A family has asked me to prevent one of their children from sending text messages to certain numbers. (Please don't suggest they simply take away the phone or delete contacts.) I have seen many text message blocking applications, but it seems they can't block outgoing messages. As far as I know, Android is the only operating system that might allow blocking outgoing text messages. I've seen some old threads on XDA that suggest blocking outgoing text messages is impossible, but I doubt this is true today. I can think of two ways to do this:
1. Monitor the default text message application and prevent messages from being sent. This answer on Stack Overflow seems to suggest it's possible, although it seems the phone must be rooted: stackoverflow.com/a/20885911/1325179. (I haven't posted enough on XDA to include a link apparently.)
2. Replace the default text message application with a custom application that utilizes a parental control system. Apparently newer versions of Android allow for other applications to take over the text messaging role, and this new program could prevent messages from being sent to certain numbers.
So does anyone know of a program that already uses #1, #2, or anything else that might block outgoing text messages? I'm hoping a final product exists. Thanks.
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I have gotten several text messages from some spam numbers. a few have come from the same number, and a single one from a different number.
i know i cant block all potential spam texts, but is there a way to block a certain number if several of the texts are coming from that number?
on another note, why the heck would i be getting spam text messages? anyway to find out why or how?
Thanks
You are getting spam from people you give your phone number too... companies that sell that info to advertisers and such. If you text your radio station, they will spam you... if you do the fastest text thing at the baseball game, they could spam you... there are a bunch of reasons you get spam messages.
As for blocking specific numbers from texting you: YOU CAN'T YET...
"Can I block messages from a specific number?
No. At this time you are not able to block messages or calls from a specific mobile number. You can set up a filter if the message is coming from an e-mail address. For more information, go to How do I filter e-mails sent to my phone?"
That quote is Q&A from tmobile support site: http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23533.xml;jsessionid=t7wn25xmE5aZb51LVs?
ndhr3d said:
You are getting spam from people you give your phone number too... companies that sell that info to advertisers and such. If you text your radio station, they will spam you... if you do the fastest text thing at the baseball game, they could spam you... there are a bunch of reasons you get spam messages.
As for blocking specific numbers from texting you: YOU CAN'T YET...
"Can I block messages from a specific number?
No. At this time you are not able to block messages or calls from a specific mobile number. You can set up a filter if the message is coming from an e-mail address. For more information, go to How do I filter e-mails sent to my phone?"
That quote is Q&A from tmobile support site: http://support.t-mobile.com/doc/tm23533.xml;jsessionid=t7wn25xmE5aZb51LVs?
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You can block calls? Well blacklist them, and they can only leave a VM, but your phone wont ring.
Calls isn't the issue I don't think... at least not for me. I have all the phone numbers from telemarketers noted under a 'telemarketer' contact that I just ignore. Is that what you mean by 'blacklist'?? Simply assign a silent ringer to them and ignore them when they call??
I called tmo and they can't block certain numbers, u have to dl an app, search sms block or something, there is a few on the market
ill check out the app. thanks guys. its mostly texts, only a call here and there. i dont text my radio station or anything like that, so not sure how i got on these lists.
like i said, its not really calls so black listing them wont really work. ill look for an app to block sms like 98 classic said
You can also use Mr. Number. When a text or call comes in from an unknown number it'll try and locate it for you. A notification will pop up on the screen prompting you to save, spam, or simply ignore the number. If you spam it, you can see other people's reports about that number as well as report it yourself. This also blocks incoming texts from the number as well.
Works like a charm!
Sexy Vibrant featuring Bionix Fusion 1.1. JAC's OC/UV kernel, FFC installed
kboater said:
I have gotten several text messages from some spam numbers. a few have come from the same number, and a single one from a different number.
i know i cant block all potential spam texts, but is there a way to block a certain number if several of the texts are coming from that number?
on another note, why the heck would i be getting spam text messages? anyway to find out why or how?
Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
App: Handcent SMS
Not only can you blacklist (block all contact) from specific numbers...but it is arguably 10x better than stock messaging app and is highly customizeable
TopShelf10 said:
App: Handcent SMS
Not only can you blacklist (block all contact) from specific numbers...but it is arguably 10x better than stock messaging app and is highly customizeable
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Click to collapse
And it also hogs your phones memory, lags it down and uses twice as much battery as the stock messaging app
Sent from my Galaxy S with GINGERBREAD using XDA app
Buy something from t-mobile called "Allowances" and block the numbers on there.
It works like a charm
I have a black list of contacts. I want block incoming and outgoing sms for this contacts. How block incoming sms I know, but how about outgoing sms?
Please, help me with this task.
Thanks a lot!
I don't see the problem with outgoing sms ??? Just don't text these people.
