How to delete an SMS from the inbox in Android programmatically

Question

On Android phones SMS messages registered to applications also get sent to the device s inbox   However to prevent clutter  it d be nice to be able to remove application specific SMS messages from the inbox to reduce the potential overflow of those messages   Questions on other Google groups on getting a definitive answer on a programmatic way to delete SMS messages from the Android inbox don t seem to be pressing   So the scenario    Android App startup  register SMS message types X Y and Z messages P Q X Y Z stream in over the course of time  all deposited in inbox Android application detects receipt of X Y Z  presumably as part of the program interrupt event  process X Y Z Desirement    X Y Z are deleted from the Android inbox   Has it been done   Can it be done

User · Answer

I think this can not be perfectly done for the time being. There are 2 basic problems:

How can you make sure the sms is already in the inbox when you try to delete it?
Notice that SMS_RECEIVED is not an ordered broadcast.
So dmyung's solution is completely trying one's luck; even the delay in Doug's answer is not a guarantee.
The SmsProvider is not thread safe.(refer to http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2916#c0)
The fact that more than one clients are requesting delete and insert in it at the same time will cause data corruption or even immediate Runtime Exception.

User · Answer

Also update the manifest file as to delete an sms you need write permissions    lt uses-permission android name  android permission WRITE SMS   gt

User · Answer

Sample for deleting one SMS  not conversation   getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms conversations     threadID     id       new String   id

User · Answer

Using suggestions from others  I think I got it to work    using SDK v1 R2   It s not perfect  since i need to delete the entire conversation  but for our purposes  it s a sufficient compromise as we will at least know all messages will be looked at and verified   Our flow will probably need to then listen for the message  capture for the message we want  do a query to get the thread id of the recently inbounded message and do the delete   call   In our Activity   Uri uriSms   Uri parse  content   sms inbox    Cursor c   getContentResolver   query uriSms  null null null null    int id   c getInt 0   int thread id   c getInt 1     get the thread id getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms conversations     thread id  null null     Note   I wasn t able to do a delete on content   sms inbox  or content   sms all   Looks like the thread takes precedence  which makes sense  but the error message only emboldened me to be angrier   When trying the delete on sms inbox  or sms all   you will probably get   java lang IllegalArgumentException  Unknown URL     at com android providers telephony SmsProvider delete SmsProvider java 510      at android content ContentProvider Transport delete ContentProvider java 149      at android content ContentProviderNative onTransact ContentProviderNative java 149    For additional reference too  make sure to put this into your manifest for your intent receiver    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver  gt       lt intent-filter gt           lt action android name  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED  gt  lt  action gt       lt  intent-filter gt   lt  receiver gt    Note the receiver tag does not look like this    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver       android permission  android permission RECEIVE SMS  gt    When I had those settings  android gave me some crazy permissions exceptions that didn t allow android phone to hand off the received SMS to my intent   So  DO NOT put that RECEIVE SMS permission attribute in your intent   Hopefully someone wiser than me can tell me why that was the case

User · Answer

Just have a look at this link  it will give you a brief idea of the logic   https   gist github com 5178e798d9a00cac4ddb  Just call the deleteSMS   function with some delay  because there is a slight difference between the time of notification and when it is saved actually      for details have a look at this link also           http   htmlcoderhelper com how-to-delete-sms-from-inbox-in-android-programmatically   Thanks

User · Answer

Just have a look at this link  it will give you a brief idea of the logic   https   gist github com 5178e798d9a00cac4ddb  Just call the deleteSMS   function with some delay  because there is a slight difference between the time of notification and when it is saved actually      for details have a look at this link also           http   htmlcoderhelper com how-to-delete-sms-from-inbox-in-android-programmatically   Thanks

