Android™ Application Development - Bahar Ali Khan

Chapter 9: Peer-to-Peer Communication
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}
}
}
boolean includeLoc = prefs.getBoolean(includeLocationPref, false);
respond(_from, respondText, includeLoc);
You should now have a fully functional interactive and automated emergency responder.
You can test it in the same way as described in the previous example by using a second emulator instance
to receive the response messages, and the emulator controls to send the requests for status updates.
Summary
Technologies like SMS and instant messaging are providing an increasingly versatile platform for person-to-person
communication.
Android lets you use these text-based communication channels to create applications that let users send
messages using instant messengers and SMS texts, as well as supplying an invisible data conduit for
your applications to exchange data between devices.
In this chapter, you learned how to connect to IM Sessions using the GTalk Service and how to send
and receive text and data messages using these sessions. You learned about presence, how to set your
own presence, and how to fi nd the presence of the contacts on the IM roster.
You also used the SMS Manager to send and receive text and data messages from your applications.
This chapter also showed you how future SDK release may allow you to:
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Add and remove instant messaging contacts.
Block contacts and monitor the roster for changes.
Manage group chats and chat rooms.
Chapter 10 explores access to the low-level mobile hardware.
Using the phone’s telephony services, you’ll initiate new calls and monitor both outgoing and incoming
calls. You’ll be introduced to Android’s multimedia capabilities and use the media API to play back and
record a variety of media resources.
You’ll also learn how to interact with the Sensor Manager to access the compass and accelerometer
before investigating network management using the Wi-Fi and Bluetooth APIs.