QuickRCS

A termux - android-api script that gives a dialog and sends message to a particular person emulating key-presses using adb .

Dependencies §

Apps §

Applications required to run the script.

termux
termux:api
termux:widget
shizuku
nova
google-messages

CLI §

CLI tools used in the script.

sed
awk
tr
cat
touch
rish
termux-dialog
adb

Scripts §

Main Script §

This is the script that is kept on the ~/.shortcuts/tasks/ directory and will be executed with a gesture/key-press.

#!/bin/bash
## Refreshes the `sms` file to have `substitutethis` in it.
cat ~/scripts/text/smsbkp > ~/scripts/text/sms
 
## Invokes a dialog and extracts the text as a variable.
message=$(termux-dialog -t "Send a Message" -i "Enter Your Message Here" | awk "/text/" | tr -d \" | awk '{$1="";print}' | sed -e 's/ //')
 
## A variable for the word to be substituted in the `smsbkp` file,
message_to_sub='substitutethis'
 
## Substituting the placeholder to the actual message.
sed -i "s/$message_to_sub/$message/" ~/scripts/text/sms
 
## Executing `sms` script to get to the messaging page.
rish < ~/scripts/text/sms
 
## Wait
sleep 0.1
 
## Hitting `d-pad next` to reach to the send icon whick is 2 presses far.
rish < ~/rish/buttons/next
 
## Wait
sleep 0.1
 
## Hitting `d-pad next` to reach to the send icon whick is 1 press far.
rish < ~/rish/buttons/next
 
## Wait
sleep 0.1
 
## Hitting `enter` to send the message.
rish < ~/rish/buttons/enter

SMS Backup §

This is the file (smsbkp) that gets modified and set as sms in the previous script. It is required to send different messages on each request. This is an adb command to write message in the text-box of a particular phone number.

am start -a android.intent.action.SENDTO -d sms:+9779876543210 --es sms_body "substitutethis" --ez exit_on_sent true

This is to create sms file if not available.

touch sms

Buttons §

These are the keyevents which are used for hitting d-pad left and enter to send the message.

# next
input keyevent 22
# enter
input keyevent 66

Step By Step Instructions §

1. Set up shizuku, and set up rish inside termux by following the instructions in the app under “Use Shizuku in terminal apps”. Do not forget to add rish and the dex to the path after making it executable chmod +x [filename].
2. Set up termux, install termux:api app and termux-api package by pkg install termux-api to access the API of android system for dialog.
3. Install termux: widget and grant it the required permissions.
4. We can run commands on rish byrish < filename where ‘filename’ will be the file that contains a command like input keyevent 22 and these commands are adb commands so, any command that can run on an adb shell can run with rish.
5. Make a directory for scripts, in my case it’s ~/scripts/text/ and put the command for smsbkp in a file called smsbkp.
6. Make an empty file named sms on the scripts directory by running touch sms.
7. Make a directory for key-presses, in my case it’s ~/rish/buttons/ and put the respective commands for next and enter with the same filename.
8. Set up termux:widget by making a directory called ~/.shortcuts with mkdir ~/.shortcuts and to run the processes in the background make another directory called ~/.shortcuts/tasks/ and put the main script inside it with a desired filename, in my case it’s text.
9. You can run it from a widget of termux:widget or set it as a button using any shortcut creator. I used nova and set it to a gesture.
10. At last, read the script nicely, if it fails to run then try to debug the problem yourself.