User · Answer

Using suggestions from others  I think I got it to work    using SDK v1 R2   It s not perfect  since i need to delete the entire conversation  but for our purposes  it s a sufficient compromise as we will at least know all messages will be looked at and verified   Our flow will probably need to then listen for the message  capture for the message we want  do a query to get the thread id of the recently inbounded message and do the delete   call   In our Activity   Uri uriSms   Uri parse  content   sms inbox    Cursor c   getContentResolver   query uriSms  null null null null    int id   c getInt 0   int thread id   c getInt 1     get the thread id getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms conversations     thread id  null null     Note   I wasn t able to do a delete on content   sms inbox  or content   sms all   Looks like the thread takes precedence  which makes sense  but the error message only emboldened me to be angrier   When trying the delete on sms inbox  or sms all   you will probably get   java lang IllegalArgumentException  Unknown URL     at com android providers telephony SmsProvider delete SmsProvider java 510      at android content ContentProvider Transport delete ContentProvider java 149      at android content ContentProviderNative onTransact ContentProviderNative java 149    For additional reference too  make sure to put this into your manifest for your intent receiver    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver  gt       lt intent-filter gt           lt action android name  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED  gt  lt  action gt       lt  intent-filter gt   lt  receiver gt    Note the receiver tag does not look like this    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver       android permission  android permission RECEIVE SMS  gt    When I had those settings  android gave me some crazy permissions exceptions that didn t allow android phone to hand off the received SMS to my intent   So  DO NOT put that RECEIVE SMS permission attribute in your intent   Hopefully someone wiser than me can tell me why that was the case

User · Answer

You ll need to find the URI of the message   But once you do I think you should be able to android content ContentResolver delete      it   Here s some more info

User · Answer

So  I had a play  and it is possible to delete a received SMS  Unfortunately it s not all plain sailing     I have a receiver that picks up on incoming SMS messages   Now the way the Android SMS incoming routing works is that the piece of code responsible for decoding the messages sends a Broadcast  it uses the sendBroadcast   method - which unfortunately is NOT the version that lets you simply call abortBroadcast    whenever a message arrives   My receiver may or may not be called before the Systems SMS receiver  and in any case the received broadcast has no property that could reflect the  id column in the SMS table   However  not being one to be stopped that easily I post myself  via a Handler  a delayed message with the SmsMessage as the attached object    I suppose you could post yourself a Runnable too      handler sendMessageDelayed handler obtainMessage MSG DELETE SMS  msg   2500     The delay is there to ensure that by the time the message arrives all of the Broadcast receivers will have finished their stuff and the message will be safely ensconced in the SMS table   When the message  or Runnable  is received here is what I do   case MSG DELETE SMS      Uri deleteUri   Uri parse  content   sms        SmsMessage msg    SmsMessage message obj       getContentResolver   delete deleteUri   address   and date     new String    msg getOriginatingAddress    String valueOf msg getTimestampMillis         I use the originating address and timestamp field to ensure a very high probability of deleting ONLY the message I am interested in   If I wanted to be even more paranoid I could include the msg getMessageBody   content as part of the query   Yes  the message IS deleted  hooray    Unfortunately the notification bar is not updated     When you open up the notification area you ll see the message sitting there for you    but when you tap on it to open it up - it s gone   To me  this isn t quite good enough - I want all trace of the message to disappear - I don t want the user to think there is a TXT when there isn t  that would only cause bug reports    Internally in the OS the phone calls MessagingNotification updateNewMessageIndicator Context   but I that class has been hidden from the API  and I did not want to replicate all of that code just for the sake of making the indicator accurate

User · Answer

Try this i am 100  sure this will work fine -   just put conversion address here for delete whole conversion by address don t forgot to add read write permission in mainfest  Here is Code   String address  put address only    Cursor c   getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   query Uri parse  content   sms     new String       id    thread id    address    person    date    body     null  null  null    try       while  c moveToNext              int id   c getInt 0           String address   c getString 2           if address equals address            getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms     id   null  null            catch Exception e

