SMS Popup v1.0.8 released

Head on over to Android Market to grab v1.0.8 of SMS Popup. This release has a few new minor features, better MMS support, some bug fixes and refreshed translation strings. Assuming this release is stable, we're going to start working on some bigger features for the next release. Speaking of which, I'd like to introduce Macarse - he has been helping me get SMS Popup setup on Launchpad Translations to better handle the various translated strings and going forward will be helping to build new features and fix bugs within the SMS Popup code itself (thanks for all your help up till now and hope we can continue to improve the app together!).

Speaking of the new translation setup - if you would like to contribute translated strings to SMS Popup, it's now super easy, see our Translation Wiki entry for how to get going.


SMS Popup v1.0.8

• New Quick Contact support for Android 2.0+ devices (see screenshot below), just tap the contact photo or info icon to activate
• Updated translations strings sync'd down from Launchpad (contribute translations to SMS Popup)
• Better handling of MMS, still might not be perfect but give it a go and file an issue if you see any problems
• Better handling of docked mode (phones like Droid and Nexus One have cradles or docks), instead of showing a popup the system notification will be used to prevent the phone not staying in screensaver mode
• Bug fix: custom notifications for SMS received from email gateways should be functional again

New Quick Contact feature in action (Android 2.0+ only):

SMS Popup v1.0.7 (and v1.0.6) in Android Market now

Head on over to Android Market to grab v1.0.7 of SMS Popup. I haven't had a lot of spare time recently to work on the app (which is also why I forgot to write a blog post for v1.0.6) so I've mostly been working on tweaks and bug fixes. Assuming I have a bit more spare time in the coming weeks/months, expect to see some larger features in the next release.


SMS Popup v1.0.7 (and v1.0.6)

• Soft keyboard shows automatically now when using quick reply
• New option to leave screen off when a new message comes in
• Several bug fixes: fixed issue with phone not always waking up, fixed issue with notification icon contact name not showing correctly
• Several other app tweaks (including new higher res app icon for higher res phones like Droid and Nexus One!

SMS Popup v1.0.5 out now (a few minor updates)

Here's another small update, nothing too major in this one. Hopefully v1 of the app should be stable now for most users so I'll start slowing down releases and start working on some newer features again so stay tuned!


SMS Popup v1.0.5

• Added Android OS Text-to-speech engine (for devices on Donut and above)
• Switched regular Reply back to using threadId to reply (this should fix issues on devices like the Hero and Cliq where you would be unable to see previous messages in the thread). For users who want to trigger the old Reply you can switch it back in the Button Configuration, its called "Reply (to phone number)" - the only major use I've found for this is if you want Google Voice to trigger when clicking the Reply button.
• Blur background option has now been removed (was causing massive slowdown on some devices)
• Bug fixes as usual

SMS Popup v1.0.2 (and v1.0.3 and v1.0.4) with better support for Droid

Here's another quick bug fix release which also adds some support for Android 2.0 (Eclair) and therefore the newly released Droid phone (wish I had one to play with!).  The contacts framework in Eclair received a major overhaul so that it can support information from multiple sources (Gmail, Exchange, Facebook, etc.) - this is great, but it does make any app that accesses contacts slightly tricker.  For now I just put in some quick fixes so that the basics work but some additional work will need to be done to ensure 100% compatibility.

Given a lot of people were having trouble working out how to turn Quick Reply on and off, I also added a new option under Additional Settings to easily toggle this feature.

This release also adds translation strings for Czech, thanks goes out to Tomáš (http://android.own.cz/) for helping out here!


SMS Popup v1.0.2, v1.0.3, v1.0.4

• Initial support for Android 2.0 (Eclair)
• Bug fixes as usual
• Added option for easier toggle of Quick Reply function (look under Additional Settings)
• Update: TTS was broken in v1.0.2 so v1.0.3 has been released to fix it
• Update: Yet *another* update, sorry about all these updates.  This fixes up lag when using Quick Reply on Droid and also adds better ability to handle messages received from email->sms gateways.

Quick Reply or No Quick Reply

Since launching v1.0.0 and v1.0.1 of SMS Popup I've been receiving a lot of feedback around the new "quick reply" feature - some people love it, some hate it.  Luckily you can easily turn this feature on and off via the configuration options - although it's not so obvious how to do this (I'm planning on making the option easier to find in a future release):

Load up SMS Popup settings -> Additional Settings -> Button Configuration -> Button 3 (or whichever button you have reply set to) -> Choose regular Reply or Quick Reply

Update: As of SMS Popup v1.0.2 there is now a quick toggle feature for Quick Reply

You can even choose both if you like to have them both accessible easily from the popup - and as an additional tip, if you long-press on the popup you can always access all options (both reply types, delete, view contact, text-to-speech etc.).

Remember to always check the SMS Popup FAQ for tips and tricks like this if you run into problems.

Quick Reply in action:

SMS Popup v1.0.1 bug fix release

I received a ton of feedback after v1.0.0 came out a few days ago, mostly positive but some negative (mostly because some people don't like using quick reply - of course you can turn it off but it's not an easy option to find). Quite a few users reported various bugs or UI quirks as well - I rushed a bit to get some of the more annoying ones fixed in SMS Popup v1.0.1 which I just posted to the Android Market. Go grab it and keep the feedback coming!



SMS Popup v1.0.1

• Bug fix: Contact photos should now be showing again for HTC Hero users
• Bug and UI fix: Quick reply is now a little easier to use, the send button has been moved where you can access it when the soft keyboard is in use and it also works in landscape when the soft keyboard is full screen.
• Bug fix: Notifications were sounding while users were on the phone, this feature was requested by quite a few users, how ever it seems a lot more dislike it. Therefore I have removed this for now, but will add it back in as an option in a future version.
• Bug fix: Updated the regular Reply intent so that it works with Google Voice again
• App now defaults to regular Reply (instead of Quick Reply)

SMS Popup v1.0.0 released - quick replies, preset messages, per-contact custom notifications and more!

SMS Popup v1.0.0 has been posted to the Android Market! This release has the most new features of any release since I started the project almost 1 year ago (Dec 2008). See below for a summary of the changes. Thanks to all the translators for helping update the strings.

As always, you can find the source code over at the SMS Popup Google Code site.

Bugs, feature requests, comments? Try emailing me or even better, post to the SMS Popup Google Group (email is tough for me to respond to as the SMS Popup inbox is constantly flooded).


SMS Popup v1.0.0

• Quick reply directly from poup
• Reply by voice using quick reply and voice transcription
  
• Store preset messages and reply using them directly from popup
• Customize notifications, popup, vibrate, LED on a per-contact basis (this can be used to effectively ignore certain users or single out others)
  
• Configure the buttons on the popup
  
• Use just the notifications, just the popup or both
• Bug fixes and minor enhancements galore (better clearing of notification icon, alerts while on the phone, contact photo image resizing for larger contact photos)
  
• Compatible with devices that run Android 1.5 (Cupcake) and above - but still includes support for multiple resolutions (both smaller like QVGA and larger like WVGA)
  

Screenshots: