[APP][1.31][Oct 27th] Ghostly SMS: never lose an SMS anymore!

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2014-10-27 Long (and overdue) update supporting KitKat and later.
I'm amazed that even newer devices running KitKat with lots of RAM (Samsung Galaxy S3!) suffer from the bug!!
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Hi,

there have been rumors of Gingerbread losing some SMS messages and -guess what- they weren't rumors at all. :| There's a real bug somewhere in the SMS/MMS app for Gingerbread so that if it gets killed due to low RAM, it doesn't store the SMS and you lose it without even knowing it was received. And as people asked me to support FroYo and Eclair, it looks like the bug is more widespread than initially thought...

This is especially true on devices with low RAM to start with, as my poor and loved G1.

Worry no more, until Google fixes the issue (and somebody pushes it to your cooked ROM) I have made this app. It's just meant to be a workaround and what does it do?

This app listens for incoming SMSs, saves them as fast as it can in an internal database (not the INBOX) and shows a notification. In order to be fast, no contact name lookup is done in before the notification: as soon as the message is received, it's saved as-is.

If you receive a notification from this app, but not from the stock SMS/MMS app (screenshot #2), open the activity, read your lost message and -if you wish- you can move it to your INBOX to store it or reply to it.

If you don't want to move it to the INBOX or if the stock SMS/MMS app didn't lose the message (screenshot #1 and... good for you, by the way!), you can safely delete it from the internal database: no message from the INBOX is EVER deleted.

If this app helps you recover a precious message you didn't want lost, consider a small donation as a token of appreciation

Translations: thanks to GetLocalization.com, translating the app is now easy and doesn't require any technical skill. Their web interface allows you to translate even just parts of the app. Want to see Ghostly SMS in your own language? Now you can.

Permissions:
- SMS permissions are needed to write to the INBOX.
- Read contacts is needed to show the contact name in the list.
- Vibrating is needed to... vibrate on SMS received.
- Internet/Network is needed to show Ads. No other network communication is done.
- Billing permission is needed for donations. Donations will unlock two optional features (Remove Ads and Use delayed notification) and will increase your karma.

The app can be downloaded for free from Google Play.


Compatibility with other messaging apps
There are some messaging apps which can automatically disable Ghostly SMS (or any other SMS receiving app, such as alarm receivers and so on).
If you use Go SMS! Pro make sure that you leave the following option UNCHECKED: Settings > Receive settings > Disable other message notification
If you use Handcent SMS, update to 4.6.3 (or above) and then go to Settings -> Application Settings -> Lower Priority. Make sure it is CHECKED.

Delayed Notification HOWTO
If you enable this option, when a SMS is received, Ghostly will save it in its internal DB, then it will wait as may seconds as you set up the "Delay (in seconds)" value. The default is 20 seconds, it should be enough for almost everybody but you can try and increase it as you see fit.

Once the delay is over, Ghostly will search the INBOX for a message from the same address and with almost the same "sent date". It will broaden the search with the value set up as "Time accuracy (in milliseconds)". 500 ms should be enough, but you can try increasing it if you keep getting double notifications. On my Desire Z running CyanogenMod 7.0 I need 1200 ms.

Why is a "accuracy" needed? Because (sadly) Android doesn't use the sent-date to store the message, but the local time/date when the SMS/MMS app processed the message. This means some kind of tolerance is needed.

If you enable the "Use sent date" in Ghostly SMS and in the stock SMS app, you should not need accuracy at all. Only do it if your SMS app has the option to save the "message sent date". Enable the GMT correction if you see a date which is wrong exactly the amount of hours you differ from GMT (only if your stock SMS app does the same!).

Donations
Since 1.12, Ghostly supports In-app donations. If you donate, you will unlock two optional features (read above for details). Once you click on an icon, you'll be prompted w/ the classic Android Market interface where you can choose to confirm or refuse the donation.
This way, once you donate, the features will be unlocked forever, even if you wipe your phone, since they'll be tied to your Android Market account. Just open the main screen, hit MENU and select "Donations". The app will synchronize with the Market and restore your donation information.
Thank you!