User · Answer

Use this function to delete specific message thread or modify according your needs   public void delete thread String thread        Cursor c   getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   query    Uri parse  content   sms    new String          id    thread id    address    person    date   body     null  null  null     try     while  c moveToNext                 int id   c getInt 0       String address   c getString 2       if  address equals thread                   getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   delete       Uri parse  content   sms     id   null  null                     catch  Exception e             Call this function simply below   delete thread  54263726     you can pass any number or thread id here   Don t forget to add android mainfest permission below    lt uses-permission android name  android permission WRITE SMS   gt

User · Answer

You ll need to find the URI of the message   But once you do I think you should be able to android content ContentResolver delete      it   Here s some more info

User · Answer

I couldn t get it to work using dmyung s solution  it gave me an exception when getting either the message id or thread id   In the end  I ve used the following method to get the thread id   private long getThreadId Context context        long threadId   0       String SMS READ COLUMN    read       String WHERE CONDITION   SMS READ COLUMN       0       String SORT ORDER    date DESC       int count   0       Cursor cursor   context getContentResolver   query                      SMS INBOX CONTENT URI            new String       id    thread id    address    person    date    body                         WHERE CONDITION                      null                      SORT ORDER        if  cursor    null                try                   count   cursor getCount                    if  count  gt  0                        cursor moveToFirst                        threadId   cursor getLong 1                                                                 finally                       cursor close                              return threadId      Then I could delete it  However  as Doug said  the notification is still there  even the message is displayed when opening the notification panel  Only when tapping the message I could actually see that it s empty    So I guess the only way this would work would be to actually somehow intercept the SMS before it s delivered to the system  before it even reaches the inbox  However  I highly doubt this is doable  Please correct me if I m wrong

User · Answer

Now abortBroadcast    method can be used for restricting the incoming message to go to inbox

User · Answer

Using suggestions from others  I think I got it to work    using SDK v1 R2   It s not perfect  since i need to delete the entire conversation  but for our purposes  it s a sufficient compromise as we will at least know all messages will be looked at and verified   Our flow will probably need to then listen for the message  capture for the message we want  do a query to get the thread id of the recently inbounded message and do the delete   call   In our Activity   Uri uriSms   Uri parse  content   sms inbox    Cursor c   getContentResolver   query uriSms  null null null null    int id   c getInt 0   int thread id   c getInt 1     get the thread id getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms conversations     thread id  null null     Note   I wasn t able to do a delete on content   sms inbox  or content   sms all   Looks like the thread takes precedence  which makes sense  but the error message only emboldened me to be angrier   When trying the delete on sms inbox  or sms all   you will probably get   java lang IllegalArgumentException  Unknown URL     at com android providers telephony SmsProvider delete SmsProvider java 510      at android content ContentProvider Transport delete ContentProvider java 149      at android content ContentProviderNative onTransact ContentProviderNative java 149    For additional reference too  make sure to put this into your manifest for your intent receiver    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver  gt       lt intent-filter gt           lt action android name  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED  gt  lt  action gt       lt  intent-filter gt   lt  receiver gt    Note the receiver tag does not look like this    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver       android permission  android permission RECEIVE SMS  gt    When I had those settings  android gave me some crazy permissions exceptions that didn t allow android phone to hand off the received SMS to my intent   So  DO NOT put that RECEIVE SMS permission attribute in your intent   Hopefully someone wiser than me can tell me why that was the case

User · Answer

As of Android 1 6  incoming SMS message broadcasts  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED  are delivered as an  ordered broadcast      meaning that you can tell the system which components should receive the broadcast first    This means that you can intercept incoming message and abort broadcasting of it further on   In your AndroidManifest xml file  make sure to have priority set to highest    lt receiver android name   receiver SMSReceiver  android enabled  true  gt       lt intent-filter android priority  1000  gt           lt action android name  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED    gt       lt  intent-filter gt   lt  receiver gt    In your BroadcastReceiver  in onReceive   method  before performing anything with your message  simply call abortBroadcast     EDIT  As of KitKat  this doesn t work anymore apparently   EDIT2  More info on how to do it on KitKat here   Delete SMS from android on 4 4 4  Affected rows   0 Zero   after deleted

