Some questions about an SMS text app

1.   I want to create an app that sends (SMS) text messages.

The user will type their message. They will the press the "send" button. The blocks associated with it are "Set texting phone number" and "Set texting phone number". Once the "send" button is pressed the message will be sent.

So far so good I hope.

When you send a message normally through the pre-installed messages app on your phone, any message you send is saved in the outbox until you manually delete it.

Question: will the message sent via the app be saved on the phone in the outbox or anywhere else?



2. When a user receives the message will it be saved to their inbox on their normal pre-installed messages app? If so, then is there any way for it to be saved in the app I have created instead?



3. Is there any way to save a text message from the inbox to a text box in the app?

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Question: will the message sent via the app be saved on the phone in the outbox or anywhere else?

my guess is, it will be saved in the outbox, but I'm not sure

you might want to test it to find out, if my guess is correctapp

my guess is, it will be saved in the outbox, but I'm not sure
you might want to test it to find out, if my guess is correct

2. When a user receives the message will it be saved to their inbox on their normal pre-installed messages app? If so, then is there any way for it to be saved in the app I have created instead?

it will be saved in the inbox and additionally you can receive it in your App Inventor app in case your app is up and running and save it somewhere else (e.g. TinyDB) 

3. Is there any way to save a text message from the inbox to a text box in the app?

yes, see my Texting Extension, which can read all SMS from the inbox, draft and sent folders.

Taifun

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What do you mean by:

"you can receive it in your App Inventor app in case your app is up and running and save it somewhere else (e.g. TinyDB) "
Will I use the block "WhenTexting1MessageReceived" do Call TinyDB1 storevalue tag "storemessage" valuetostore "messagetext"

Sorry, I have no idea how to paste blocks so I hope you understand the above.

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App Inventor apps can't run in the background and while your app is not running, it will not receive an incoming SMS

exception: you are located in the United States and you are using the Google Voice feature. In this case you will get a notification

see also the documentation http://ai2.appinventor.mit.edu/reference/components/social.html#Texting

• If the ReceivingEnabled property is set to 1 messages will not be received. If ReceivingEnabled is set to 2 messages will be received only when the application is running. Finally if ReceivingEnabled is set to 3, messages will be received when the application is running and when the application is not running they will be queued and a notification displayed to the user.                     

• When a message arrives, the MessageReceived event is raised and provides the sending number and message.

• An app that includes this component will receive messages even when it is in the background (i.e. when it's not visible on the screen) and, moreso, even if the app is not running, so long as it's installed on the phone. If the phone receives a text message when the app is not in the foreground, the phone will show a notification in the notification bar. Selecting the notification will bring up the app. As an app developer, you'll probably want to give your users the ability to control ReceivingEnabled so that they can make the phone ignore text messages.                     

Taifun

======================  Screen Capture  +++++++++++++

On Windows  Ctr + PrtScn  keyboard keys pressed at same time copies an image of the screen to the Windows Clipboard.  Open Paint and save the image by placing the contents of the clipboard into Paint. Save the image to your desktop or another folder as a png or jpg file.  On Win 7 and above you can use the Snipping tool (in Accessories) to capture an image of blocks directly from the screen.  Capture what you need and Save the file to a folder on your PC.

On a Mac,  command-shift-3 (whole-screen) or command-shift-4 (drag a rectangle) to take a screenshot. The image file will appear on your desktop. 

Once you have the image of your blocks, you can drag them to MS Word and I think you can drag the image to PowerPoint.

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I don't understand what it means that SMS wil not be received if RECEIVINGENABLED is set to 1.

Surely the message will be saved to the phone's inbox?

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yes of course, the documentation is taking about App Inventor ... 

probably it's time to try some things?

A very good way to learn App Inventor is to read the free Inventor's Manual here in the AI2 free online eBook   http://www.appinventor.org/book2 ... the links are at the bottom of the Web page.  The book 'teaches' users how to program with AI2 blocks.

There is a free programming course here http://www.appinventor.org/content/CourseInABox/Intro  and the aia files for the projects in the book are here:  http://www.appinventor.org/bookFiles  

How to do a lot of basic things with App Inventor are described here:  http://www.appinventor.org/content/howDoYou/eventHandling  .

Also do the tutorials http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/ai2/tutorials.html to learn the basics of App Inventor, then try something and follow the

 Top 5 Tips: How to learn App Inventor

You will not find a tutorial, which does exactly what you are looking for. But doing the tutorials (not only reading a little bit) help you to understand, how things are working. This is important and this is the first step to do.

Taifun

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