Changelog
201410-27 - 1.31
- Sorry for the long and overdue update! However… KitKat is now properly supported!
- Android 4.4 KitKat and Android 5.0 Lollipop support!
- Fixed small bugs reported through Play Store.
- Translation updates.

2013-03-24 - 1.30.1
- Updates to German and Hungarian translations.
- Smaller in-app donation tiers!

2013-03-06 - 1.30
- Improved compatibility with IceCreamSandwich and above.
- Increased app priority when receiving messages.
- Fix: "Dial %s" in JellyBean notifications.
- Updates to French, Hungarian, Italian, Dutch, Polish and Romanian translations.

2013-01-05 - 1.29
- Fix for FC when opening app w/ Ice Cream Sandwich or above. Please, contact me if you still get the FC and let me know the version of Android you're running as the automated "Report" information is incomplete.
- Fix for FC when switching to SMS/MMS app on devices with no SMS/MMS app (no, seriously?)
- New Chinese (Hong Kong) translation.
- Updates to other translations.

2012-12-01 - 1.28
- Android 4.2 support
- New Greek and Hungarian translations.
- r1: Fixed translation bugs which caused FC when opening app or settings.

2012-09-01 - 1.27
- New notification with full text and call/reply buttons (Jelly Bean 4.1+ only).

2012-08-06 - 1.26.2
- Fixed FC when adjusting accuracy.
- Sorry for the many updates!

2012-08-06 - 1.26.1
- Fixed FC for Polish users.
- Improved button layout on non English translations.

2012-08-05 - 1.26
- Added option to use contact icon in notification (Android 3+).
- Added check for presence of conflicting apps.
- Added light themes.
- Added quick action button to go to Messaging app.
- New longpress action: dial number.
- New Persian (Farsi), German, Polish and Dutch translation.
- Revised icons.

2012-07-01 - 1.25
- Android 4.1 Jelly Bean compatibility update.

2012-04-06 - 1.24
- Many optimizations in list display and action handling.
- Faster loading of messages (except for the first time after updating the app!)
- No more "Loading data" after deleting or moving a message, list will be updated instantly.
- Automatic refresh of list data.
- Reverted list order ("last received message on top") to match the stock SMS/MMS app.
- New Romanian translation

2012-03-03 - 1.23
- Android 4.0 "IceCreamSandwich" look & feel on older devices too!

2011-12-31 - 1.22
- Fixed "Force-close" on "Delete all". Bug reported on the Android Market

2011-12-27 - 1.21
- No more lag in list scrolling!
- Focus on last received message
- Long press on a received message to adjust delayed notification accuracy.

2011-12-10 - 1.20
- New option to ignore messages from certain numbers.
- Long-press on a received message to add that to the ignored numbers.

2011-12-05 - 1.19
- Support for Android 4.0 - Ice Cream Sandwich.
- Support for Android 2.1 - Eclair, as requested on the forum.
- Eclair, Froyo, Gingerbread, Ice Cream Sandwich... time to drop "Gingerbread" from the name!

2011-11-12 - 1.18
- Updated Google AdMob framework.

2011-10-31 - 1.17
- Fixed bug introduced in 1.16, sorry for the inconvenience.

2011-10-30 - 1.16
- Improved handling of long messages (no more double notification).
- Fixed bug reported on Android Market when selecting "Reply" from contextual menu.

2011-10-20 - 1.15
- Replaced contact name to contact number in notification.
- Fixed bug where some contacts would show a bigger icon in the list.
- Fixed bug of "View contact details" when contact has no details.

2011-10-09 - 1.14
- Fixed bug with automatic deletion of received messages.
- New feature: automatic 'Move to INBOX' for lost messages.

2011-10-07 - 1.13.1
- Minor bugfix in latest 1.13 release, sorry for the mistake.