User · Answer

You just try the following code It will delete all the sms that are all in phone  Received or Sent   Uri uri   Uri parse  content   sms     ContentResolver contentResolver   getContentResolver     Cursor cursor   contentResolver query uri  null  null  null    null      while  cursor moveToNext        long thread id   cursor getLong 1    Uri thread   Uri parse  content   sms conversations        thread id    getContentResolver   delete thread  null  null

User · Answer

You ll need to find the URI of the message   But once you do I think you should be able to android content ContentResolver delete      it   Here s some more info

User · Answer

As of Android 1 6  incoming SMS message broadcasts  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED  are delivered as an  ordered broadcast      meaning that you can tell the system which components should receive the broadcast first    This means that you can intercept incoming message and abort broadcasting of it further on   In your AndroidManifest xml file  make sure to have priority set to highest    lt receiver android name   receiver SMSReceiver  android enabled  true  gt       lt intent-filter android priority  1000  gt           lt action android name  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED    gt       lt  intent-filter gt   lt  receiver gt    In your BroadcastReceiver  in onReceive   method  before performing anything with your message  simply call abortBroadcast     EDIT  As of KitKat  this doesn t work anymore apparently   EDIT2  More info on how to do it on KitKat here   Delete SMS from android on 4 4 4  Affected rows   0 Zero   after deleted

User · Answer

Now abortBroadcast    method can be used for restricting the incoming message to go to inbox

User · Answer

Use one of this method to select the last received SMS and delete it  here in this case i am getting the top most sms and going to delete using thread and id value of sms    try       Uri uri   Uri parse  content   sms inbox        Cursor c   v getContext   getContentResolver   query uri  null  null  null  null       int i   c getCount         if  c moveToFirst              catch  CursorIndexOutOfBoundsException ee        Toast makeText v getContext     Error      ee getMessage    Toast LENGTH LONG  show

User · Answer

Its better to use the  id and thread id to delete a message   Thread id is something assigned to the messages coming from same user  So  if you use only thread id  all the messages from the sender will get deleted   If u use the combination of  id  thread id  then it will delete the exact message you are looking to delete   Uri thread   Uri parse   content   sms    int deleted   contentResolver delete  thread   thread id   and  id     new String   String valueOf thread id   String valueOf id

User · Answer

public boolean deleteSms String smsId        boolean isSmsDeleted   false      try           mActivity getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms     smsId   null  null           isSmsDeleted   true         catch  Exception ex            isSmsDeleted   false            return isSmsDeleted      use this permission in AndroidManifiest   lt uses-permission android name  android permission WRITE SMS   gt

User · Answer

Its better to use the  id and thread id to delete a message   Thread id is something assigned to the messages coming from same user  So  if you use only thread id  all the messages from the sender will get deleted   If u use the combination of  id  thread id  then it will delete the exact message you are looking to delete   Uri thread   Uri parse   content   sms    int deleted   contentResolver delete  thread   thread id   and  id     new String   String valueOf thread id   String valueOf id

User · Answer

Try this i am 100  sure this will work fine -   just put conversion address here for delete whole conversion by address don t forgot to add read write permission in mainfest  Here is Code   String address  put address only    Cursor c   getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   query Uri parse  content   sms     new String       id    thread id    address    person    date    body     null  null  null    try       while  c moveToNext              int id   c getInt 0           String address   c getString 2           if address equals address            getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms     id   null  null            catch Exception e

User · Answer

Override protected void onListItemClick ListView l  View v  int position  long id        SMSData sms    SMSData  getListAdapter   getItem position       Toast makeText getApplicationContext    sms getBody                Toast LENGTH LONG  show        Toast makeText getApplicationContext    sms getNumber                Toast LENGTH LONG  show         deleteSms sms getId         public boolean deleteSms String smsId        boolean isSmsDeleted   false      try           MainActivity this getContentResolver   delete                  Uri parse  content   sms     smsId   null  null           isSmsDeleted   true         catch  Exception ex            isSmsDeleted   false            return isSmsDeleted

