Not able to read Service messages using READ_SMS permission android

Question

We have an Android app where we are trying to read all the messages available in the phone. We are using READ_SMS permission but we are not able to read service messages in this way. By service mesaage I mean the messages obtained from different companies. For example I have messages in my phone from Amazon and Paytm but I am not able to load these while loading messages. I don't understand the issue. Is there any default filter that android is applying when the SMS get loaded or is there any issue with the code?

I use the following code to load all SMS:

private ArrayList load_sms(){
    ContentResolver contentResolver = getContentResolver();
    ArrayList<String> smsList = new ArrayList<>();
    Cursor smsInboxCursor = 
        contentResolver.query(Uri.parse("content://sms/inbox"), 
        null,null,null,null);
    int indexBody = smsInboxCursor.getColumnIndex("body");
    int indexAddress = smsInboxCursor.getColumnIndex("address");
    if(indexBody < 0 || !smsInboxCursor.moveToFirst())
        return null;
    do{
         smsList.add("SMS From: " + 
         smsInboxCursor.getString(indexAddress) + " \nMessage: "
            + smsInboxCursor.getString(indexBody));
      }while  (smsInboxCursor.moveToNext());

    return smsList;
}

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 06 '18 at 10:55

So, the solution was quite vague. I have a MI phone and found that MI blocks service messages. To view those SMS' I had to give the permission manually from settings as given in this link: Can't read service messages in Redmi Note 3

When I ran my app on some other phone like in Samsung, I was able to view all the messages.

Not able to read Service messages using READ_SMS permission android

1 Answers1