Database Info

Is it possible to auto delete SMS?

Let's say that a friend of mine sends texts to someone that he wouldn't want my, (erm his) wife to find out about.
Is there an SMS manager that will auto delete all texts to and from a certain number at 5pm, for example, each day?
My friend will be very grateful for any ideas.

look for a firewall app it wont delete them but it will hide them.

Not exactly a common request, so probably not.
Should be easy enough to knock up an app to iterate through the messaging inbox and delete anything from number x. So if you know VB/C#/C++, or care to put in a few days learning, it should be an easy enough project.
Who knows, you could even profit from it, and we could see AffairCoverup Pro(TM) released in MS' new app store.

Yeeaaaah. ACP(TM) We have a title. I just need to learn to program...

Clean sms periodically
Install SMS Cleaner Free or Pro by CARROT APP in android market.

iyazahmad said:
Install SMS Cleaner Free or Pro by CARROT APP in android market.
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cool app ! I was almost sure that was not possible to do that !

SMS Organizer - should work for you
Try SMS Organizer ( search for SMS Organizer by trailblaze in google play store)
It can auto delete sms when the sms sender matches some predefined number or string.
Basically you can set 'rules' where you mention that if the incoming/outgoing sms macthes certain conditions (say the sender is so and so,or the message text has a certain keyword), auto delete/move it to a custom folder.
Great app to organize and manage your sms inbox bye the way.

Possible for auto text delete app kinda like mem killer

I would be willing to start a bounty for a auto text delete app... like delete texts for each person after 100 texts... is this possible?

Its not auto, but try SMS Quick delete

No Offense. But Its not that hard to Delete Text Messages.

I agree with this post. I think getting sms quick delete to do a nightly scheduled delete would be amazing.

ebartolon said:
No Offense. But Its not that hard to Delete Text Messages.
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I think youre missing the point.
I agree, btw something like this would be great. Either running to deleted messages by scheduled task and or delete message based on a specified count.

ebartolon said:
No Offense. But Its not that hard to Delete Text Messages.
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It's not that hard to mail a letter via postal service, but I'd still rather email.

I think it's a great idea, you could adjust it to purge anything over x number of messages or older than x number of days.
I'd love to see this happen.

OP I think you may have a better chance by emailing SMS Quick Delete because they already have the app started...

I haven't looked into what APIs the SDK offers for dealing with text messages, but just thinking this through real quick, this shouldn't be a hard app to write.
When I get a text, it appears in both the stock app and in Handcent. This indicates that the messages are stored in a central location. The existence of Handcent and Chomp also make it clear that third party apps can access and manipulate this storage.
Performing tasks on a schedule is easy to code.
What sort of features would people like to see in this? Delete by age? Delete by count? Exempt certain contacts from having their messages deleted? etc...
I've been looking for an idea for a simple app to write to get more familiar with coding for the Android environment. If there's interest in something like this, it seems like as good a project as any to practice with.

subliminalurge said:
I haven't looked into what APIs the SDK offers for dealing with text messages, but just thinking this through real quick, this shouldn't be a hard app to write.
When I get a text, it appears in both the stock app and in Handcent. This indicates that the messages are stored in a central location. The existence of Handcent and Chomp also make it clear that third party apps can access and manipulate this storage.
Performing tasks on a schedule is easy to code.
What sort of features would people like to see in this? Delete by age? Delete by count? Exempt certain contacts from having their messages deleted? etc...
I've been looking for an idea for a simple app to write to get more familiar with coding for the Android environment. If there's interest in something like this, it seems like as good a project as any to practice with.
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Issue is
1. You want to delete it when no one is sending you messages as to delete one you missed which would make you think that scheduled at night is best but...
2. Either count or time (i.e. middle of the night schedule) can screw you up if you get a message and the app then deletes it before you are able to check your messages...
I think it could be anything if you could prevent the deletion of new texts then I guess it wouldn't matter as much.

