How to send email in android

In Android, you can use Intent.ACTION_SEND to call an existing email client to send an Email.
See following code snippets :

	Intent email = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
	email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, new String[]{"youremail@yahoo.com"});		  
	email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, "subject");
	email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, "message");
	email.setType("message/rfc822");
	startActivity(Intent.createChooser(email, "Choose an Email client :"));

P.S This project is developed in Eclipse 3.7, and tested with Samsung Galaxy S2 (Android 2.3.3).

Run & test on real device only.
If you run this on emulator, you will hit error message : “No application can perform this action“. This code only work on real device.

1. Android Layout

File : res/layout/main.xml

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<LinearLayout xmlns:android="http://schemas.android.com/apk/res/android"
    android:id="@+id/linearLayout1"
    android:layout_width="fill_parent"
    android:layout_height="fill_parent"
    android:orientation="vertical" >
 
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textViewPhoneNo"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="To : "
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
 
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editTextTo"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:inputType="textEmailAddress" >
 
        <requestFocus />
 
    </EditText>
 
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textViewSubject"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Subject : "
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
 
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editTextSubject"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
         >
    </EditText>
 
    <TextView
        android:id="@+id/textViewMessage"
        android:layout_width="wrap_content"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Message : "
        android:textAppearance="?android:attr/textAppearanceLarge" />
 
    <EditText
        android:id="@+id/editTextMessage"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:gravity="top"
        android:inputType="textMultiLine"
        android:lines="5" />
 
    <Button
        android:id="@+id/buttonSend"
        android:layout_width="fill_parent"
        android:layout_height="wrap_content"
        android:text="Send" />
 
</LinearLayout>

2. Activity

Full activity class to send an Email. Read the onClick() method, it should be self-explanatory.

package com.mkyong.android;
 
import android.app.Activity;
import android.content.Intent;
import android.os.Bundle;
import android.view.View;
import android.view.View.OnClickListener;
import android.widget.Button;
import android.widget.EditText;
 
public class SendEmailActivity extends Activity {
 
	Button buttonSend;
	EditText textTo;
	EditText textSubject;
	EditText textMessage;
 
	@Override
	public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
		super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);
		setContentView(R.layout.main);
 
		buttonSend = (Button) findViewById(R.id.buttonSend);
		textTo = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editTextTo);
		textSubject = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editTextSubject);
		textMessage = (EditText) findViewById(R.id.editTextMessage);
 
		buttonSend.setOnClickListener(new OnClickListener() {
 
			@Override
			public void onClick(View v) {
 
			  String to = textTo.getText().toString();
			  String subject = textSubject.getText().toString();
			  String message = textMessage.getText().toString();
 
			  Intent email = new Intent(Intent.ACTION_SEND);
			  email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_EMAIL, new String[]{ to});
			  //email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_CC, new String[]{ to});
			  //email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_BCC, new String[]{to});
			  email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_SUBJECT, subject);
			  email.putExtra(Intent.EXTRA_TEXT, message);
 
			  //need this to prompts email client only
			  email.setType("message/rfc822");
 
			  startActivity(Intent.createChooser(email, "Choose an Email client :"));
 
			}
		});
	}
}

3. Demo

See default scree, fill in the detail, and click on the “send” button.

It will prompts your existing Email client to select.

In this case, i selected Gmail, and all previous filled in detail will be populated to Gmail client automatically.

Note
Android does not provide API to send Email directly, you have to call the existing Email client to send Email.

Download Source Code

Download it – Android-Send-Email-Example.zip (16 KB)