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Heavy SMS/Text users: post your thoughts on interface

D

Devil's Refugee

macrumors 6502
Original poster
May 14, 2007
316
0
Hi,

I'm looking for real world experiences of owners using the iPhone's keyboard against conventional keypad texting (both with and without T9 enabled), in a variety of conditions (stationery, walking etc). People who send a good few texts every day to get a feel for how the transition went, whether they prefer one to the other and how adaptive the interface is to learn it's way around your texting.

Cheers
 
I was a very heavy (and fast) texter with my old phone. I miss T9 and not having to look at the keys when I'm typing. Also, I wish there was some way to delete one or two messages from the conversation, and not the whole conversation.
But each day I'm getting more comfortable with the iPhone keyboard.
 
I like it. When on the move it's a little odd, because of course there's no tactile feedback, so you really do have to have your eyes on the phone the whole time (although a little bit of wobbliness can be dealt with, the autocorrect is quite good). It's just odd though, not difficult.

Stationary its brilliant, I can text on my iPhone many times faster than I ever could on a keypad.
 
I love the interface. Never had a phone that showed my texts like chat logs. It's a dream for those who have texting conversations with multiple people all the time. The keyboard is nice too. I prefer it over my last smartphone with the physical keys. I text far more with this phone than any other phone i've had in the past.

My only main gripes are with no message forwarding, no multiple recipients, and no mms. These need to be added asap! I've never had a phone that didn't have at least the first two missing texting features I mentioned.
 
mnit said:
I like it. When on the move it's a little odd, because of course there's no tactile feedback, so you really do have to have your eyes on the phone the whole time (although a little bit of wobbliness can be dealt with, the autocorrect is quite good). It's just odd though, not difficult.

Stationary its brilliant, I can text on my iPhone many times faster than I ever could on a keypad.
Click to expand...

dangit thats one of my favourite times to text!!! multitasking hahahaha.
isnt it illegal though??
 
O-ho. No SMS forwarding or multiple recipients ??

Are there any workarounds for this ? I've got a 5 year old phone that does this. How Apple missed simple things like this is pretty striking. I know with each software update new features are likely to be added, but come on did we really expect these features to be missing out of the box ?
 
There is no work around to my knowledge. It's a shame. It sucks when I need to send out an event reminder to friends and I have to type my message once for each person. Very time consuming.
 
texting while you are driving? Good lord people are truly stupid these days.
 
Devil's Refugee said:
Hi,

I'm looking for real world experiences of owners using the iPhone's keyboard against conventional keypad texting (both with and without T9 enabled), in a variety of conditions (stationery, walking etc). People who send a good few texts every day to get a feel for how the transition went, whether they prefer one to the other and how adaptive the interface is to learn it's way around your texting.

Cheers
Click to expand...

Standing stationary or siting and being able to look at the iPhone I can type a lot faster then on a regular cell phone. I mean a lot faster especially with the help of auto correct.
Driving and texting is probably not the best idea.
Walking and texting is not that hard.
I can type with out looking a decent amount of the time.
 
I probably use my texting more than the actual phone. Here's my review: Overall, fairly pleased. The conversational flow is nice.

Gripes:

No way to not display incoming messages unless you lock your phone. If someone txts you something private, POOF, there it is right in the middle of your screen for the whole world to see. I always keep my phone face down on my desk at work due to this. There should be options to a) not show anything, b) show you have a message, but not from who or what c) show from who but not what, d) show both (aka current display).

No MMS!!! To add insult to injury if you do receive one, you can't even use the iPhone to look at it because it's shown in Flash. Grrrrrr!!

When we do get MMS, if it's not obvious, if someone does send you a picture via MMS it should show up right in the current conversation.

No multi-recipient.

No way to forward a message.

No way to delete just parts of a conversation. When someone sends you something private you might want to delete a few lines, but keep the conversation.

It would be nice if it would make multiple conversations for a single person. Eg. If you could put a particular conversation into an archive for later viewing, that would be really cool.

If the person you are texting lives in a different timezone, it can get confusing on the times because you can't always tell if a time shown is their time or yours. Also, not every entry gets a timestamp shown. It would be nice if you click/hovered over an older portion of the conversation if it would popup the timestamp, options to forward it, etc.

The auto-correction is cool, although sometimes very aggrevating when it keeps changing a word to something you don't want! It does seem to have a dictionary of new words you can teach it, however, I've accidentally taught it some incorrect words that I would like to remove, but I can't figure out how to do so.
 
jmacleodpc19 said:
Also, I wish there was some way to delete one or two messages from the conversation, and not the whole conversation.
Click to expand...
My BIGGEST gripe.

