[android] Android - SMS Broadcast receiver

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.

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

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.

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

Stumbled across this today. For anyone coding an SMS receiver nowadays, use this code instead of the deprecated in OP:

SmsMessage[] msgs = Telephony.Sms.Intents.getMessagesFromIntent(intent);
SmsMessage smsMessage = msgs[0];

For android 19+ you can get it in Telephony.Sms.Intents.SMS_RECEIVED_ACTION). There are more in the Intents class that 're worth looking at

intent.getAction().equals(SMS_RECEIVED)

I have tried it out successfully.

I tried your code and found it wasn't working.

I had to change

if (intent.getAction() == SMS_RECEIVED) {

to

if (intent.getAction().equals(SMS_RECEIVED)) {

Now it's working. It's just an issue with java checking equality.

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.
            }
        }
    }
}

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.