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Android 4.4 KitKat will introduce option to set default SMS app: Google

Android 4.4 KitKat will introduce option to set default SMS app: Google

By Anupam Saxena | Updated: 15 October 2013 11:52 IST

A large number of people use third-party apps, like Go SMS and chompSMS, for sending and receiving messages from their Android device. However, officially, till now Google did not offer a fully supported set of APIs for making these apps the default one and developers had to use hidden APIs. There was always the risk of Google changing these APIs leading to break in compatibility of these apps.

This is changing with the introduction of Android 4.4 KitKat, the next iteration of Android. Google has announced that it will now offer a fully supported set of APIs and will make existing APIs public, officially adding support for setting a third-party messaging app as your default SMS client via the phone's System Settings.

Google has also asked developers to make adjustments to existing SMS apps that use hidden SMS APIs so that they continue to work after Android 4.4 KitKat is released. It has also detailed the changes to the code that developers need to make in a blog post.

It also explains that apps designed purely to back up and restore SMS messages will be unable to restore SMS messages on Android 4.4, at the moment, since the new APIs allow only the app set as the default SMS to communicate with the SMS provider. This means the user will need to set it as the default app so that it can function properly.

The changes follow reports of the new Hangouts apps offering support for SMS and MMS messages. Hangout app's version 1.3 reportedly comes with SMS and MMS support, and also enables video sharing via Google's Hangouts protocol.

Here's what Google announced in the blog post:

"Sending and receiving SMS messages are fundamental features on mobile devices and many developers have built successful apps that enhance this experience on Android. Some of you have built SMS apps using hidden APIs--a practice we discourage because hidden APIs may be changed or removed and new devices are not tested against them for compatibility. So, to provide you with a fully supported set of APIs for building SMS apps and to make the user experience for messaging more predictable, Android 4.4 (KitKat) makes the existing APIs public and adds the concept of a default SMS app, which the user can select in system settings.

This means that if you are using the hidden SMS APIs on previous platform versions, you need to make some adjustments so your app continues to work when Android 4.4 is released later this year."

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