Android dual SIM card API

There are several questions about accessing dual SIM features through the Android SDK, all of which are answered with brief statements that such features are unsupported in Android.

In spite of this, dual SIM phones do exist, and applications like MultiSim seem to be able to detect this in some kind of manufacturer-independent way.

So, beginning with that acknowledgement, let me try to ask some more pointed questions:

• Does "Android SDK does not support multiple SIM features" mean that these features do not exist, or that it is merely a bad idea to try to use them?
• Is there an Android content provider or an internal package (com.android...) that provides SIM card information? (TelephonyManager, as far as I can see in the docs and the code, has no mention of multiple SIM cards)
• Is there any report of any manufacturer exposing multiple SIM features to developers?
• If I were to look for undocumented functionality from a manufacturer, how would I go about that?

(By the way, the point of all of this is merely to implement this algorithm: send an SMS with SIM card 1; if delivery fails, switch to SIM card 2 and resend the message that way.)

Solution 1:

You can use MultiSim library to get details from multi-sim devices.

Available info from each sim card: IMEI, IMSI, SIM Serial Number, SIM State, SIM operator code, SIM operator name, SIM country iso, network operator code, network operator name, network operator iso, network type, roaming status.

Just add the lines below in your app-level Gradle script:

dependencies {
    compile 'com.kirianov.multisim:multisim:2.0@aar'
}

Don't forget add required permission in AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.ACCESS_NETWORK_STATE"/>
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.READ_PHONE_STATE"/>

Use similar code in your code:

MultiSimTelephonyManager multiSimTelephonyManager = new MultiSimTelephonyManager(this);
// or
MultiSimTelephonyManager multiSimTelephonyManager = new MultiSimTelephonyManager(this, new BroadcastReceiver() {
  @Override
  public void onReceive(Context context, Intent intent) {
    updateInfo();
  }
});


public void updateInfo() {

  // for update UI
  runOnUiThread(new Runnable() {
    @Override
    public void run() {
      multiSimTelephonyManager.update();
      useInfo();
    }
  }

  // for update background information
  multiSimTelephonyManager.update();
  useInfo();
}

public void useInfo() {

  // get number of slots:
  if (multiSimTelephonyManager != null) {
     multiSimTelephonyManager.sizeSlots();
  }

  // get info from each slot:
  if (multiSimTelephonyManager != null) {
    for(int i = 0; i < multiSimTelephonyManager.sizeSlots(); i++) {
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getImei();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getImsi();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getSimSerialNumber();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getSimState();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getSimOperator();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getSimOperatorName();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getSimCountryIso();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getNetworkOperator();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getNetworkOperatorName();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getNetworkCountryIso();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).getNetworkType();
      multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).isNetworkRoaming();
    }
  }
}

// or for devices above android 6.0
MultiSimTelephonyManager multiSimTelephonyManager = new MultiSimTelephonyManager(MyActivity.this, broadcastReceiverChange);

Usage:

// get info about slot 'i' by methods:
multiSimTelephonyManager.getSlot(i).

Force update info:

// force update phone info (needed on devices above android 6.0 after confirm permissions request)
multiSimTelephonyManager.update();

Handle of permissions request (6.0+):

// in YourActivity for update info after confirm permissions request on  devices above android 6.0
@Override
public void onRequestPermissionsResult(int requestCode, String[] permissions, int[] grantResults) {
    super.onRequestPermissionsResult(requestCode, permissions, grantResults);
    if (multiSimTelephonyManager != null) {
        multiSimTelephonyManager.update();
    }
}

Solution 2:

there are 3 different categories ...

1. features supported and documented
2. Features available and un-documented
3. features unavailable

So the dual sim features are available but not documented and hence not officially supported.

Having said that it doesn't mean that it will not be usable , It just means that android(or for that matter google or even manufaturer) is not liable to support your apps functionality.

But it might just work , for eg the contacts is a similar thing.

You might then ask up how would everyone know about the features if in case its not documented.. Hey android is open source .. go look into code and find it for yourself . Thats what I guess the multi sim developers did.

Solution 3:

Android does not support multiple SIM features before API 22. But from Android 5.1 (API level 22) onwards, Android started supporting multiple SIMs. More details on Android Documentation

Reference from this Original Answer