Question

I want to delete some certain SMS automatically in my Android application. Therefore I have a method which does exactly what I want it to do. However, it only works if I deploy the application directly to my phone from Eclipse. Then it deletes incoming SMS. However, it does not work if the application is downloaded from the market. But there is also no error. Does anybody know how I can solve this or does this only work on rooted devices?

public void deleteSMS(Context context, String message, String number) {
    try {
        mLogger.logInfo("Deleting SMS from inbox");
        Uri uriSms = Uri.parse("content://sms/inbox");
        Cursor c = context.getContentResolver().query(uriSms,
            new String[] { "_id", "thread_id", "address",
                "person", "date", "body" }, null, null, null);

        if (c != null && c.moveToFirst()) {
            do {
                long id = c.getLong(0);
                long threadId = c.getLong(1);
                String address = c.getString(2);
                String body = c.getString(5);

                if (message.equals(body) && address.equals(number)) {
                    mLogger.logInfo("Deleting SMS with id: " + threadId);
                    context.getContentResolver().delete(
                        Uri.parse("content://sms/" + id), null, null);
                }
            } while (c.moveToNext());
        }
    } catch (Exception e) {
        mLogger.logError("Could not delete SMS from inbox: " + e.getMessage());
    }
}

Answer 1

Actually, the code in my post is 100% correct. The problem was that Android needs some time to store the SMS upon receiving it. So the solution is to just add a handler and delay the delete request for 1 or 2 seconds.

This actually solved the whole issue.

EDIT (thanks to Maksim Dmitriev):

Please consider that you can’t delete SMS messages on devices with Android 4.4.

Also, the system now allows only the default app to write message data to the provider, although other apps can read at any time.

http://developer.android.com/about/versions/kitkat.html

No exception will be thrown if you try; nothing will be deleted. I have just tested it on two emulators.

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