Provide Contact Info For Unknown Number

Question

You know when an unknown number calls you and instead of the number you see the name of the company which is actually calling you. As far as I know Android gets this information through some google services.

What should I do if I want to make an app, that does the same thing? If an unknown number calls you, I want Android to ask my app to provide info for this number.

My search found this in the documentation. Here is said:

The most important use case for Directories is search. A Directory provider is expected to support at least Contacts.CONTENT_FILTER_URI. If a Directory provider wants to participate in email and phone lookup functionalities, it should also implement CommonDataKinds.Email.CONTENT_FILTER_URI and CommonDataKinds.Phone.CONTENT_FILTER_URI.

As far as I understand, I need to implement a ContactsContract.Directory. I tried something but I can't get it to work.

Can you tell me what should I do, can you refer me to a nice explanation of how contact info providing works? A nice example for this Directory would be nice too.

EDIT: What I tried - I created a sample app, created my own provider and registered it in the manifest. I added the required meta data, as shown in the documentation:

AndroidManifest.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
          package="com.sample.contactprovidertest">

    <application
        android:allowBackup="true"
        android:icon="@mipmap/ic_launcher"
        android:label="@string/app_name"
        android:supportsRtl="true"
        android:theme="@style/AppTheme">
        <activity android:name=".MainActivity">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN"/>

                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER"/>
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

        <provider
            android:authorities="com.sample.contactprovidertest"
            android:name=".MyProvider"
            android:enabled="true"
            android:exported="true">
            <meta-data
                android:name="android.content.ContactDirectory"
                android:value="true"/>
        </provider>
    </application>

</manifest>

MyProvider.java

public class MyProvider extends ContentProvider {

    private static final String TAG = "MyProvider";

    @Override
    public boolean onCreate() {

        return true;
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public Cursor query(Uri uri,
                        String[] projection,
                        String selection,
                        String[] selectionArgs,
                        String sortOrder) {
        // this is never called
        Toast.makeText(getContext(), "it works!", Toast.LENGTH_SHORT).show();
        if (ContactsContract.Directory.CONTENT_URI.equals(uri)) {
            Log.d(TAG, "query: " + uri);
        }

        return null;
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public String getType(Uri uri) {
        return null;
    }

    @Nullable
    @Override
    public Uri insert(Uri uri, ContentValues values) {
        return null;
    }

    @Override
    public int delete(Uri uri, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }

    @Override
    public int update(Uri uri, ContentValues values, String selection, String[] selectionArgs) {
        return 0;
    }
}

Answer 1

From the docs you've linked to:

The client interacts with a directory via Contacts Provider by supplying an optional directory= query parameter.

When the Contacts Provider receives the request, it transforms the URI and forwards the request to the corresponding directory content provider

When the incoming-call app launches as a response to an incoming call, it queries the Contacts Provider for local contacts, and also might provide the directory= param for Google's Global Address List as a fallback search if not found locally.

I don't think there's a way to ask the incoming call app to ask for your directory as well.

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

What all caller-id apps do, show a popup dialog on top of the incoming call screen. See How to create always-top fullscreen overlay activity in Android

and read online about LayoutParams.TYPE_SYSTEM_ALERT