User · Answer

You just try the following code It will delete all the sms that are all in phone  Received or Sent   Uri uri   Uri parse  content   sms     ContentResolver contentResolver   getContentResolver     Cursor cursor   contentResolver query uri  null  null  null    null      while  cursor moveToNext        long thread id   cursor getLong 1    Uri thread   Uri parse  content   sms conversations        thread id    getContentResolver   delete thread  null  null

User · Answer

Use this function to delete specific message thread or modify according your needs   public void delete thread String thread        Cursor c   getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   query    Uri parse  content   sms    new String          id    thread id    address    person    date   body     null  null  null     try     while  c moveToNext                 int id   c getInt 0       String address   c getString 2       if  address equals thread                   getApplicationContext   getContentResolver   delete       Uri parse  content   sms     id   null  null                     catch  Exception e             Call this function simply below   delete thread  54263726     you can pass any number or thread id here   Don t forget to add android mainfest permission below    lt uses-permission android name  android permission WRITE SMS   gt

User · Answer

Just turn off notifications for the default sms app  Process your own notifications for all text messages

User · Answer

I couldn t get it to work using dmyung s solution  it gave me an exception when getting either the message id or thread id   In the end  I ve used the following method to get the thread id   private long getThreadId Context context        long threadId   0       String SMS READ COLUMN    read       String WHERE CONDITION   SMS READ COLUMN       0       String SORT ORDER    date DESC       int count   0       Cursor cursor   context getContentResolver   query                      SMS INBOX CONTENT URI            new String       id    thread id    address    person    date    body                         WHERE CONDITION                      null                      SORT ORDER        if  cursor    null                try                   count   cursor getCount                    if  count  gt  0                        cursor moveToFirst                        threadId   cursor getLong 1                                                                 finally                       cursor close                              return threadId      Then I could delete it  However  as Doug said  the notification is still there  even the message is displayed when opening the notification panel  Only when tapping the message I could actually see that it s empty    So I guess the only way this would work would be to actually somehow intercept the SMS before it s delivered to the system  before it even reaches the inbox  However  I highly doubt this is doable  Please correct me if I m wrong

User · Answer

Override protected void onListItemClick ListView l  View v  int position  long id        SMSData sms    SMSData  getListAdapter   getItem position       Toast makeText getApplicationContext    sms getBody                Toast LENGTH LONG  show        Toast makeText getApplicationContext    sms getNumber                Toast LENGTH LONG  show         deleteSms sms getId         public boolean deleteSms String smsId        boolean isSmsDeleted   false      try           MainActivity this getContentResolver   delete                  Uri parse  content   sms     smsId   null  null           isSmsDeleted   true         catch  Exception ex            isSmsDeleted   false            return isSmsDeleted

User · Answer

Just turn off notifications for the default sms app  Process your own notifications for all text messages

User · Answer

Also update the manifest file as to delete an sms you need write permissions    lt uses-permission android name  android permission WRITE SMS   gt

User · Answer

You ll need to find the URI of the message   But once you do I think you should be able to android content ContentResolver delete      it   Here s some more info

User · Answer

Using suggestions from others  I think I got it to work    using SDK v1 R2   It s not perfect  since i need to delete the entire conversation  but for our purposes  it s a sufficient compromise as we will at least know all messages will be looked at and verified   Our flow will probably need to then listen for the message  capture for the message we want  do a query to get the thread id of the recently inbounded message and do the delete   call   In our Activity   Uri uriSms   Uri parse  content   sms inbox    Cursor c   getContentResolver   query uriSms  null null null null    int id   c getInt 0   int thread id   c getInt 1     get the thread id getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms conversations     thread id  null null     Note   I wasn t able to do a delete on content   sms inbox  or content   sms all   Looks like the thread takes precedence  which makes sense  but the error message only emboldened me to be angrier   When trying the delete on sms inbox  or sms all   you will probably get   java lang IllegalArgumentException  Unknown URL     at com android providers telephony SmsProvider delete SmsProvider java 510      at android content ContentProvider Transport delete ContentProvider java 149      at android content ContentProviderNative onTransact ContentProviderNative java 149    For additional reference too  make sure to put this into your manifest for your intent receiver    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver  gt       lt intent-filter gt           lt action android name  android provider Telephony SMS RECEIVED  gt  lt  action gt       lt  intent-filter gt   lt  receiver gt    Note the receiver tag does not look like this    lt receiver android name   intent MySmsReceiver       android permission  android permission RECEIVE SMS  gt    When I had those settings  android gave me some crazy permissions exceptions that didn t allow android phone to hand off the received SMS to my intent   So  DO NOT put that RECEIVE SMS permission attribute in your intent   Hopefully someone wiser than me can tell me why that was the case

