Help
Contact us
Email: [email protected]
WhatsApp: +250 794 768 888
Write in English, Kinyarwanda, French or Swahili. We will never ask for your recovery code or your phone's PIN.
Why does SawaFone ask for permissions?
Each permission turns on one thing. Every one is optional: say no, and the rest of the app still works. You can change your mind in your phone's settings (Apps → SawaFone → Permissions).
- Contacts: to show your people and link records to them. Without it, you can still keep money records, reminders and notes, and add people without a phone.
- Calendar: to show and add your events. Without it, events don't show; reminders still work.
- Notifications: to remind you. Without it, reminders don't pop up; you see them when you open the app.
- Alarms & reminders: so reminders ring at the exact minute. Without it, they may come a few minutes late.
- Location: only when you tap “Use my current location”. Without it, type the address.
The backup and your recovery code
- SawaFone saves a locked backup every night. Turn it on in More → Backup & sync.
- When you turn it on, SawaFone shows a 24-digit recovery code. Write it on paper and keep the paper safe. You type the last 4 digits back to show you wrote it down.
- On a new phone, you need this code to open your backup. Nobody can open it without the code, not even us. If you lose the code, the backup can't be opened.
- Lost the paper but still have the phone? Open More → Backup & sync and unlock your phone to see the code again.
- For the backup to reach your Google account, Google backup must be on in your phone's settings (often Settings → Google → Backup).
Moving to a new phone
With your backup (easiest):
- Set up the new phone with the same Google account, and restore your apps and data from your Google backup or from the old phone.
- Install SawaFone from the Play Store if it isn't there yet, and open it.
- SawaFone says it found a backup. Type your recovery code. Your records come back.
With a file:
- On the old phone: More → Privacy & permissions → Download my data. Save the file where the new phone can reach it (Google Drive, an SD card, or send it to yourself).
- On the new phone: More → Privacy & permissions → Bring in data from a file, and pick the file. Nothing on the new phone is deleted.
- Delete the file afterwards: it isn't locked, so anyone who has it can read your records.
Contacts and calendar events are kept by your phone's own apps. They move to the new phone with your Google account if they are saved there.
Deleting your data
See Delete your data.