pipskicks said:
Issue is
1. You want to delete it when no one is sending you messages as to delete one you missed which would make you think that scheduled at night is best but...
2. Either count or time (i.e. middle of the night schedule) can screw you up if you get a message and the app then deletes it before you are able to check your messages...
I think it could be anything if you could prevent the deletion of new texts then I guess it wouldn't matter as much.
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I see what you're saying, but if it's properly designed, neither one should really be an issue. If, for example, it's set to auto-delete anything over 30 days old, well, frankly if it's been sitting on your phone for 30 days and you haven't read it yet, then either it wasn't important, or you've been sitting in jail and likely have more important things to worry about.
Same with going by number of messages, you'd want the threshold set at a level where there's not really much chance of you not getting to it before it gets deleted.
Ideally, these thresholds would be user configurable. For me, deleting anything over 100 texts would easily retain a month's worth, but for my daughter, it would be blasting stuff that was only a few hours old. (I've honest to god seen this girl sleep with her phone in her hands, thumbs never leaving typing position....)
That said, it would definitely be a good idea to never, ever delete unread messages. Or, at least have separate criteria for unread messages.

isn't this a feature that's included in non-Sense messages app??? I much prefer that version, but I don't know how to replace the sense version with that one (if possible)

I think having delete by both age and number would be best... for example, if it could delete any message that is more than say 5 days old, up to the point where there is <10 messages left in the thread then stop deleting from that thread
and if you could adjust the two variables...
and:
adjust which persons messages get deleted...maybe even make it so that you could adjust the two variables individually depending on the person?

dmc971989 said:
maybe even make it so that you could adjust the two variables individually depending on the person?
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Ultimately, that's the idea. Let each user specify their own criteria.
To be honest, if I decide to take a crack at this, my initial "proof of concept" version would probably just have a couple criteria hardcoded in, and then I would add configurability in increments.
The actual "guts" of this program should be crazy simple to code, but being new to Android, I'm still getting used to designing UIs on the platform, so that would be the portion that slows me down (and also the part that I'm looking to get some practice with...).

the file for storing texts is /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
and no that's not a typo, there is a data folder within the data folder
also, by the way, I tried messing with it once to restore some old texts from a previous rom, and kept force closing my handcent and the stock app until I just deleted the file and let it recreate itself

Yeah honestly i am shocked that no one has done this. My friend and i have had so many texts our phone slows way down. And then when we try to delete txts of the contact(s) with the largest amount of texts the phone will lock up for along time or untill we pull the battery. After the phone lock up the texts are still there. i would be happy if all my contacts where limited to 100 texts. this issue normally happens around the 1000 mark (for a single contact) from what i have noticed.
Also this has happend on sevral roms that i have used so its def not a rom issue

danaff37 said:
the file for storing texts is /data/data/com.android.providers.telephony/databases/mmssms.db
and no that's not a typo, there is a data folder within the data folder
also, by the way, I tried messing with it once to restore some old texts from a previous rom, and kept force closing my handcent and the stock app until I just deleted the file and let it recreate itself
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Yeah, that's a database file. Probably not a great idea to edit it directly, you would want to make changes through the sqlite interface....

any solutions?

[Q] Would this be possible? Contact/Twitter for Messaging

Me and some friends mostly use twitters "direct message" function to send SMS-like short messages.
Now I had an idea if it's possible to write an app which allows you to write direct messages through a shortcut in the contacts app.
Just like I open the contact app, select the contact who should get my message, tap on "Send DM" (or something like this" and a little window opens in which I can write my message.
I don't know anything about writing apps myself so I just want to know if it's possible, of course if someone writes this app there have to be some other features, like notifications and display the characters count.

/push
I'm sorry for posting again without responses, but I think this idea is too good to be not noticed.
The good things about this app:
-messaging about data connection, no sms costs
-messaging to everyone who has twitter and follows you
-no need that your chat partner has got this app, cause it works trough all twitter clients
-no need to sign up for another service, which only one half of your friends use
-comfortable direct messaging through a nice UI
The bad:
-only 140 characters
-no pictures, files or anything like this due to twitter limitations
I hope now someone will notice this thread

I think it already exists and is available for free in the market. The name of the app is AndroChat.
Sent from my Milestone using Tapatalk

Oh, you're right and I thouht this would be a great new idea..
Androchat works, but the UI is not very comfortable, are there any alternatives?

Threads... why?

Ive seen MS chose to combine IM and SMS and to me this looks really messy.
First of all the integration of IM is quite nice but I wish it was kept seperate from SMS conversations since these are to the majority of people still different than IMs and used on different devices or apps. I dont want to continue a conversation automatically on a different app or something. This will be very annoying to the other user.
Certainly if somebody just left his/her pc on or IM on accidently....
They should have added facebook private messaging as well and IM/SMS seperated like it was and just added a chat pivot in the messaging hub.
to me an sms is still something every user has always with him her, like when u send somebody an address or something it should be on their phones and not deliverd trough IM and its annoying having to switch first.
Its kind of short sighted implementation, the idea is good but the reality will be very annoying the way it works now.
you will get a ton of sms like notifications for every IM which can be annoying since on a chat conversation people send much more messages per minute than trough sms. Having to toggle online offline all the time will be a pita
am i the only one who thinks this will be garbage? Instead they should have allowed third party apps like whatsapp to use this on user permission. I hope I can switch off the live messenger. Or just revert back to the original sms screen

I like the idea to have an overview of my messages regardlessly whether they come via SMS, Windows Live or Facebook. Although I agree that getting notifications for all those messages shown on the SMS tile would be kind of overwhelming. But I can imagine Microsoft changes the way the tile works. So it still shows the number of SMS, but in addition to that shows an icon or something when you recieve a chat message from Facebook or Windows Live.

In my opinion.. the best feauture ever, of every OS. Loved that!

I love it as well, and think its nice not to have to go to 4 different places for my facebook, text, wlm & (eventually skype).
While I hope they either have a toggle setting for separate 'rows', or add it soon after Mango for those who really don't like it, I honestly doubt they want to mess it up by having too many places for messages. It fits in pretty perfectly with their vision for the overall UI design imo.

For me,M$ thread is not a new idea,it just copying the messaging app in the HP webos...however HP webos messaging is better,they can download apps that support HP connect and integrate into the messaging app(so,this means they can have more than 1 im clients in 1 messaging app).
Feel so sorry to HP webos,always being copied by others,even the UI design of playbook has been copied

Marvin_S said:
First of all the integration of IM is quite nice but I wish it was kept seperate from SMS conversations since these are to the majority of people still different than IMs and used on different devices or apps. I dont want to continue a conversation automatically on a different app or something. This will be very annoying to the other user.
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Threading will be the beginning of the end for SMS IMNSHO. Most people still use SMS because it's what they know and are used to.
My wife is a great example, she keeps sending me SMSes while I'm out because that's what she's used to. Even though I've had email (and to some extent IM) on my phones since forever. With a "messaging hub" it takes all the guesswork out of the equation - she'll write the message as she normally does and the phone will decide whether it should deliver via FB, Messenger, Skype or SMS.
Now, if you don't want to continue the conversation if the user has moved to a different device you don't have to. The phone will tell you how the message was sent as well as what services the recipient is currently logged on to.
Marvin_S said:
to me an sms is still something every user has always with him her, like when u send somebody an address or something it should be on their phones and not deliverd trough IM and its annoying having to switch first.
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This just proves my point - you're used to SMS. And again, you can choose whether to send as SMS or IM.
Personally I find this feature great. Two things should be done to make it even better though;
1. Implement a industry-wide protocol so it doesn't matter if you're on a crackberry, iphone or windows phone. Sure, Skype and Messenger goes a long way towards achieving this but there are still people who use smaller IM services only.
2. Allow third-party apps to hook in to the messaging hub - there's a few apps out there today that are not chat apps as such but still implement messaging. Being able to receive (and reply to) these messages from the same place would be great. It would also make it easier for other IM services to integrate with the OS.
dkp1977 said:
Although I agree that getting notifications for all those messages shown on the SMS tile would be kind of overwhelming.
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But why? Are you less likely to want to read a message coming in thru Messenger than one delivered via SMS? I for one don't care how my messages are delivered, I just want to be notified. It's a bit like having three post boxes outside your house - one for deliveries by DHL only, another for Deutsche Post and a third for everyone else - i.e. pointless

