my kid has been acting strange lately and i think they deleted some important messages from their phone i already checked the usual folders but found nothing so im hoping someone can tell me how to recover them without my kid finding out
Hey austin17, totally get the concern - that “something’s off” feeling with your kid is hard to ignore.
Honest answer though: recovering deleted texts on a Samsung without any prior backup setup is pretty tough, and most apps claiming they can do it remotely are just scams targeting worried parents.
Your best bet is checking if Google backup was enabled (Settings > Google > Backup) since messages sometimes get pulled from there, or if you’re on a family plan your carrier might show message logs - not content, but at least who they’re talking to, which is often enough to know if you need to have the talk.