User · Answer

Use one of this method to select the last received SMS and delete it  here in this case i am getting the top most sms and going to delete using thread and id value of sms    try       Uri uri   Uri parse  content   sms inbox        Cursor c   v getContext   getContentResolver   query uri  null  null  null  null       int i   c getCount         if  c moveToFirst              catch  CursorIndexOutOfBoundsException ee        Toast makeText v getContext     Error      ee getMessage    Toast LENGTH LONG  show

User · Answer

I think this can not be perfectly done for the time being. There are 2 basic problems:

How can you make sure the sms is already in the inbox when you try to delete it?
Notice that SMS_RECEIVED is not an ordered broadcast.
So dmyung's solution is completely trying one's luck; even the delay in Doug's answer is not a guarantee.
The SmsProvider is not thread safe.(refer to http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=2916#c0)
The fact that more than one clients are requesting delete and insert in it at the same time will cause data corruption or even immediate Runtime Exception.

User · Answer

So  I had a play  and it is possible to delete a received SMS  Unfortunately it s not all plain sailing     I have a receiver that picks up on incoming SMS messages   Now the way the Android SMS incoming routing works is that the piece of code responsible for decoding the messages sends a Broadcast  it uses the sendBroadcast   method - which unfortunately is NOT the version that lets you simply call abortBroadcast    whenever a message arrives   My receiver may or may not be called before the Systems SMS receiver  and in any case the received broadcast has no property that could reflect the  id column in the SMS table   However  not being one to be stopped that easily I post myself  via a Handler  a delayed message with the SmsMessage as the attached object    I suppose you could post yourself a Runnable too      handler sendMessageDelayed handler obtainMessage MSG DELETE SMS  msg   2500     The delay is there to ensure that by the time the message arrives all of the Broadcast receivers will have finished their stuff and the message will be safely ensconced in the SMS table   When the message  or Runnable  is received here is what I do   case MSG DELETE SMS      Uri deleteUri   Uri parse  content   sms        SmsMessage msg    SmsMessage message obj       getContentResolver   delete deleteUri   address   and date     new String    msg getOriginatingAddress    String valueOf msg getTimestampMillis         I use the originating address and timestamp field to ensure a very high probability of deleting ONLY the message I am interested in   If I wanted to be even more paranoid I could include the msg getMessageBody   content as part of the query   Yes  the message IS deleted  hooray    Unfortunately the notification bar is not updated     When you open up the notification area you ll see the message sitting there for you    but when you tap on it to open it up - it s gone   To me  this isn t quite good enough - I want all trace of the message to disappear - I don t want the user to think there is a TXT when there isn t  that would only cause bug reports    Internally in the OS the phone calls MessagingNotification updateNewMessageIndicator Context   but I that class has been hidden from the API  and I did not want to replicate all of that code just for the sake of making the indicator accurate

User · Answer

Sample for deleting one SMS  not conversation   getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms conversations     threadID     id       new String   id

User · Answer

public boolean deleteSms String smsId        boolean isSmsDeleted   false      try           mActivity getContentResolver   delete Uri parse  content   sms     smsId   null  null           isSmsDeleted   true         catch  Exception ex            isSmsDeleted   false            return isSmsDeleted      use this permission in AndroidManifiest   lt uses-permission android name  android permission WRITE SMS   gt

[android] How to delete an SMS from the inbox in Android programmatically?

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