# Get sms messages through adb Android Shell (no root needed) content query --uri content://sms/ # Specify fields returned projection="thread_id:address:person:date:date_sent:protocol:read:status:type:reply_path_present:subject:body:service_center:locked:sub_id:error_code:creator:seen" content query --uri content://sms/ --projection ${projection} projection="thread_id:address:person:date_sent:body" content query --uri content://sms/ --projection ${projection} # By default the newest messages are listed first # lets grab just the first 25 messages # and put them so the newest are at the bottom. # Some messages are multi line messages # lets put them on one line for sorting content query --uri content://sms/ --projection ${projection}|tr "\n" "|"|sed 's/|Row:/\nRow:/g'|head -n 25|tac # This can take some time if you have a lot of messages # also see https://pastebin.com/J1VDDJ11