-reply to texts on Android. One of the best apps for the job is SMS Auto Reply, which offers most of its features for free.
Getting Started With SMS Auto Reply
After installing the app, you can walk through the basic overview and start making your own auto-response rules. Tap Add/Edit on the home screen to start one.
At the top, you'll see the Busy template is selected by default. You can tap this to change it to others like Driving, Meeting, or Movie. Each one has its own preset message, which you can edit in the Message field.
To create a new response template, tap the Plus icon at the top-right and give it a name. Before moving on, make sure you have SMS selected under Select channel to reply to so the responder works on text messages. The app supports other services (like WhatsApp) too, but you have to upgrade to access that functionality.
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Set Exceptions for Text Auto-Responses
The next step in tweaking a template, or making your own, is the Personalized List section. Here, you can optionally choose to send a personalized message to particular contacts. This allows you to leave a more personal note for people you know well or are expecting a message from. Everyone else will get the general message you entered above.
Tap the Pencil icon next to Personalized List to select contacts, or contact groups, that the personalized message should go to. Once you choose the contacts, type out the message for them.
You'll also see a Don't Reply List field. This allows you to specify numbers that you don't want to auto-respond to. For instance, you can exclude people you expect to text while out of office.
When you're done, tap Save to keep your changes to the current template.
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Setting a Schedule for Auto-Responses
Next, you'll want to set up a schedule for the auto-responder to run on. Choose Set Time on the home page, or the button with the same name at the bottom of the previous editing screen, to configure this.
Make sure you have the right reply template selected from the dropdown bar at the top. Then you have four options for the SMS auto-reply schedule:
- Run by Time lets you pick a time period when the auto-responder should be active. Simply set a start time with From and and ending time with To.
- Run by Date will respond to messages in the time period you select, during a period of dates that you choose. This is useful for setting "out of office" text replies when you know you'll be away for a set amount of days.
- Run by Week Days will activate the auto-responder for the time period you choose on the specified days of the week. Check the Repeat Weekly box if you want it to run the same way in the coming weeks.
- Run when your car Bluetooth connects lets you activate the profile when your phone connects to one or more Bluetooth devices of your choosing. Make sure that you have Bluetooth enabled and the device(s) paired before selecting this.
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Tap Save and you'll go to the On/Off screen. There, the app will let you know that due to Android limitations, it only works with incoming SMS text messages. Make sure you have notifications turned on for your SMS app, or the auto-reply won't work.
You also must use an SMS app that supports quick replies from the notification, which most modern Android SMS apps should.
Toggling Auto-Responses to Text Messages
Visit the Turn On/Off page from the homepage, and you'll see all the auto-response rules you've created. If you'd like to create different profiles for different times or groups of people, you can repeat the above steps to set up as many rules as you like.
To actually enable auto-responses, enable the slider next to a rule. When you do this, the app will prompt you to enable notification access so it knows when you get a text message. It may also ask you to disable Android's battery optimization, allow unrestricted data access, and provide other permissions so it can run properly.
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While this is a lot of permissions to grant, they are necessary for the app to function as intended. When a rule is currently active, you'll see it highlighted in blue on this page.
Auto Responder Settings and Other Features
That's all you need to use SMS Auto Reply properly. The service has a few extras that you should know about, however.
Once a rule has come into effect, tap Reports on the home screen to view information about what messages it sent while that profile was active. On the left sidebar, you can use the Backup tool to save your configurations to Google Drive.
Also on this sidebar, you'll find a Settings menu that's worth examining. For instance, enable Send only one reply and the app won't respond to multiple messages from the same person during the duration of the rule. This is useful to avoid repeating your away message if someone sends multiple texts.
Under Reply rules, you can also choose to respond only to your contacts, non-contacts, or any personalized lists you've set up as above.
You can also choose to ignore short numbers, which is a good idea since most automated messages come from short code numbers. Most of these ask you not to reply to their texts.
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Auto Reply offers a few in-app purchases to unlock more features. For example, you can add auto-responses to messages from Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, and similar. These will also unlock a default profile option and easy one-tap toggling of auto replies.
It costs $6.49 for everything (including ad removal), which is worth considering if you use the service often.
Create Your Own Text Auto-Reply Applet With IFTTT
If you don't like the above solution for some reason, you can always create your own auto-responses with IFTTT.
First, sign up for IFTTT and activate the Android SMS service. You'll need to install the IFTTT app on your phone to complete this step. From there, you can use Android text messages as both triggers and actions for new applets.
You're only limited by your creativity here. For example, you might use the New SMS received matches search trigger to catch messages containing certain words. The action could then send an automatic SMS response letting them know that you're not available.
There's a lot to digest with IFTTT, so check out our complete IFTTT guide to help you on your way. The free plan only lets you make a handful of applets, but that should be enough for a few SMS responses.
Enable Automatic Text Replies in Your SMS App
Finally, for one more option, don't forget that some Android texting apps have auto-response functionality built in. One of our favorites, Pulse SMS, includes this in its vast feature set. Give it a look if your current SMS doesn't support auto-responses.
Open Pulse and slide out the left sidebar, then scroll down to the bottom and tap Advanced Features. On this menu, find the Messaging Features section near the bottom and tap Auto Reply Configuration to start using it.
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Enable Driving Mode or Vacation Mode to automatically respond to every text you receive. Choose Message text for each of them to set up your response message.
You can toggle driving mode easily by adding a tile to the Quick Settings shade. Just swipe down from the top of your screen twice to open it, then tap the Pencil icon in that panel. Find Driving Mode and drag it into your list of quick setting tiles. There's no way to activate this when connecting to a Bluetooth device, so this is the fastest way.
For more flexibility, choose Create a New Auto Reply. There, you can choose either Contact or Keyword. Contact-based replies will send an automatic response when a particular contact texts you. Keyword-based replies will automatically reply when you get any text messages containing the word or phrase you specify.
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As the app mentions, driving and vacation modes take precedence over any rules you set here.
Automatic Replies to Android Text Messages Made Easy
We've looked at a few ways to send auto-response texts on Android. Whether you just need an easy and safe way to let people know you're driving, or want to dive into a full setup with multiple auto-response profiles, you won't have to leave anyone waiting for a reply again.
Don't think that SMS is useless these days, either. There are services that still make good use of it.