Error when send two or more messages

I am using the Cordova SMS plugin to send messages from an application developed with Ionic. When the “friends” array has length = 1 the SMS is sent. But when you have more than that, sometimes the messages do not arrive, or worse, the same number gets two messages. Is there something wrong with this code? The problematic part of the code is as follows:

$rootScope.showLoading('Enviando mensagen(s)!');

var loopPromises = [];

$rootScope.friends = [{
            nome: 'David',
            telefone: '83777777777'
        }, {
            nome: 'Edvan',
            telefone: '83444444444'
        }, {
            nome: 'Débora',
            telefone: '83888888888'
        }]

var interno = {
      nome: "#App",
      telefone: "83222222222"
}
$rootScope.friends.push(interno)

angular.forEach($rootScope.friends, function (a) {
  var deferred = $q.defer();
  loopPromises.push(deferred.promise);
  var texto = '';
  if (a.telefone == "83222222222") {
    texto = "Internal report"
    $rootScope.friends.pop();
  } else {
    texto = "Hello! I'm here!"
  }

  $cordovaSms.send(a.telefone, texto)
    .then(deferred.resolve, deferred.reject);
});

$q.all(loopPromises).then(function (results) {
  $rootScope.hideLoading();
  $rootScope.showToast('Messages sent!');
  }, function (errors) {
  $rootScope.hideLoading();
  $rootScope.showToast('Some message was not sent!');
});

[gotling]

@dbaq Just looping over is not enough as multiple async calls to the underlying send function will be done, and the end result of that is unreliable. Doing the calls in sync does work.

[gotling]

I noticed the same unreliable behavior when sending to multiple numbers. Interesting enough the plugin actually expects an array of numbers which it internally remakes into a comma or semicolon separated string before sending of to Android. But at least in my environment only the first number in the array receives the message.

See sms.js and Sms.java

Workaround

If waiting until the previous message was sent, successful or failed, before sending to the next number, everything works ok. I made a recursive function that does just that.

I need to support older devices so I have not used any nice ES6 features.

/**
 * Send to next number when first succeed or fail.
 *
 * @param {array} numbers to send to
 * @param {string} message to send
 * @param {object} options to sms plugin
 * @param {integer} [index=0] current index in numbers array
 */
function sendChained(numbers, message, options, index) {
  index = (typeof index !== 'undefined') ?  index : 0;
  if (index >= numbers.length) {
    return
  }

  sms.send(numbers[index], message, options,
    function() {
      console.log('notification.sendSms', numbers[index], 'ok')
      sendChained(numbers, message, options, ++index)
    },
    function() {
      console.error('notification.sendSms', numbers[index], 'failed')
      sendChained(numbers, message, options, ++index)
    }
  );
}

Call with

sendChained(numbers, message, options)