[APP] TexTab [Updated: Released to Market!]

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

Update: TexTab has been released in the market! Thanks to everyone who participated in the beta. Download links:

- Full Version
- Lite Version

TexTab is an SMS app for Android tablets. It allows you to connect your Android 2.1+ tablet to your Android 2.1+ phone over Bluetooth and send/receive SMS messages on your tablet as if you were sending them from your phone.
I've been working on this app for some time now and I feel that it is ready for public beta testing. I encourage everybody to download and install the app on both your phone and tablet, and please provide feedback here.

App Features:
- Honeycomb optimized, though not required
- Push menu button to connect devices via bluetooth, with option to select a device to automatically connect to in settings
- Conversation threads use your Google contact information to display contact info
- Widget with button to enable/disable service, and displays connection information

Known Bugs:
- Messages not saving to outbox on some devices
- Sometimes unable to connect from one device. Seems to fix after turning bluetooth off then on, on OTHER device.
- Delivery reports are not always reliable, when messages are sent or received very quickly
- Visual issues/ghosting when using Swype keyboard in portrait orientation
- Performance issues on Samsung Galaxy Tab 7"

Future Development/Requested Features:
- New layout for 7" tablets
- Wifi functionality for increased range
- UI improvements
- Option to sync contacts with phone rather than cloud
- Sync sms history with phone
- Option to mute phone notifications
- Mark incoming messages as "read" on phone
- Popup dialog on received message when app is not in foreground
- MMS support
- Ability to use existing SMS app (GoSMS, Handcent, etc) to send/receive messages on ANOTHER phone
- suggestions?

Installation and Use:
Download the attached zip file and extract it somewhere on your computer. Copy the extracted file, TexTab.apk, onto both of your devices. Find the .apk file using File Manager or your favourite file browser and run it on both devices to install. Once installed, you can access it like any other app, and you can long-press on the homescreen to add the widget.

Once in the app, push the menu button to connect to a paired bluetooth device. If your devices are not paired, simply make one of them discoverable using Menu Button > Make Discoverable and then on the other device use Menu Button > Connect a Device > Scan for Devices to pair the two devices and establish a connection.

Once a connection is established, the devices should show their proper views. If not, click the settings button and change the Device Type. Under settings, you can also select the option to automatically connect to a paired device on startup. You can also enable or disable the bluetooth service under settings, or by using the button on the widget.

To send a message, either type a phone number into the Phone Number... field, or tap the Send To... button to choose a contact from the cloud. Type the message in the Enter a Message... field and tap send. Received messages will automatically show up as long as the app is enabled.

I look forward to any feedback/bug reports/praise/insults you may have!

Changelog:
See attached text file

foethalove · Jun 21, 2011

This sounds awesome! Thanks a lot man.

Could you maybe throw up some instructions for everyone...

Edit: works great so far. Looking foward to the updates!

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

I updated the OP with installation and usage instructions. Let me know if they're not clear!

bootsie99 · Jun 21, 2011

Cant wait to give this a try! Awesome

wingman1487 · Jun 21, 2011

Will deffinately try this, sounds like what I've been looking for!
You say Future Development for WiFi, 2 ways I could suggest to have that.
1) If the tab is tethered to the phone for data (this is how I get my WiFi only tab to have data at work)
2) If they are on the same WiFi network, say I'm at home. Phone is connected to home WiFi and tab is connected to home WiFi.
Just some thoughts

*Edit*
Ok, tried it out and thats pretty cool! I like how the message shows up on the phone and the tab. Is there a way to pull down recient conversations (say from the last 24 hours) incase you wanted to continue a previous conversation? Also, if read on the tab or phone, could it show read on the other device?

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

wingman1487 said:
If they are on the same WiFi network, say I'm at home. Phone is connected to home WiFi and tab is connected to home WiFi.

This is exactly how the wifi support will work. It will still require the connect to device step, but the range will be limited by your wifi network rather than your phones bluetooth signal.

wingman1487 said:
Is there a way to pull down recient conversations (say from the last 24 hours) incase you wanted to continue a previous conversation? Also, if read on the tab or phone, could it show read on the other device?

I've toyed with the idea of syncing sms history with a contact, unfortunately though any operations which involve using sms history are unsupported in the Android SDK and could break my app in the future. Marking a message as read is subject to the same problem. I'll look into it some more.

I appreciate the feedback, keep it coming!

Fisken · Jun 21, 2011

I wanna suggest something, look at the app called texter, and the chrome app, then take a look have they work. They work by signing in on your google account on an app on the android phone, and the signing in at the same account on chrome, npw you can sms from chrome throw your phone and recive them, no matter where your phone is, it just need 3g connetion. This is like chrometophone. If you could get it working in this way it would be awsome! And the ofc still the bluetooth or something other when the tab not have internet connection

cekle · Jun 21, 2011

Loving this app so far, just wanted to report a bug. When a new contact sends a text, it seems to duplicate the view of prior conversations. I have one conversation that's up to three alternate views!

Edit: After a reboot, the duplicates disappeared.

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

Fisken said:
npw you can sms from chrome throw your phone and recive them, no matter where your phone is, it just need 3g connetion.

I will look into this, thanks!

cekle said:
When a new contact sends a text, it seems to duplicate the view of prior conversations. I have one conversation that's up to three alternate views!

