Share My Creation AlwaysSMS

AlwaysSMS keeps you in touch with your close ones when it matters!
Sometimes, you just have to put the phone on silent. An important meeting, during class, during a presentation and so on. But, what happens if there is an emergency? If the kids has had an accident at school, if your wife is about to give birth, if there is a fire at your home or if there is a disaster warning and you need to gather your family? That meeting isn't more important than that, is it?

AlwaysSMS allows you to select contacts in your list which are trusted. In an emergency, these persons, only, can then send SMS with an exclamation point (!) as the first character. Regardless of if your phone is set to silent or not, it will still sound a loud siren and vibrate.

As you select who is allowed to send emergency messages to you, it won't be abused (and, if it is, just uncheck them from the list of allowed senders).

While the sender does not need to have any special app installed, they just need to remember to start the SMS with an exclamation point, it's still recommended to install it on all phones in the family, so you always can reach each other in an emergency. Prepare for emergency now, you can't prepare retroactively.

AlwaysSMS only runs when an SMS is recieved, so it will not drain your battery.

Full version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.troberg.alwayssms
Free version: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.troberg.alwayssmsfree
 

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Cableguy

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This seems quite interesting... But a siren sound in the middle of a class or meeting is quite stressful... A standard notification would be more subtle and pro-efficient... Perhaps with a "notify until dismissed" function...
 

Troberg

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It is meant for emergencies, where such details as disturbing a meeting or a class is not important. It's for situations where the message should not be dismissed or read later, no matter what.
 

Cableguy

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I understood that, still an imposed siren sound is something that would put me off of your APP.
 

hookshy

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I would change your PressedDrawable variable ... do not look nice when you scroll contacts to blink all the time ..do a simle search over all modules and you will find : pressed drawable
I guess the easiest to use app.

I do like your motivation : If you like AlwasysSMS free then buy pro version !
How are you reading your contacts ?
 

Troberg

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I might add a setting allowing for another sound to be selected, but the next week or two, I have other things to do.

I'll have a look at PressedDrawable, but I can't see any blinking on my device, so it'll be a bugger to fix. Edit: Fixed! Will wait a couple of days before I update Google Play, though, in case I find more things to fix.

As for reading contacts, I simply use the Contacts2 object (in the Phone object).

This is the sample code in the documentation, it wasn't hard to adapt for my use:

B4X:
Dim Contacts2 As Contacts2
Dim listOfContacts As List
listOfContacts = Contacts2.FindByName("John", False, True, True)
For i = 0 To listOfContacts.Size - 1
    Dim Contact As Contact
    Contact = listOfContacts.Get(i)
    Log(Contact) 'will print the fields to the LogCat
    Dim photo As Bitmap
    photo = Contact.GetPhoto
    If photo  Null Then Activity.SetBackgroundImage(photo)
    Dim emails As Map
    emails = Contact.GetEmails
    If emails.Size > 0 Then Log("Email addresses: " & emails)
    Dim phones As Map
    phones = Contact.GetPhones
    If phones.Size > 0 Then Log("Phone numbers: " & phones)
Next

Thanks for the input, guys! It's much appreciated.
 
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Beja

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Is it possible that you rely on the caller ID number, instead of the exclamation mark? I thought this way you
completely free the other party from any special actions.
 

Troberg

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Longtime User
It would be possible, but I want a clear separation between ordinary SMS messages which are suspected to obey ordinary "do not disturb rules" and the emergency SMS messages that should always get through, no matter what is going on. I don't want a "Can you pick up some milk on the way home"-message to interrupt an important meeting, even if it's from a trusted person.
 
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