Run another application as soon as you receive an SMS

Question

I need to call an app already installed on my mobile as soon as I receive an SMS from a certain number.

All the code of this application is already ready, but I do not know how to call it from this message.

Shall I wear Intent or something like that?

Answer 1

Using a BroadcastReceiver it is possible to intercept the messages that are arriving on the device.

First you will need the following permission in your AndroidManifest.xml, in this case I put to increase the priority this will help if you have another application (third party) that captures SMS, so it will have privilege at the time of receiving:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />

<receiver android:name="com.example.smsinterceptor.MessageReceiver" android:exported="true">
    <intent-filter android:priority="999" >
        <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED"/>
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

BroadcastReceiver MessageReceiver.java, here in the receiver I get the message and all the details through the extras. Just be careful that if your message is composed by more than one SMS you will have to deal with; in the code below I only handle one message. Also after detecting that is the message I want I use the abortBroadcast(), this will prevent other applications from capturing that same message (as long as the priority is ok on manifest):

public class MessageReceiver extends BroadcastReceiver {
    private String TAG = MessageReceiver.class.getSimpleName();
    private String NUMBER_FILTER = "3784";

    public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
        Log.e(TAG, "Receiver activated");

        Bundle extraContent = intent.getExtras();
        Object[] messagePdus = (Object[]) extraContent.get("pdus");
        SmsMessage smsMessage = SmsMessage.createFromPdu((byte[]) messagePdus[0]);

        if (smsMessage.getOriginatingAddress().endsWith(NUMBER_FILTER)) {
            Log.e(TAG, "Message intercepted: "+ smsMessage.getMessageBody());
            abortBroadcast();
        }
    }
}