Answering/declining calls programmatically
KimH
I believe died out before actually getting a solution:
http://groups.google.com/group/android-platform/browse_thread/thread/5c05730da7309ac3/296b749f1ee68008
I really need this functionality for an application I'm designing and
I do know that some people would say that it would be a security risk
to allow my application to automatically answer an incomming call.
However, I need to control my Android device from an external computer
and I need my Android application to be able to perform the following
and/or listen to the following events:
- Do something when a call is comming in.
- Accept an incomming call
- Decline an incomming call
- Perform an outgoing call
- End a call
As I understand it, it is not possible to do all of the above today.
That is why I would suggest that a custom application could get access
to the above functionality if the user of the device accepts it during
installation.
What do you think? Is it doable.... maybe even for Android 2.0?
KimH
Google Android core developers out there???
lbcoder
Probably never going to happen.
Example of problem;
MOST USERS ARE MORONS -- and will install things without looking over
the permissions that it requests or will ignore it if it asks for
permissions that don't make sense.
This will allow someone to write a nefarious program that randomly
prevents calls from coming through. Possibly with the intention of
making the platform look bad. Then the whole internet will be
inundated with complaints that android phones miss calls. If this
happens, the platform is virtually DEAD.
Another problem;
automatically accepting calls by nefarious programs.... "my phone just
answers calls without me pressing answer -- it has racked up $10526
worth of long distance international roaming charges. Again, platform
dead if there is a perception of being unreliable.
Automatically ending a call? Ouch. Isn't it enough that cell phone
calls already frequently drop? Public perception that android phones
drop calls more than other phones would be REALLY REALLY BAD.
If you want to do this kind of functionality, you are not going to be
able to deploy to regular customers -- it will definitely be limited
to devices that YOU specifically modify to do this.
Note: I feel for you. Just because you wouldn't abuse this kind of
ability doesn't mean that it wouldn't get abused by *anyone*. And just
because YOU look over the permission request upon software
installation doesn't meant that everyone will, or that everyone would
even *UNDERSTAND* what it means. You therefore need to live with
certain limitations that are in place to protect people from
themselves.
KimH
never ever rely on the platform for any serious business.
I can't see why this would "never going to happen" - even after
reading your great examples.
The security model on the Android platform is not good enough as of
now. I have a couple of suggestions that I really hope that the Google
Android developers will take into consideration:
Even though there is a user-controlled installation where the user
accepts the functions the application can access, I believe that this
should be made better in the following way...
The developer that creates an application should specify which
functions:
D.a) are mandatory for the application to work
D.b) is used by the application but is not mandatory
The user should be able to:
U.a) accept or deny installation like today
U.b) specify which of the D.b (see above) functions that the
application should be granted access to 'as is' and which ones the
user wants to accept every time the application makes use of them.
For special security like programatically accepting incomming calls,
programatically hangups etc. the Android might have the user accept
these settings in a 'are you really, really, really' way. Maybe the
Android could even show a little notification in the notification area
everytime such a functionality is triggered. This way no one can say
that Android phones 'just drops calls'.