Permission Denial , even after adding the correct permission in the manifest

Question

I am developing an app which listens to incoming sms. I have added the permission:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />

to my app manifest. And yes, it is not inside the receiver tag.

I am trying to test the app by sending a sms from one emulator to another. My logcat gets the following entry :

WARN/ActivityManager(66): Permission Denial: receiving Intent { act=android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED (has extras) } to com.android.LUC requires android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS due to sender com.android.phone (uid 1001)

The weird part is that when I am testing the app on emulator running android 3.2 it works fine!

App Manifest :

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<manifest xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
      package="com.android.sms"
      android:versionCode="1"
      android:versionName="1.0">

    <uses-sdk android:minSdkVersion="8" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />
    <uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_SMS" />

    <application android:icon="@drawable/icon" android:label="@string/app_name" android:permission="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS">
        <activity android:name=".TestSMSReceiveActivity"
                  android:label="@string/app_name">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.intent.action.MAIN" />
                <category android:name="android.intent.category.LAUNCHER" />
            </intent-filter>
        </activity>

        <receiver android:name=".mysmstestcall" android:enabled="true">
            <intent-filter>
                <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED" />
            </intent-filter>
        </receiver>

    </application>
</manifest>

mysmstestcall is the broadcastreceiver class and TestSMSReceiveActivity is the main activity. The app fails to receive message in emulator running android 2.2. Please help!!

Answer 1

OK the problem is in your manifest. My working SMS broadcast receiver has the following manifest entry:

<receiver
    android:name=".IncomingSmsBroadcastReceiver"
    android:enabled="true"
    android:exported="true">
    <intent-filter>
        <action android:name="android.provider.Telephony.SMS_RECEIVED" />
    </intent-filter>
</receiver>

You do not need an android:permission attribute on the receiver. You just need the following permission to receive the broadcast and be able to look at the contents of the message:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.RECEIVE_SMS" />

The thing most often missed is android:exported="true" when declaring the receiver which is required as you are receiving a broadcast that originates from outside your own application. Needless to say, the default for this property is 'false'. Happy SMS Receiving.