Beginning Android

SMS MESSAGING

SMS messaging is one of the main killer applications on a mobile device today. Any mobile phone (or devices) you buy today should have at least SMS messaging capabilities, and nearly all users of any age know how to send and receive such messages. Android comes with a built-in SMS application that enables you to send and receive SMS messages. However, in some cases you might want to integrate SMS capabilities into your own Android application. For example, you might want to write an application that automatically sends an SMS message at regular time intervals. This would be useful, for example, if you wanted to track the location of your kids — simply give them an Android device that sends out an SMS message containing its geographical location every 30 minutes. Now you know if they really went to the library after school! (Of course, that would also mean you would have to pay the fees incurred for sending all those SMS messages . . .)

This section describes how you can programmatically send and receive SMS messages in your Android applications. The good news for Android developers is that you don’t need a real device to test SMS messaging: The free Android emulator provides that capability.

Sending SMS Messages Programmatically

You will first learn how to send SMS messages programmatically from within your application. Using this approach, your application can automatically send an SMS message to a recipient without user intervention. The following Try It Out shows ...