Android - Disable text message notifications programmatically

Question

I'm working on an application that handles text messages. This is a personal application and I do not plan to release it, however it's basically going to allow me to share my text messages (and phone number) between numerous devices through the internet. It's a fun learning project too as a first application, and I've done quite a lot.

However the annoying part is the text-message popup that my device gets when receiving a message. I love it when I'm using the device, and I could always just go into the options and disable the popup when I'm not planning on using the device, but I'm a very, very forgetful person and turning it back on wont always happen. Then I'll never reply to messages.

Basically I want to programmatically interrupt (or not even notify) my default messaging application of the text message, however I still want it to be logged in my messaging history. So the message can't just be "discarded". This should only happen of-course while my applications service is running.

I've been searching through the android API for quite some time and I just can't seem to figure this out, is it possible and if so can you link me to the proper place in the API to begin?

Answer 1

Basically I want to programmatically interrupt (or not even notify) my default messaging application of the text message...

This isn't possible.

Assuming by "interrupt" you mean to prevent the default SMS app from issuing its Notification, you can no more do this with the default app than you could with any other app that you don't control.

Additionally, as the default SMS app responds to the SMS_DELIVER_ACTION broadcast, and it is the only app to receive this broadcast, it wouldn't be possible to "not...notify" the default app of an incoming message. Your app wouldn't even have a chance to abort the broadcast, even if it were possible to do so.

(In versions prior to KitKat, it was oftentimes possible to register a Receiver with a high priority for the SMS_RECEIVED_ACTION broadcast, and then abort the broadcast before the native SMS app received it. This is what rajan ks's answer refers to.)

...however I still want it to be logged in my messaging history.

The default SMS app is responsible for writing all incoming messages to the Provider. Even if you were able to prevent the default app from receiving the incoming message, your app would then have to write the message itself. This isn't really possible, either, as the default app is the only one with standard write access to the Provider.