2011-10-07 - 1.13
- New option to use sent date or received date when displaying and moving messages to the INBOX, with GMT correction option (thanks to CyanogenMod)

2011-10-06 - 1.12 "It should be called 2.0!"
- Ability to disable ads [Requires a donation]
- Long requested feature: remove duplicate notifications! [Requires a donation]
- Added contact icon in list display
- Contact name and message body on a single line to save screen space; fixed text wrap
- Added to contextual menu: reply, view contact details
- More code optimization

2011-07-20 - 1.11
- Faster list display

2011-06-11 - 1.10
- Added to contextual menu: move and delete
- Added customization of notification (sound, vibrate, custom vibration pattern, silent)
- Fixed typo in "it" localization

2010-06-05 - 1.9
- Confirmation dialog on "Move all" to improve usability.
- Fixed a FC reported on the Market
- Added a contextual menu to the list, available options are "copy text to clipboard" and "share text".

2011-05-29 - 1.8
- Fixed FC reported to Android Market. Thanks, anonymous reporter!
- Added the option to hide notifications

2011-05-07 - 1.7
- Fixed a rare FC when a message was deleted and phone was under heavy load
- Allowed installation on Android 2.2 FroYo due to popular demand

2011-04-29 - 1.6
- Added count of recovered messages
- UI fixes

2011-04-17 - 1.5
- Fixed FC when deleting all messages.
- Reworked code to get a faster app.

2011-04-16 - 1.4
- Split messages are joined into a single one (only for newly received messages)
- Complete metadata is restored when moving to INBOX (eg: original carrier date in place of when you moved it)
- GUI fixes, so that the progress bar is shown every time the database is read.

2011-04-10 - 1.3
- Added missing texts from "it" localization
- Contact name lookup in the main list & popup view.

2011-04-09 - 1.2
- Added "it" localization

2011-04-09 - 1.1
- First public release on market

2011-03-18 - 1.0
- First private release on XDA

2012-08-05 - 1.26
- Added option to use contact icon in notification (Android 3+).
- Added check for presence of conflicting apps.
- Added light themes.
- Added quick action button to go to Messaging app.
- New longpress action: dial number.
- New Persian (Farsi), German, Polish and Dutch translation.
- Revised icons.

And so... in order to avoid any possible litigation with Google, a new icon comes forward. And it's really... ghostly!

People who requested a quick button to go to the Messaging app and a long press menu item to dial the sender will be happy. Sorry it took so long for the release, but every time I was ready to publish it, a new idea came to me and I wanted to add it to the release. This is how you get themes and revised icons. And the check for the presence of conflicting apps!

I'm not yet satisfied 100%: the two buttons "Move all to INBOX" and "Delete all messages" are way too big and are really ugly especially on IceCreamSandwich/Jellybean. I'm thinking of replacing them with icons together with the "Go to Messaging app", "Donate", "Settings" and "Info", but then you'd end up with a lot of icons and I'm not really sure it would be nice. UI (User Interface) is really the most difficult part for me.

2014-10-27 - 1.31
- Sorry for the long and overdue update! However… KitKat is now properly supported!
- Android 4.4 KitKat and Android 5.0 Lollipop support!
- Fixed small bugs reported through Play Store.
- Translation updates.

Finally, proper KitKat support. Sorry it took this long.

2012-08-06 - 1.26.1
- Fixed FC for Polish users.
- Improved button layout on non English translations.

Ok, 1.26.1 is online, w/ fix to the polish translation and some improvements to the bottom buttons. They aren't as ugly as they were!
Thank you for the patience, and I'll put in place some checks to be sure translations don't break the next release. Keep in mind that translators must be praised for their work, don't be angry at them.

What the...?!? It looks like I completely forgot to update the thread with the new release.

2012-03-03 - 1.23
- Android 4.0 "IceCreamSandwich" look & feel on older devices too!

And so, 94% of Android devices (2.1+) can experience Ghostly SMS with the look and feel of the remaining 3-4% devices (3.2+).