Why would sendTextMessage require READ_PHONE_STATE permission?

Question

My app sent home this stack trace which seems as though something very wrong is going on under the hood.

phone_model=SKY IM-A630K, android_version=2.1-update1

Answer 1

I had the same problem with an HTC phone (Desire 728G) Dual Sim and I had to include "READ_PHONE_STATE" but now Google is asking for a privacy policy, and because I am too lazy to do it :) I did some research and I found a better way without the use of "READ_PHONE_STATE". The problem is that some devices (mainly dual sim) need the "READ_PHONE_STATE" permission to look for the default "SubscriptionId" that is what happens when you call "SmsManager.getDefault()". Below is the code I am using to avoid this issue by assigning the value (1) to SubscriptionId if any exception accrued:

            SmsManager smsManager = SmsManager.getDefault();

            if (android.os.Build.VERSION.SDK_INT >= 22){
                Log.e("Alert","Checking SubscriptionId");
            try {
                Log.e("Alert","SubscriptionId is " + smsManager.getSubscriptionId());
            } catch (Exception e) {
                Log.e("Alert",e.getMessage());
                Log.e("Alert","Fixed SubscriptionId to 1");
                smsManager = SmsManager.getSmsManagerForSubscriptionId(1);
            }
            }

            smsManager.sendTextMessage(mobileNumber, null, msgStr, null, null);