As for incoming sms have you tried applications like Call & SMS Filter or Call Blocker X?
Sent from my Vision using XDA App
missparker76 said:
I don't see the problem with outgoing sms ??? Just don't text these people.
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It's not so easy
I want to block some contacts, so that my children never have written to them
I can think of 2 options quickly:
1. Don't let the kids use the phone
2. Buy them their own phone
I suppose an application could be created to do what you want. Or maybe something like adding a password to certain entires in you Contacts.
I'm actually finishing-up an app that functions as a SMS spam blocker; maybe my next app will be adding a password function to Contacts.
Just checked android default sms app and sms content provider source code, it looks like it's not possible to intercept and cancel outgoing message. It's a pity that we're not able to add this functionality to our future parental control app.
I'm not overly impressed with whomever coded the SMS and Contacts databases and have given considerable thought to writing my own. I found this out when writing my SpamText blocker which I kind of put on the back-burner due to fear of deleting ALL text messages from someone's phone. That whole "thread_id" is scary, at least to me.
I like the "conversations" feature of SMS, but it really should be broken-down by day or make any text in the conversation deleteable. I might get 10 texts from one person in a day, but just might want to save 4 of them because they have some valuable information.
Then there is a security issue with coding this type of application; Android gives the developer a lot of rope regarding messaging.
If your children are the one whos playing with your phone, why don't you use one of those pw locking apps? You can choose to lock whichever app you want with it.
deaffob said:
If your children are the one whos playing with your phone, why don't you use one of those pw locking apps? You can choose to lock whichever app you want with it.
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I think the use case is just to allow children to sms and call to fixed numbers only.
Rootstonian said:
or make any text in the conversation deleteable.
.
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You can't delete individual texts? What?
Nope, at least on my Droid X default SMS client. All distinct phone numbers and SMS messages are grouped together in a "conversation" no matter if that person texts 10 times in one day or 100 times over 6 months.
I know you can set a message limit, but I'm not sure what it does if you set it to 5 and get the 6th message from the same #; maybe someone else knows...
I have been searching for blocking outgoing test messages also but for a different reason.
I live near the border and allthough my phone is set to only my home network every now and than it switches to roaming and pretty often I send text messages by accident while roaming. Sometimes it switches networks while I am typing the message or it looses connection and I am at the mercy of which network it will connect and send the text message.
So an app that would block outgoing text messages while roaming (or maybe even only sending on home network) would come in very handy.
Why don't you just delete the contacts? Easiest solution
TheRedDrake said:
Why don't you just delete the contacts? Easiest solution
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You should read my post! Obviously I need all my contacts to call/text whenever I am not roaming!
I m also interested in blocking outgoing msg to specific number, my wife is Canada so she send me msgs from her canadian phone no. and I reply to serbian one, which is free - included in my monthly fee, but every now and than i reply to her canadian which costs me, and it wouldnt be big of a deal, but my courier dont have contract with hers so they charge for the sms, which she doesnt receive, so was trying to find a way to block outgoing msg to her canadian no. but need to be able to receive from it
puska said:
I m also interested in blocking outgoing msg to specific number, my wife is Canada so she send me msgs from her canadian phone no. and I reply to serbian one, which is free - included in my monthly fee, but every now and than i reply to her canadian which costs me, and it wouldnt be big of a deal, but my courier dont have contract with hers so they charge for the sms, which she doesnt receive, so was trying to find a way to block outgoing msg to her canadian no. but need to be able to receive from it
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As far as I know there is no way of intercepting outgoing messages. very strange that we can do almost anything on a smartphone but have very limited control over basic operations like sending text message options.
Same goes for LED notification, should be standard on all phones. (2 of my biggest annoyances espcially as it concerns very basic phone operations)
Android system does not provide a way to block outgoing SMS.
The similar question was discussed on Android Developers hung out on
26-Apr-2012, and Android Developers stated clearly that it is not
possible.
One suggestion was to put the phone into Airplane mode at the time of
sent SMS intent, but again its unlikely to put the phone into
airplane mode pro-grammatically.
The similar issue has been already discussed on android-platform Group
as well.
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want to block foreign sms's
I also have the above problem of my wife sending texts to foreign countries and getting charged. Usually she sends via fishtext which is affordable but every now and then if she is in a hurry or forgets to use the fishtext widget she sends via normal sms mode which costs a ton.
I cant believe there is no simple app to stop the user sending sms's.
Everyone has a 'cute' solution (like delete the contacts lol!) but they don't realise the difficulty of trying to manage another persons phone but one that you still have to pay the bills for e.g. kids or spouse.
Surely there must be an app out there that does this although I can currently find it!!!
