Saturday, April 14, 2012

SMS Popup v1.2.0 released, now with 100% more Ice Cream Sandwich goodness

After almost 1.5 years without a release, SMS Popup v1.2.0 is now out on the Google Play Store. Apologies for the lengthy delay between releases, my personal life has been just a tad busy and a major re-write of the app was required to support many new features. So what's new? See below, but behind the scenes I gutted the code and re-wrote much of it to take advantage of the more modern Android OS version APIs. This includes a nice new Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) Holo theme for the latest devices plus some patterns taken from the Android Design site (like swipe gestures to navigate multiple unread messages!).

I also created a Google+ Page for SMS Popup, so head on over and leave any feedback or comments.

Update (2012-04-19): The initial launch of SMS Popup 1.2.0 had some bugs which I hadn't noticed in my testing. I have now pushed an update (v1.2.1) to the Play Store to address some of these:
  • Custom contact notifications should now work correctly
  • The popup size can now be variable (smaller for short messages, larger for longer messages)
  • Fixed: in some specific cases, messages weren't being marked as read when hitting "close"
  • Fixed: several bugs which were causing crashes
  • Fixed: duplicate messages in popup window in certain cases
Update (2012-05-05): A few other bugs were identified that were affecting a smaller number of users. Today I pushed v1.2.4 to the Play Store to address these additional issues:
  • Fix quick reply failing to send on Samsung devices
  • Fix popup showing in messaging app on Samsung devices
  • Make popup size more dynamic (size changes from 1 line of text up to 6 now)
  • Fix popup time stamp issues on some US CDMA carrier devices (Verizon/Sprint)
  • Fix rogue messages appearing from "(unknown)"
  • Add timeout around acquiring Android partial wakelock to make sure device goes back to sleep
  • Add back "Subject" line to MMS messages
  • Fix missed first notification when popup is disabled


SMS Popup v1.2.0


  • Brand new Holo theme for ICS devices
  • Browse multiple unread messages in popup by swiping left/right
  • Full re-write of much of the app to take advantage of newer Android. Minimum Android version for this release is API Level 7 (Android 2.1 Eclair), the old version of SMS Popup will stay in the Play Store for older devices
  • New option to show an unlock button when screen locked to prevent accidental button presses
  • Update to language translations











13 comments:

  1. The new swipe feature is very cool, but is there a way to close all the pop-up windows at once when you have more than one text? It's kind of annoying that i have to close each of the pop-up windows individually if i have multiple texts.

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  2. There are two problems I've noted with the update on a Samsung Captivate running Froyo.
    1) It deleted all my custom notifications (not a big deal)
    2) no matter what I do, including a reboot, deletion & reinstall its not sounding out the custom notification sounds, only the default one. That's a MAJOR issue since I rely on those custom sounds to see who's texting me

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  3. @phoelz - yes, just hit the hard back button on your device to close all (however this won't mark all messages as read). if you want to go to inbox now you can also long-press on the popup and choose "inbox" or go to sms popup settings and configure the popup buttons to always show the "inbox" button.

    @Dr.Mom - I responded to you on Google+, thanks for the feedback.

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  4. What was your response to Dr. Mom? I'm having the same problem. Also, not getting any popup at all. Just an icon in the notification bar.

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  5. Had obtained the beta earlier this week. Now updated again, terrific work!

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  6. @David - I said I would look into it, there should be an update already in Play Store that fixes the "test notifications" issue.

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  7. Only issue I encountered was that the contacts pictures are no longer showing up on the pop up screen.

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  8. The problem I'm having is I have all the buttons disabled except for close when a text comes in, and I have it in privacy mode. But when my phone is locked and a text comes in you can just click on the eye and the text shows without unlocking the phone. Is there a way to fix this? Thanks!

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  9. I understand that you can long press to get to the Inbox, but I miss the 'inbox' button in the popup. PLEASE put the 'inbox' button back on the popups. I mean, you got a ton of room!

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  10. And in response to phoelz's comment, how about a 'delete all' button in the long press?

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  11. ALSO... (I'm full of them). When you get a lot of texts (like something sports or news related) or are away from your phone for a while and texts popups pile up, when you long press, an option to 'go to beginning' that takes you to the oldest text would be AWESOME. And very helpful if you want to start at the start.

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  12. @RyC - I'm looking into that issue.

    @Katy - I'm aware of the privacy mode issue as well.

    @Feith - I'll respond to you on the G+ thread.

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  13. I'm shutting down comments on this post. Instead, post on the Google+ page if you have feedback (easier to respond back there).

    The launch post is here:
    https://plus.google.com/113454930730468031444/posts/dtB6PiLz5fW

    The profile is here:
    https://plus.google.com/113454930730468031444/posts

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