I really like this new feature as well. I am confident that any replies you send to someone will use the same service they used to "text" you, unless you choose to change it. People on non-WP7 phones won't suddenly need to be jumping all over the place.
On the other hand, when other people send you messages from multiple sources (SMS, FB, WLM, etc), you will be able to get all of the messages in one convenient place. I like that.

[Q] Group SMS

So on my iphone I could have group conversations with 3 other people and it would all be in the same conversation window, I but now, on my one x, when I try this it just sends to everyone individually. It works on my friends droid because he has the verizon messaging app which isn't available to att users (I think)
anyways I was just wondering if there was a simple solution to this (I've tried two 3rd party messaging apps with no luck)

Yeah, you're not gonna be able to get that, AFAIK. The "WhatsApp Messenger" app does this, but that's not actual text messaging, it's an IM app that uses your contacts phone numbers to identify them, and can only message other WhatsApp users.
Just for my own curiosity, when you would do this with your iPhone, would all the other participants be iPhone users? Or would it be a mixed bag of BB/Android/WP7/iPhone?

You should check out the app 'GroupMe'.
Great app that can do either real texting or over the internet messages.
The catch is, you have to message a 'Group number' and GroupMe then forwards that message on to everyone else.
This enables you to add/remove people to a conversation.
You can make these numbers private or public
I'm pretty sure they support every os and you can also just use their website to send messages.
It's all free which is the best part.

This is one of my biggest gripes with Android ICS. My Galaxy Nexus wasn't able to do group SMS either and, coming from an iPhone where I had lots of groups, it's a pain in the ass.
Also, using 3rd party apps that require every other person you want to chat with to also have the app is not a real solution. GroupMe is even worse than the rest b/c if someone EVER had the app (and no longer does) it doesn't recognize that and just doesn't deliver the message at all.

NextNexus said:
This is one of my biggest gripes with Android ICS. My Galaxy Nexus wasn't able to do group SMS either and, coming from an iPhone where I had lots of groups, it's a pain in the ass.
Also, using 3rd party apps that require every other person you want to chat with to also have the app is not a real solution. GroupMe is even worse than the rest b/c if someone EVER had the app (and no longer does) it doesn't recognize that and just doesn't deliver the message at all.
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The awesome thing about GroupMe is you don't need the App at all. You can use their service purely through texting.

[email protected] said:
The awesome thing about GroupMe is you don't need the App at all. You can use their service purely through texting.
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You didn't read what I wrote. If someone EVER had the app and got rid of it then the app doesn't recognize that and simply doesn't deliver the message at all. This is even worse than simply not being able to message people who don't have the app b/c now the sender has no clue whether their messages were delivered to each recipient.

NextNexus said:
You didn't read what I wrote. If someone EVER had the app and got rid of it then the app doesn't recognize that and simply doesn't deliver the message at all. This is even worse than simply not being able to message people who don't have the app b/c now the sender has no clue whether their messages were delivered to each recipient.
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If I am not mistaken, If the user changed his settings through the web interface he could set it up to be texting only again.
I have never ran in to this issue personally. When I removed the App from my phone I would still get the messages, just not through texts until I switched the settings.
Sorry for not fully understanding the first time.