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

SMS Popup v1.1.0 released

A minor SMS Popup update is now available from Android Market.  I have been working on refactoring a lot of the code to allow for multiple messages within the popup - before spending the time to do that I wanted to get this minor update out.  So stay tuned, hopefully the next release will have more significant updates!

SMS Popup v1.1.0

• Added a larger selection of notification icons to choose from (including the new gingerbread icon for Nexus S users)
• Added new option to enable/disable notification sound while on a call
• Updated and added translations
• A few minor bug fixes

Want to contribute to the SMS Popup project? Here's how.

1.  Translations

SMS Popup has now been translated into 18 languages via various contributions from around the world.  If you find missing or incorrect translations in SMS Popup, or would like to translate the app to a new language, check out the wiki page on how to get going using a collaboration platform called Launchpad.

I would love to see translations for some more Asian languages (especially Korean and Japanese!).

Here is the current list of languages:  Catalan, Chinese (simplified & traditional), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish


2.  Icons & Graphics

Version 1.0.9 of SMS Popup adds support for choosing your own notification icon.  If you're a graphics guru and would like to contribute some cool icons for the next release, drop me an email or attach the icons over at our Google Code site.  What we need are a 25x25 pixel and 38x38 pixel version of the icon(s) in png format.

In addition, I'm hoping to add some custom backgrounds for the popup window in a future release.  Android uses something called a 9-patch png file to correctly scale to the background of views.  It would be much appreciated if anyone out there is able to contribute some nice looking backgrounds to use.




3.  Bug Reports

Finally, if you spot any problems with SMS Popup, either email me or file a bug over at our issue tracker.  However, please try and include as much information as possible in the report - this will make troubleshooting the problem a lot easier (things like phone model, carrier, OS version and how to reproduce the problem are really useful).

If you're on a device with Android 2.2 (Froyo), another great way to provide feedback is to use the built in Android "Report" button that appears on the "Force Close" dialog.  Simply click "Report", type in some information about what went wrong and click "Send".

SMS Popup v1.0.9 released

After quite a while without an update, v1.0.9 of SMS Popup is now up in the Market.  I'll post some more detailed information tomorrow, but for now, check out the release notes over on the Google Code site:
http://code.google.com/p/android-smspopup/wiki/ReleaseNotes

Full list of updates now listed below -


SMS Popup v1.0.9

• Bug fix: Messages sent from quick reply on Droid X (or any Motoblur phone) were resending on reboot (and some other system events).
• Bug fix: Random app crashes on Droid and Evo phones after Froyo OS update
• Bug fix: Regular reply was not opening correct conversation in messaging app (it was opening last viewed conversation)
• Enable choice of notification icon (3 choices now, will add more in next release)
• Enable new privacy controls (hide sender + always use privacy)
• Ignore Sprint visual voicemail messages
• Refreshed translations from launchpad, SMS Popup now translated into 18 different languages!

Updates for SMS Popup and Countdown Alarm ... hopefully coming soon

Sorry for the lack of updates to my two main Android apps - SMS Popup and Countdown Alarm - as of late. I just haven't had any spare time to work on them :| But fear not, the projects are still alive and I'm hoping to have some time in the next month or so to start working on them again.

A number of people have contributed translations to SMS Popup as well and I know they are patiently waiting for a new Market release that includes the updated strings.

In the meantime, remember that both apps are open source so feel free to browse the source over at the Google code site (and let me know if you would like to contribute to the apps):
http://code.google.com/p/android-countdownalarm/
http://code.google.com/p/android-smspopup/

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!