SMS Bot Widget

This app is no longer in the Play Store. Announcement post here

“SMS Bot Widget” is an Android app that I developed to speed up sending SMS messages (the name “SMS Widget” was already taken). I seem to keep sending the same SMS message to the same person a lot so I wanted a shortcut to send it for me. I couldn’t find a suitable widget in the Android Google Play Store so I decided to create my own. Searching for “sms bot widget” in the Play Store should find it or install it from the web Play Store. Alternatively scan this QR code with your phone:

It’s a free app but there is a donate version that removes ads from the free version.

There’s actually four widgets: 1×1 and 2×1 depending on the size of the message needed (the text is cut off if it’s too long):

and resizeable (Android 4.0+) and lock screen (Android 4.2+) versions.

Adding the widget launches the configuration screen which has one drop down box for name and another for number. Only contacts with phone numbers are displayed. There is a text box for entering the desired message up to 120 characters. A checkbox for hiding the message text in the widget means that “#####” is shown in the widget instead of the configured text. There is also a checkbox to enable one touch sending with a 6 second timer. Pressing any of the buttons in the send dialogue will cancel the timer so that the message is not sent.

Once the configuration is saved the widget displays the contact name at the top and the message underneath.
Tapping on the widget launches the send message dialogue with Send and cancel buttons. For Android 2.0+ phones there is a quick contact button with a photograph (if the contact has one). Android 1.x phones will see a call button to dial the configured number with one tap. There’s also a settings button for reconfiguration:

It shows the full message and phone number so they can be checked before sending. Once the OK button is pressed, after a short delay, a text pop-up shows if the message was sent successfully. The message is also added to the sent messages in the SMS app so that there is a record of them (except in Android 4.4 and above).
Multiple widgets can be added and configured independently.

SMS Bot Widget has been tested successfully on Android 1.5, 1.6, 2.1 and 2.2.

Changelog:

• V2.6
  • Privacy policy link
  • New theme
  • Only Android 2.3+ supported (Android 1.5-2.2 support dropped)
  • Widget count reduced to one resizeable version on Android 3.1+
  • Improved widget loading on reboot
• V2.5
  • High resolution icon added
  • Warning for Android 4.4 Kit Kat devices about not being able to write to sent messages
• V2.4
  • Removed internet permission
  • Updated instructions for Jellybean devices
  • Reduced size
• V2.3
  • Lock screen widget for Android 4.2+ devices
  • Resizeable widget for Android 4.0+ devices
  • Bug fix: HTC devices with Android 4.1 unable to configure widget
  • New simpler widget backgrounds with proper focus and pressed styles
• V2.2
  • Fixed adding to homescreen on Android 4.2 Jellybean
  • 2×1 widget can be added to the lock screen in Android 4.2
• V2.1
  • Fixed adding to homescreen on Android 4.1 Jellybean
• V2.01
  • Fixed widget sizes on ICS (they were showing as a 2×1 and 3×1 instead of 1×1 and 2×1)
  • Added widget previews for ICS
• V2.0
  • Built against Ice Cream Sandwich to get the holographic theme
  • Hardware acceleration enabled (send SMSs super fast!)
  • Added button to get the donate version
• V1.8
  • Dialogues made gingerbready
  • Fix for Gingerbread randomly spawning config windows
  • Force close/wait on sending message fixed
  • Smaller app size
• V1.7
  • Reboot fix for Nexus S.
  • Install location set to phone as all widgets should be.
  • Dialogue title text explicitly set to white for Gingerbread to make it more visible.
• V1.6
  • Fixed for Android 1.5 devices
  • Added uses-feature telephony to manifest
• V1.5
  • One touch sending option with 6 second timer. When configuring the widget choose this option to send the SMS message with one touch straight from the home screen. Pressing any of the buttons in the send dialogue will cancel the timer so that the message is not sent.
  • New icon of a Vetruvian Android trapped in a speech bubble.
  • Added listener for app upgrade so that on Froyo (Android 2.2) phones upgrades do not blank out the widgets
  • Width of send dialogue increased to fill screen
  • Small icons removed from title bars
  • Optipng run on all images to save space
  • Removed permission for coarse location as it is no longer needed for ads
  • Bug fix: blank message no longer possible to save in widget. Sending a blank message was causing force closes.
  • Bug fix: force close issue when trying to parse invalid contact ID
• V1.4
  • If configuration is cancelled it can be relaunched by tapping the widget.
  • Bug fix: Occasional force close for Android 2.x devices in send dialogue
• V1.3
  • Choose from new black or white widget backgrounds
  • Quick contact button with photograph for Android 2.0+ phones. Phones running Android 1.x will still see the quick call button
• V1.2:
  • Option to hide message in widget for privacy (shows “#####” instead)
  • Call button added in send message dialogue to dial the number configured
  • Settings button added to send message dialogue to reconfigure the widget
  • Bug fix: aligned ad to bottom of configuration screen
• V1.11:
  • Bug fix: Force Close on HTC Tattoo upon sending message
  • Workaround: Duplicate messages sent on HTC Tattoo due to bug in its ROM