SMS Bot Widget is no more

After over 8 years in the Play Store SMS Bot Widget has had to be taken down. Google has updated some policies on apps that have the permission to write SMS messages. Basically any app with this permission has to be a fully fledged SMS sender/receiver app. SMS Bot Widget was never intended to be that so it has to go. It wasn’t the most popular app but over its lifetime it had an average rating of 3.86 stars which I think is pretty good. If I get round to it I might release the source code on github so that it’s spirit can live on!

SMS Bot Widget V2.60 released

I have just released SMS Bot Widget version 2.60 to the Google Play Store. This release includes:

• 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

Dropping support for the ancient Android versions let me remove a lot of legacy code from the app, simplifying it. I think Android 2.3 is a very reasonable minimum in 2017! I also realised that having 3 different widget versions for Android 3.1+ was redundant. Having one resizeable widget simplifies things. However, existing 1×1 and 2×1 widgets already on home screens will need to be re-created.

 

SMS Bot Widget V2.51 released

SMS Bot Widget V2.51 is now in the Google Play Store. Here is the change log:

• High resolution icon added
• Warning added for Android 4.4 Kit Kat devices about not being able to write to sent messages

SMS Bot Widget and Android 4.4 Kit Kat

I finally got my hands on a Nexus 5 today and its great. Unfortunately there is a small issue with SMS Bot Widget and Android 4.4. A few days ago Google announced a few changes to the way SMS messages are handled in Android. As a result of these changes SMS Bot Widget can no longer write to a device’s sent messages as of Android 4.4. The messages are still sent so the app fulfills its primary purpose but the device will have no record of it. In order to completely fix this SMS Bot Widget would have to be set as the primary SMS messaging app on the system and that is a lot to ask of a simple widget app. Instead I will update the app to warn Android 4.4 users of this behaviour.

SMS Bot Widget V2.41

A quick update following yesterday’s release of V2.4. It turns out I accidentally made the app only compatible with Android 4.3! It was showing “not compatible” errors in the web Google Play Store for anything running earlier Android versions. This was because of a new “uses-feature” element I added to the app manifest to notify the Play Store that SMS Bot Widget required home screen widgets. Unfortunately I set the required attribute to “true” and because the feature was new in Android 4.3, previous versions didn’t know about it. Hence the “not compatible” errors. Of course when I tested my app’s availability yesterday on Google Play on my Nexus 4 newly updated to 4.3 it all seemed fine. The perils of being on the bleeding edge!

SMS Bot Widget V2.4

SMS Bot Widget version 2.4 is now available in the Google Play Store. Here is the change log:

• Removed internet permission
• Updated instructions for Jellybean devices
• Reduced size

Reader Widgets Removed from the Google Play Store

My Reader Widgets Android apps have been removed from the Google Play Store. It said it would take several hours for them to completely disappear.
Thanks again to everyone who downloaded either the free or paid version.

SMS Bot Widget now ad free

SMS Bot Widget has been updated to V2.3 in the Google Play Store and I am happy to announce it is now completely ad free. Why would I suddenly do this? The trouble is with ads is you need to add a library to your Android app and that means keeping it up-to-date, working around any bugs it might have, testing it etc. So this should free me up to actually implement more features. Also I think it puts some people off from using an app. I am considering removing ads from Paperless List as well. Other changes in V2.3 are:

• 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

I wanted to completely remove the 1×1 and 2×1 widgets from Android 4.0+ devices but that became a problem when upgrading from the previous version. It broke any 1×1 or 2×1 widgets already added to the home screen so I had to leave them in.

SMS Bot Widget Donate (which disabled ads in the free version) has been removed from the Play Store as it didn’t get many downloads.

Reader Widgets updated

I have just uploaded V2.36 of Reader Widgets (Pro and Free) to the Google Play Store. Here’s a full list of changes:

• Refresh widgets button added to main app (only appears if you have widgets added to the home screen)
• Possible fix for Asus Padphone issue after dock/undock
• Press added to list of launch apps
• Medium widget made scrollable on Android 3.0+
• Small widget can be added to lock screen in Android 4.2+
• Manual login text fields fixed for Android 3.0+

Reader Widgets and SMS Bot Widget updated

I have just uploaded updates to both my Reader Widgets (Pro and Free) and SMS Bot Widget apps in the Google Play Store. There was a bug in Android 4.2 that prevented the widgets in both apps from being added to the home screen. I have also added lock screen support for Android 4.2 and made the medium Reader Widget resizeable in Android 3.1+.