Question

I have an application that allows the user to send a picture. This picture can be sent via a number of different ways, like g-mail, facebook, flickr, and the one I am interested in, text messaging. When the following code is run, a dialog box pops up with a number of these options available.

       Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(new File(externalDirectory + FILE_DIRECTORY + fileName));      
        Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND); 
        intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, uri);
        intent.setType("image/png"); 
        startActivity(intent);

On my Droid X, the text messaging option is shown, and this code adds the picture to the MMS perfectly.

On the emulator, text messaging is chosen automatically (since there are no other options) and once again it works great.

On my Droid Incredible, there is no text messaging option. However, I can manually bring up the built-in text messaging utility, add the picture and then send it. I also downloaded an SMS/MMS app from the market, and afterward the option to use this 3rd party program to send the picture was available from the list.

So, why isn’t text messaging an available option on the Droid Incredible? What do I need to do to make it an option, and how do I evaluate this problem (OR UNKNOWN PROBLEMS) with phone types I have no access to?

Answer 1

I did manage to come up with a work around for this, thanks to some help from some other questions on SO.

Basically the key was determining the intent used by HTC, which appears to be the only company (currently) that’s modified the android.intent.action.SEND Intent. Here is the code to add the option to the list.

Uri uri = Uri.fromFile(new File(mFile));  
Intent intent = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND); 
intent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, uri);
intent.setType("image/png"); 

Intent htcIntent = new Intent("android.intent.action.SEND_MSG");
htcIntent.setType("image/png");
htcIntent.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_STREAM, uri);

Intent chooser = Intent.createChooser(intent, "Send Method");
chooser.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_INITIAL_INTENTS, new Intent[] { htcIntent });
startActivity(chooser);