RapidSMS for the Android Platform

Rapid Android is a supply chain management and data collection tool built on Android, the open source phone operating system. Rapid Android is a collaboration between UNICEF’s Innovation Group and Dimagi in an initiative of the Open Mobile Consortium.

The Challenge

Data collection in the field requires light-weight agile tools that allow field staff to easily create surveys and enter data. While there are many applications that make data collection easier, they require hardware and often backend infrastructure, in addition to technical expertise.

What is Rapid Android?

Built on the same conceptual model as another OMC technology, RapidSMS, Rapid Android is a unique platform in which a phone can be used for both data entry and aggregation.

Rapid Android is a hybrid – both an SMS Gateway server AND a client. Rapid Android allows users to use the Android phone as a mini-server as well as a client. Users can enter data, create surveys and rapidly analyze data in the field. Rapid Android is a complete two-way SMS solution that allows for analysis and processing on the actual phone. (Note that Rapid Android is not a complete Web server and currently cannot host forms which are accessible from a remote computer.)

Rapid Android makes deploying field-based SMS data collections systems both easier to use and more affordable. Rapid Android simplifies the SMS gateway problem for mobile deployments that exist in many parts of the world — that is, the absence or cost of international or local gateways.

Rapid Android includes many of the original features of RapidSMS including:

• Ability to send and receive bulk SMS messages to groups of people

• Data collection via SMS forms which are editable on the phone

• Local data entry using standard SDK Android forms

• View and aggregate data from incoming SMS messages

• Plot data in graphs and export via Excel over a WiFi link

Benefits

Some advantages of Rapid Android include:

• Price – Rapid Android is a free platform available on any Android Phone which costs approximately $300 U.S., and getting cheaper. Android on netbooks makes this even more exciting.

• Power – A phone requires much less power than a laptop, can be charged from 12V and has a built in UPS (battery).

• Technical Expertise – Rapid Android phones can be easily deployed with field staff, minimizing the need for a technical person on the deployment side.

• Data entry – Rapid Android is an ideal data entry device with touch screen, keyboard and form-based error corrections.

More Information

The application is free and open source and available at Google Marketplace and at RapidAndroid.org. For a video overview of the platform, please view our demo here.