Override default android messaging application

Question

Hi, I want to override the default android messaging application. If I receive a sms or mms I want to send that to email but i don't want any notification on phone. So basically I want to replace the default messaging application.

How can I make my application the default one that receive the sms?

Answer 1

There isn't a "default application" in the way you're thinking. The way applications are dispatched in Android is through Intents. An application wil use an IntentFilter to identify that it can handle specific types of Intents. What you're looking for is a BroadcastReceiver that can handle the SMSReceived intent. That will allow your application to be notified when an SMS is received. In order to hide the notification, you will need to mark the SMS as read using the SMS ContentProvider. That will clear the notification out of the notification tray. There is no way to hide a message from the default messaging application unless you delete the message from the SMS ContentProvider. Check out this link for how to get started with BroadcastReceivers.

Answer 2

Thanks a lot. That is exactly what I need. But I have one more problem. I used the receiver to get the message ... but I don't know how to find the message in the phone and mark it as read.

public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    // TODO Auto-generated method stub
    //---get the SMS message passed in---
    Bundle bundle = intent.getExtras();        
    SmsMessage[] msgs = null;
    String str = "";            
    if (bundle != null)
    {
        //---retrieve the SMS message received---
        Object[] pdus = (Object[]) bundle.get("pdus");
        msgs = new SmsMessage[pdus.length];            
        for (int i=0; i<msgs.length; i++){
            msgs[i] = SmsMessage.createFromPdu((byte[])pdus[i]);                
            str += "SMS from " + msgs[i].getOriginatingAddress();                     
            str += " :";
            str += msgs[i].getMessageBody().toString();
            str += "\n";        
        }
        //---display the new SMS message---
        Toast.makeText(context, str, Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();

        //---find and mark the messages as read---
        Uri uriSms = Uri.parse("content://sms/inbox/");
       try{
        Cursor c = context.getContentResolver().query(uriSms, null,null,null,null);
            //---code to find the message by body and sender---
            ...

    }

Is there any way in which I can identify the message like an id? Now I find the message comparing the bofy and sender number for all messages in inbox.

Thanks, Radu