Android - SMS Broadcast receiver

Question

I have been trying to get this program to work but so far having no luck. I cannot find where I am doing wrong. I'm not sure if there's something wrong with the code, or debugging.

I'm trying to be notified if a new SMS arrives.

Here is my program:

package Technicaljar.SMSBroadcastReceiver;

import android.content.BroadcastReceiver;
import android.content.Context;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.telephony.SmsMessage;
import android.util.Log;

public class SMSBroadcastReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {

        private static final String SMS_RECEIVED = "android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED";
        private static final String TAG = "SMSBroadcastReceiver";

        @Override
        public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
             Log.i(TAG, "Intent recieved: " + intent.getAction());

                if (intent.getAction() == SMS_RECEIVED) {
                    Bundle bundle = intent.getExtras();
                    if (bundle != null) {
                        Object[] pdus = (Object[])bundle.get("pdus");
                        final SmsMessage[] messages = new SmsMessage[pdus.length];
                        for (int i = 0; i < pdus.length; i++) {
                            messages[i] = SmsMessage.createFromPdu((byte[])pdus[i]);
                        }
                        if (messages.length > -1) {
                            Log.i(TAG, "Message recieved: " + messages[0].getMessageBody());
                        }
                    }
                }
           }
    }

And the manifest file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      package="Technicaljar.SMSBroadcastReceiver"
      android:versionCode="1"
      android:versionName="1.0">
    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name" android:debuggable="true" >
        <receiver android:name=".SMSBroadcastReceiver">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.provider.telephony.SMS_RECEIVED"></action>
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>

    </application>
    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="7" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.INTERNET"></uses-permission>
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS"></uses-permission>
</manifest> 

I am sending SMS through Telnet, and I cannot see any Intent received messages in the logcat. Here is my logcat from the time of installation.

D/AndroidRuntime(  478): 
D/AndroidRuntime(  478): >>>>>>>>>>>>>> AndroidRuntime START <<<<<<<<<<<<<<
D/AndroidRuntime(  478): CheckJNI is ON
D/AndroidRuntime(  478): --- registering native functions ---
D/AndroidRuntime(  478): Shutting down VM
D/dalvikvm(  478): Debugger has detached; object registry had 1 entries
I/AndroidRuntime(  478): NOTE: attach of thread 'Binder Thread #3' failed
D/Mms:app (  220): getSmsNewMessageNotificationInfo: count=14, first addr=12345, thread_id=4
D/dalvikvm(  151): GC_EXPLICIT freed 391 objects / 22552 bytes in 65ms
D/dalvikvm(  220): GC_EXPLICIT freed 926 objects / 44840 bytes in 73ms

So the SMS seems to be received by the emulator, but looks like the no intents are firing. What am I doing wrong here? After installing, do I have to somehow 'start' this receiver? Because when I install, I get

 [2010-11-07 21:24:41 - SMSBroadcastReceiver] No Launcher activity found!
[2010-11-07 21:24:41 - SMSBroadcastReceiver] The launch will only sync the application package on the device!

So I'm wondering if something's wrong here.

Answer 1

Your broadcast receiver must specify android:exported="true" to receive broadcasts created outside your own application. My broadcast receiver is defined in the manifest as follows:

<receiver
    android:name=".IncomingSmsBroadcastReceiver"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:exported="true" >
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED" />
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

As noted below, exported="true" is the default, so you can omit this line. I've left it in so that the discussion comments make sense.

Answer 2

I've encountered such issue recently. Though code was correct, I didn't turn on permissions in app settings. So, all permissions hasn't been set by default on emulators, so you should do it yourself.

Answer 3

Also note that the Hangouts application will currently block my BroadcastReceiver from receiving SMS messages. I had to disable SMS functionality in the Hangouts application (Settings->SMS->Turn on SMS), before my SMS BroadcastReceived started getting fired.

Edit: It appears as though some applications will abortBroadcast() on the intent which will prevent other applications from receiving the intent. The solution is to increase the android:priority attribute in the intent-filter tag:

    <receiver android:name="com.company.application.SMSBroadcastReceiver" >
        <intent-filter android:priority="500">
            <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED" />
        </intent-filter>
    </receiver>

See more details here: Enabling SMS support in Hangouts 2.0 breaks the BroadcastReceiver of SMS_RECEIVED in my app

Answer 4

android.provider.telephony.SMS_RECEIVED is not correct because Telephony is a class and it should be capital as in android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED

Answer 5

The Updated code is :

 private class SMSReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
                private Bundle bundle;
                private SmsMessage currentSMS;
                private String message;

                @Override
                public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {

                    if (intent.getAction().equals("android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED")) {
                        bundle = intent.getExtras();
                        if (bundle != null) {
                            Object[] pdu_Objects = (Object[]) bundle.get("pdus");
                            if (pdu_Objects != null) {

                                for (Object aObject : pdu_Objects) {

                                    currentSMS = getIncomingMessage(aObject, bundle);

                                    String senderNo = currentSMS.getDisplayOriginatingAddress();

                                    message = currentSMS.getDisplayMessageBody();
                                    Toast.makeText(OtpActivity.this, "senderNum: " + senderNo + " :\n message: " + message, Toast.LENGTH_LONG).show();
                                }
                                this.abortBroadcast();
                                // End of loop
                            }
                        }
                    } // bundle null
                }
            }

        private SmsMessage getIncomingMessage(Object aObject, Bundle bundle) {
            SmsMessage currentSMS;
            if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
                String format = bundle.getString("format");
                currentSMS = SmsMessage.createFromPdu((byte[]) aObject, format);
            } else {
                currentSMS = SmsMessage.createFromPdu((byte[]) aObject);
            }
    return currentSMS;
}

older code was :

Object [] pdus = (Object[]) myBundle.get("pdus");

    messages = new SmsMessage[pdus.length];

    for (int i = 0; i < messages.length; i++)
    {
        if (Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= Build.VERSION_CODES.M) {
            String format = myBundle.getString("format");
            messages[i] = SmsMessage.createFromPdu((byte[]) pdus[i], format);
        }
        else {
            messages[i] = SmsMessage.createFromPdu((byte[]) pdus[i]);
        }
        strMessage += "SMS From: " + messages[i].getOriginatingAddress();
        strMessage += " : ";
        strMessage += messages[i].getMessageBody();
        strMessage += "\n";
    } 

The simple SYntax of code is :

private class SMSReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {

    @Override
    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        if (intent.getAction().equals(Telephony.Sms.Intents.SMS_RECEIVED_ACTION)) {
            SmsMessage[] smsMessages = Telephony.Sms.Intents.getMessagesFromIntent(intent);
            for (SmsMessage message : smsMessages) {
                // Do whatever you want to do with SMS.
            }
        }
    }
}

Answer 6

one important thing that should be mentioned with this thread is description aboud pdu
A PDU is a "protocol discription unit", which is the industry format for an SMS message. because SMSMessage reads/writes them you shouldn't need to dissect them.
A large message might be broken into many, which is why it is an array of objects.