SMS Received in my SMS app and in Hangouts, although I call abortBroadcast()

Question

I have an SMS blocker Android application developed myself which was working quite well capturing all the spams until recently Google updated its Hangouts app to work with SMSs.

The Problem: SMS is getting captured by both my app and hangouts! Even though the message is blocked by my app and stored in its private database, it is also present in the hangouts app and thus in the stock Messaging app at the same time.

Seems the abortBroadcast() isn't working any more. Everything was working perfectly before the Hangouts update.

I had also tried fiddling with android:priority but in vain.

This is on-topic. OP is asking why another app is conflicting with their usage of the Android APIs, and what can be done to fix it. — interjay, Nov 18 '13 at 17:51
Look at this, http://stackoverflow.com/questions/20021492/enabling-sms-support-in-hangouts-2-0-breaks-the-broadcastreceiver-of-sms-receive — oracleruiz, Nov 20 '13 at 16:44

score 7 · Answer 1 · answered Nov 17 '13 at 06:33

7

Hangouts uses the maximum possible priority (999 per the Intent-Filter docs) and therefore you cannot abort it on <4.4 releases. On 4.4+, only the default SMS app (blog post with details) can receive SMS notifications - users would need to set your app as the default SMS app for your app to function correctly (although it should function as expected if that happens).

answered Nov 17 '13 at 06:33

ianhanniballake

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I have exactly the same problem. Setting the same priority (999) to our app would fix the problem or it won't? – oracleruiz Nov 18 '13 at 16:10
1

@oracleruiz - the ordering for matching priorities is random so you won't get consistent results. – ianhanniballake Nov 18 '13 at 16:53
Could be possible to disable Hangouts notifications for certains incoming SMS? – oracleruiz Nov 22 '13 at 18:30
@ianhanniballake - you mean I just can't block an sms in <4.4(devices with Hangouts installed)? Not even if i give mine the priority of 999? – vineetdecoded Jan 12 '14 at 06:00
@oracleruiz - I dont want my users to disable Hangouts because then it will become a limitation for my app :) – vineetdecoded Jan 12 '14 at 06:02
I discovered even a Hangouts version with priority `MAX_INT` - no way out in this case. – Trinimon Feb 13 '14 at 13:27

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 19 '14 at 06:50

When you register receiver, set priority of filter to INTEGER.MAX_VALUE. Now abortBroadcast() will work;

    receiver = new HightPrioritySmsReceiver();
    IntentFilter filter = new IntentFilter("android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED");
    filter.setPriority(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
    registerReceiver(receiver, filter);

SMS Received in my SMS app and in Hangouts, although I call abortBroadcast()

2 Answers2

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