Spread : an AppWidget to broadcast short messages to registered contacts

This is my first application for Android and instead of creating a simple activity that displays "Hello World" and some buttons, I'll try to make something that can be more useful (for me at least ^^).

Spread ? 

Yes, Spread. At some point, you have to give it a name and my imagination let me down today... so Spread it is ! The name gives me the thought of paint sprays where a push on a specific spot releases colour on a wide area. That's more or less what my app will do : a simple push to send a message to several contacts.

How ?

I want it to be a home screen widget with the look of a punch button with a simple message on it:

 A configuration activity will be created to configure:

•  The message 
•  The contact list that will receive it

When pushed, a progress bar will show up during message transmission.
The mode of transmission will be classical SMS. I will se later if I can do the same with popular communication apps (WhatsApp, Messenger, ...).

Where does the idea come from ?

The idea was born at the office when I was sick of texting my colleagues who worked on different floors that it was time to lunch, break, ... So I imagined a simple texting app that will alert all of them on a single button-push.

Cem SOYDING

Author & Editor

Senior software engineer with 12 years of experience in both embedded systems and C# .NET