Thanks, added it to the list. As a temporary fix, tapping the settings button and then tapping back will reload the contacts list and they should disappear.

cekle · Jun 21, 2011

Also I can't seem to delete conversations by long pressing. Is there another way?

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

I haven't implemented this. I'll consider it a feature suggestion! Are you wanting to delete specific messages within a thread, or whole thread for a contact?

smaskell · Jun 21, 2011

I was actually working on something exactly like this. I did not end up getting much work done though. If you would like any help, just let me know.

Deadwalk · Jun 21, 2011

Dude, your App is awesome ! ive searched for days for something like this. the only other option is syncsms and that one doesnt support "push", only "all 5 min sync". But your solution via bluetooth is just awesome

ive allready installed it on 5 different transformers for my friends. we are all very happy and would like to donate for your work.

As soon as your App is final, you should totaly put it on market for 1-2$ or more. you will be rich buddy !

Greetings from Germany, keep up the good work. ive allready bookmarked your thread =)

PS: Could you implement the function to mute the notification sound?

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

smaskell said:
I was actually working on something exactly like this. I did not end up getting much work done though. If you would like any help, just let me know.

I won't name any names, but there is at least one other implementation of this idea. My app goes about it a little bit differently.

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

Deadwalk said:
ive allready installed it on 5 different transformers for my friends. we are all very happy and would like to donate for your work.

As soon as your App is final, you should totaly put it on market for 1-2$ or more. you will be rich buddy !

Thanks! I'm glad you like it. It will eventually be a paid app on the market, but not until I feel its complete enough to justify charging money.

Deadwalk said:
PS: Could you implement the function to mute the notification sound?

Adding it to the list.

cekle · Jun 21, 2011

howettl said:
I haven't implemented this. I'll consider it a feature suggestion! Are you wanting to delete specific messages within a thread, or whole thread for a contact?

Just a contact thread. Specific messages would be a good option if you want this to be a full fledged texting app, but then the deletion wouldn't propogate to the phone without some magic. If this app is intended to be a messenger though, an extension of the phone when the tablet just so happens to be around, I'd like the ability to keep that interface clean and current so its not bogged down with out of date texts.

Edit: Keeping with the 'extension of the phone' idea, you could have an option to clear the text database after a certain amount of time disconnected from a device.

Deadwalk · Jun 21, 2011

a friend of mine just told me that his phone is acting wierd.
he installed the app and send me 5 texts over his pad and i got them all. but his phone wont show what he wrote and in his phone there are only the sms from me and not his. we both use the lg optimus 2x.
and also his phone send 2 sms to the number "555555555" with text "default body". right after he installed the app and tried to send texts over his pad.
any idea?

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

Deadwalk said:
a friend of mine just told me that his phone is acting wierd.
he installed the app and send me 5 texts over his pad and i got them all. but his phone wont show what he wrote and in his phone there are only the sms from me and not his. we both use the lg optimus 2x.
and also his phone send 2 sms to the number "555555555" with text "default body". right after he installed the app and tried to send texts over his pad.
any idea?

I have an idea about what's happening here. As I mentioned in an earlier post, any operations that involve your phones SMS history are unsupported in the Android SDK. It sounds like your particular phone model doesn't access SMS history in the same way as other phones, so the app is unable to save sent messages in your phones SMS history.
The number "5555555555" and "default body" are used when there is a problem saving the data to your phone. The phone was told that a message was sent to that number; but no SMS was actually sent.
I'll try and find a workaround for this phone.

Do other people using this phone model have the same problem? Or any other LG phone?

Deadwalk · Jun 21, 2011

No one else have that issue.
we both use the same lg and we both use a modaco rom. the only difference is, iam using modaco version ~16 and he version ~19. so the problem should lie in the difference of that roms. he just got furios because he tought the app had send 2 sms to a pricy number...

after reading your explanation we saw that everytime he sends a text to me he got a 55555555 sms with default body, so its realy the fact that his phone cant save the textmessage into the threaded sms history. its send, but not saved. on the other hand it flawlessly work on my phone. i can send a text on my pad and see it almost directly on my phone in the threaded history. funny tho =) now we're gonna flash his phone to another rom.

i'll keep an eye on this thread. it would be realy cool if you would mention it somewhere when u think u found a workarround. we will test it then =)

ah and we found another bug just now. when i want to write a new sms to contactB i have no choice to choose the number to send. so my girlfriend for example have 3 different numbers, and the app want to use the first number of the contact, in this situation its her home number.. no way to send a sms to that one ^^

howettl · Jun 21, 2011

Deadwalk said:
No one else have that issue.
we both use the same lg and we both use a modaco rom. the only difference is, iam using modaco version ~16 and he version ~19. so the problem should lie in the difference of that roms. he just got furios because he tought the app had send 2 sms to a pricy number...

after reading your explanation we saw that everytime he sends a text to me he got a 55555555 sms with default body, so its realy the fact that his phone cant save the textmessage into the threaded sms history. its send, but not saved. on the other hand it flawlessly work on my phone. i can send a text on my pad and see it almost directly on my phone in the threaded history. funny tho =) now we're gonna flash his phone to another rom.

Thanks for the clarification. It must be an incompatibility with the rom then.

I'll repeat for clarity: when you see a message to the number "5555555555" its simply a problem with the phone not saving the information properly. An SMS has NOT been sent to this number.

Please let me know if flashing a different rom fixes the problem!

[APP] TexTab [Updated: Released to Market!]

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