Question

I want to create an android application that a user can use to text others. It should function like the Whatsapp app for android or any other sms application I believe.

I’m not sure how I should go about creating it though. I have heard there is an sms api in android, but I wasnt sure if that would send an sms to the default texting app to the phone or if it would send it to the same application on the phone. Basically I would like the application to function like the default texting service on a phone. I figured I could set up a proper interface and allow the user to enter the sms into an edittext and on clicking send it would be sent to a database on a server and the recepient’s app would connect to the server and retreive the message.

I would appreciate it if someone could point me in the right direction on how to create this app and are there any sample codes for texting apps ?

Thanks !

Answer 1

The SmsManager class allows you to send SMSs from you own app. One code example can be found at http://www.mkyong.com/android/how-to-send-sms-message-in-android/

Edit: I see that you also wants to know how to receive a SMS.This blog post http://mobiforge.com/developing/story/sms-messaging-android might be more useful than the first one I mentioned. It teaches how to setup the broadcast receiver and parse the PDUs. It also teaches how to test using the emulator. This will save a lot of money. I think this was the post I read the first time I played with SMS on Android.