Serval Mesh vs SMS Filter
Side-by-side comparison of two open source alternatives
Serval Mesh
The Serval Project is seeking funds to develop a mesh extender which aims to work around the limitations caused by the lack of AdHoc mode in Android. Visit the campaign website to the cause. N.B The app no longer asks for root by default although you can still try it in adhoc mode. Prebuilts are no longer in the source code. This is experimental software: it may not work as advertised. It may lose or alter messages and files that it carries; it may consume a lot of space, speed and battery, and it may crash unexpectedly. Mobile communications are useful, but depend on infrastructure that can be damaged, overwhelmed, or even absent. This app assumes zero infrastructure. The phones talk to each other using WiFi; relaying calls and messages and figuring out how to resolve numbers. In other words, it lets your phone communicate with other Android phones running Serval Mesh within WiFi range. Requires root: No. Basic Android still doesn't allow WiFi in AdHoc mode, so the app will ask for root if you try to enable adhoc mode. The Java/XML part is distributable under the GNU GPLv3 while the serval-dna (distributed number architecture) project is GPLv2.
SMS Filter
SMS Filter can filter incoming SMS messages before they reach your inbox. You can filter by address, and optionally add parts that must occur in the message for it to be blocked. By default, SMS Filter will not delete incoming messages. You will get a silent status bar notification when SMS Filter has filtered an incoming message, which you can view by opening the notification or by opening the application. You can also tell SMS Filter to delete incoming messages, in which case it will happily do so for you. To do this, just turn off the 'Save messages' preference.
| Feature | Serval Mesh | SMS Filter |
|---|---|---|
| License | GPL-3.0-only | Fair |
| Install sources | F-DroidGitHub | F-Droid |
| Categories | SMSMessaging | SMSMessaging |
| Features | Ad-FreeOpen SourceNo Tracking | Ad-FreeOpen SourceNo Tracking |
| Platforms | Android | Android |
| Website | ||
| Source code |