Anyone??
There some app in android send sms without permission
It is always not easy when children are involved in any process They are so quick that sometimes it is difficult to notice that they have taken your phone and started pressing buttons. When you realize it, it is already late and the messages have been sent.
Why not get an app locker and lock the messaging app.
On a per contact basis, many apps have block features built in but not to block sms completely.
missparker76 said:
I don't see the problem with outgoing sms ??? Just don't text these people.
As for incoming sms have you tried applications like Call & SMS Filter or Call Blocker X?
Sent from my Vision using XDA App
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Some apps send messages without your consent.
And even some ROMs.
For example son phones (Xiaomi) with MIUI try to send an SMS to China to activate your SIM but they don't do it well, it doesn't work you spend money every time you reboot your phone.
I am developing an android SMS sending app and is in stuck state due to a prompt being popped up always when i run my app. Message is given below. After pretty long search through web, there is no solution other than to root android phone to make it work. Now my question is, when google give an option like this as part of security(well it is very good), why there is no option to turn it off willingly by the phone user? Or is there any API where I can read the setting internally and adjust SMS send count based on that?
"_APP_ is sending a large number of SMS messages. Do you want to allow this app to continue sending messages?"
No there is no way to stop it. Also carriers have a similar setup going. They will block the messages if too many are sent in an amount of time. It is to prevent spamming.
every few weeks, i (along with 9 other numbers) get a spam text with only a link in it, which of course, i don't click. however, there is no "from" phone number shown...just all of the numbers of the 10 people receiving the text. i can delete the text, but i cannot block it thru the android messaging app.....the block option isn't even shown when i click on the message and then on the three dots in the messaging app.
anyone have another way to block a message like this? or even to find out who sent it? it's so annoying!!
any help would be welcomed!! thanks!
(i do have a call/message app installed for spam calls, so i may switch to that for a month or so to see if i can block it that way.)
[galaxy note 8, android v.8.0.0]
Hello,
I use/rely on Send SMS actions in multiple macros, throughout the macro stages to give me real time updates of what's happening in the Macros. It works fine for most parts.
The problem with some mobile carriers, specifically the one I use: Mint mobile (which is a MVNO on the T-Mobile network) that after sending many text messages, they might block you from sending new messages or put an invisible bottle neck so some text messages might arrive with a big delay or won't arrive at all. This makes it very unreliable and tricky as some "notification received" based triggers that you know that were supposed to trigger but didn't, so it's not entirely clear if it's because some legit issue with the notification not being received or identified by Macrodroid (yes, I know you can look at the macro logs) or just because your mobile carrier prevented you from receiving new text messages for a short duration.
All of this, is leading me to look for Send SMS alternatives (don't think Send Email is a good enough alternative as I want to receive notifications in my phone - And emails could suffer from the issues described above too) that don't require UI Interaction, and let me explain why: These are the main cons/issues with sending messages that require UI Interaction (for example Send WhatsApp message action that's being offered inside Macrodroid):
a.) If you have any macro that uses UI Interaction, and you want to send a message throughout the macro, because sending a message requires UI Interaction, this could break the existing flow of the macro as you need to be able to return to the same screen and state that you had before you had to send a message through UI Interaction.
b.) If you have multiple macros being triggered at the same time, and they all need to send messages, this will create a race condition - So what do you do? I don't think Macrodroid has a semaphore mechanism to prevent such case? As you basically need to make any existing macro to go to sleep, wait until the current macro that's using ui interaction to send a message finishes, before the ones that wait can continue in the same order they requested to send the message.
With that being said, are there any alternative ways (without rooting the phone) to send messages through 3rd party apps, without using UI Interaction?
Some methods to consider:
1.) Can you use the "send intent" action to tell an app to send a message to a certain user/phone without actually using UI Interaction? I know this could pose a security risk and it's unlikely to exist in any major big 3rd party messaging apps, but maybe smaller ones or ones that were created exactly for this purpose (such as MDHelper is using an older SDK to support certain actions that Macrodroid can't do)?
2.) Could you use some sort of APIs of certain big messaging apps, such as WhatsApp, Skype, Viber, Telegram, etc to send a message to a certain user/phone just by issuing some API call? Is there any support like that in Macrodroid to login to these services and then send messages (This is more Postman program level I suppose so might be a little out of scope)?
3.) Perhaps a more practical approach to avoid issues a & b, is simply not to use UI Interaction but simply send a message with the details (using send email or something like that - which again, as stated above, might not be 100% reliable) to another machine/phone that handles sending the messages, which is creating another point of failure, and could add some overhead/delay, so might not be the most ideal solution either.
Any other methods or alternatives that you know or could recommend?
Thank you.