PocketHook vs Relay
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side โ with what reviewers say about each.
PocketHook
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Your iPhone, wired to anything you build. PocketHook is the native chat that connects your Apple devices to your own HTTPS server โ your webhook, your n8n workflow, your Home Assistant, your own script. You type, your server answers, and iOS Shortcuts run on cue. No account. No tracking. No middleman between you and your own data. Send a message, watch your server reply with Markdown, images, links, even a Shortcut to trigger automatically. Chain steps. Speak instead of typing. Schedule background checks that poke your server and notify you when something changes. It all happens on your infrastructure, through your credentials, stored only in the Apple Keychain. PocketHook is a client. It ships with no backend of its own โ you bring the server, and your data stays where it belongs. Features: - Connect to any HTTPS server you control - Trigger iOS Shortcuts and Siri from server responses, with multi-step chains - Six built-in App Intents for Siri and user-built Shortcuts: send a message and wait for reply, silent send without chat history, add a local message, and three helpers to extract fields (msg, data, shortcut name) from server responses - Rich chat: Markdown, HTML, images, interactive buttons - Voice dictation in 39 languages via the iOS Speech framework - Background polling with notifications - Offline queue with automatic retry - Optional compatibility mode for servers using a chat-style JSON format - Zero tracking, zero third-party SDKs - Credentials stored in Apple Keychain only Built for developers, tinkerers, automators, and anyone who wants their iPhone to talk to the things they actually run. If you can deploy an HTTPS endpoint, PocketHook plugs straight into it. More info: https://pockethook.app
Relay
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Get every text you wish to the place where you actually need it. Relay automatically forwards the iPhone messages that you choose to Telegram, WhatsApp, Email, Slack, and other destinations. One Apple Shortcut. Set up in 60 seconds. Runs forever. Advanced features like Quiet Hours, Duplicate Detection, Activity History, Approval, Smart Filters etc. makes Relay unique and powerful. REAL THINGS PEOPLE USE RELAY FOR Read OTPs on your laptop while your phone charges in another room. Get bank transaction alerts in Slack so your finance team sees them live. Forward delivery codes to WhatsApp so your partner can let the courier in when you are out. Mirror texts from a travel SIM to your primary chat when you are abroad. Share OTPs with a parent or partner who needs them across devices. Pipe verification codes into a private Telegram chat for searchable history. Send incoming SMS to your own webhook for automations like n8n, Make, or Zapier. Keep delivery, banking, and personal texts visible on your work computer without picking up the phone. WHERE YOU CAN FORWARD Telegram, with one tap pairing or your own bot WhatsApp, forwarding to a contact with one tap to confirm Email, any inbox: Gmail, Outlook, ProtonMail, custom domains Slack, post to any channel via webhook Discord, post to any channel via webhook Microsoft Teams, post via Power Automate flow Webhook, any URL for your own tooling Phone, forward to another iPhone via Shortcuts Free includes up to 3 destinations. Relay Pro unlocks unlimited - send the same text to multiple places at once. SMART ROUTING Decide where each kind of message goes. Bank alerts to email. OTPs to Telegram. Delivery codes to WhatsApp. Personal texts stay private. Filter by category, sender, or keyword. Combine criteria with AND inside a rule and OR across rules. QUIET HOURS Pause forwarding to specific destinations during specific hours. No 3am Slack pings. Day of week control. Overnight windows handled cleanly. LIGHT TRANSFORMS Customize how forwarded texts read at the destination. Add the sender as a prefix. Strip promotional footers. Remove bracketed prefixes so the message arrives clean. YOUR MESSAGES STAY ON YOUR DEVICE Every SMS, every routing rule, and every classification result lives on your iPhone. Relay never uploads your message content to our servers and never shares it with anyone except the destinations you choose. No account, no sign-in, no profile, no cloud sync of your messages. HOW IT WORKS For Relay to work properly, you have to configure an automation using Apple Shortcuts for the app to get access to new incoming SMS. Relay cannot directly access your text messages or messaging history. When the Shortcut automation runs, the message content and sender name pass through Relay, classify on device, and forward only to the destinations you have pre-configured. You can even set up a confirmation step before anything is forwarded. Setup takes 60 seconds. Runs forever. Never needs touching again. RELAY PRO Relay is free to use. For advanced use cases, you can opt for a paid subscription of Relay Pro, which unlocks unlimited forwarding, unlimited destinations, unlimited smart-filter rules, and your full activity history. Multiple subscription plans are available โ weekly, monthly, and annual, with a free trial on the annual plan. Pricing is shown in your local currency at checkout. Payment is charged to your Apple ID at purchase. Subscriptions auto-renew unless turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current period. You can manage or cancel anytime in your App Store account settings. Terms of Use: https://relaysms.app/terms Privacy Policy: https://relaysms.app/privacy
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is ads: PocketHook at none against Relay's shown. Relay's advantage is update cadence (weekly vs monthly) and iOS requirement (17.0 vs 26.0). On price, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price ยท Rating ยท Positive reviews ยท Number of ratings ยท Update frequency ยท Ads ยท In-app purchases ยท Monetization ยท Best chart rank ยท Devices ยท Requires iOS
Both are free to download. PocketHook sells 1 one-off in-app purchase and Relay sells 3 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per 7 days. Whichever you choose, the download price is not the number that matters.
PocketHook ships an update monthly, Relay weekly. The most recent releases landed on October 2, 2026 and October 9, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | PocketHook | Relay |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Update frequency | Monthly | Weekly โ better |
| Ads | No โ better | Yes |
| In-app purchases | Yes | Yes |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad | iPhone, iPad |
| Requires iOS | 26.0 | 17.0 โ better |
| Further details โ not scored | ||
| Size | 7 MB | 52 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 4+ |
| Developer | Alfonso Joaquin Menkel Sarria | NORTH STUDIO LLC |
In-app purchases
PocketHook
- PocketHook Pro$14.99
Relay
- Relay Pro Weekly3 Days trial$4.997 Days
- Relay Pro Monthly$9.991 Month
- Relay Pro Annual7 Days trial$89.991 Year