It's such a simple "feature" that's missing-- delete single messages, please, Apple, enable us to do so. And if not? Then at least allow the rest of my 8GB memory be allocated to allow for more messages! Argh!

mnit said:
... the autocorrect is quite good...
Click to expand...
Whole-heartedly agree. The auto-correct is superb (usually ;)) and the fact that it seems to be able to "learn" is really neat. Mine's learned some key words and phrases of mine and it's made texting not just easier but amusing, too. Teehee. <-- That's one word my phone "learned." :eek:

Obey Giant said:
... pictures!!!!
Click to expand...
Yup. Prior to the iPhone I rarely used SMS messaging and never used MMS so I didn't see the appeal in being able to text images especially when I could email it out-- but just a few months later, I'm realizing how much I'd love and use picture messaging should Apple/AT&T allow it for the iPhone. Sigh.
 
The auto-correction feature, do any other phones do this? If so, is it exactly how the iPhone does it? I've had people tell me their phone can do this when I'm explaining the features of the iPhone. Can't remember if it was the Blackberry or some other smartphone they were talking about.
 
I find the keyboard to be fantastic, especially now there's the double-space for period update. My gripes are mostly the same as everyone else: no MMS, no multi-recipient option, no forwarding. These are all software issues than can be fixed, whereas a regular "smart"phone is stuck with the hardware keyboard it comes with.

FWIW, my company just forced a BlackBerry on me as they won't let me use my iPhone to access work email. The interface is laughable compared to the iPhone. BBs may have superior emailing software, but Apple is working on that and RIM have about a 5 year head start on Apple. Will Apple get the software right before RIM can match the iPhone's interface? I know where my money would be.
 
Texting while driving is a surefire way to get killed on the freeway. Studies show people are three or more times as likely to get in an accident when operating their cell phone while driving. You can NOT keep your attention focused on driving when doing this... and you're not going to be truly productive by keeping your attention divided between one, two or three things. It doesn't matter if your eyes are on the road while typing... your brain's attention is divided and driving requires most of your senses to remain intently focused.

You have a choice to get one thing done right, or five things done half-assed and incomplete... and studies also reinforce this as well: MULTITASKING DECREASES PRODUCTIVITY.

I live in Dallas and 635 is as dangerous a freeway as you'll find... and every day I see morons "multitasking" in their cars who are on a death wish as there are multi-car accidents on that freeway every single day.

You're absolutely, unquestionably, totally and completely an idiot if you drive and send text messages at the same time. You can't be productive when you're dead.

On top of that, I see horrible enough communications from people who e-mail from their desktops... It's really atrocious how people communicate in text messages, and it's contributing to a decline in the overall quality of work when employers accept this linguistic laziness. It just adds to the lost productivity when someone has to figure out what the hell you were saying and it's downright unprofessional when grown adults communicate like third graders.
 
rriggs said:
I probably use my texting more than the actual phone. Here's my review: Overall, fairly pleased. The conversational flow is nice.

Gripes:

No way to not display incoming messages unless you lock your phone. If someone txts you something private, POOF, there it is right in the middle of your screen for the whole world to see. I always keep my phone face down on my desk at work due to this. There should be options to a) not show anything, b) show you have a message, but not from who or what c) show from who but not what, d) show both (aka current display).

No MMS!!! To add insult to injury if you do receive one, you can't even use the iPhone to look at it because it's shown in Flash. Grrrrrr!!

When we do get MMS, if it's not obvious, if someone does send you a picture via MMS it should show up right in the current conversation.

No multi-recipient.

No way to forward a message.

No way to delete just parts of a conversation. When someone sends you something private you might want to delete a few lines, but keep the conversation.

It would be nice if it would make multiple conversations for a single person. Eg. If you could put a particular conversation into an archive for later viewing, that would be really cool.

If the person you are texting lives in a different timezone, it can get confusing on the times because you can't always tell if a time shown is their time or yours. Also, not every entry gets a timestamp shown. It would be nice if you click/hovered over an older portion of the conversation if it would popup the timestamp, options to forward it, etc.

The auto-correction is cool, although sometimes very aggrevating when it keeps changing a word to something you don't want! It does seem to have a dictionary of new words you can teach it, however, I've accidentally taught it some incorrect words that I would like to remove, but I can't figure out how to do so.
Click to expand...


I think to correct auto-correction from continuously putting in a word you don't want or mis-typed at some point is to hit the 'x' when the word comes up and it's deleted from the dictionary. If i'm wrong, someone correct me. hah.
 
Avatar74 said:
You're absolutely, unquestionably, totally and completely an idiot if you drive and send text messages at the same time.
Click to expand...

Bluetooth hook-ups in cars are becoming more prevalent, but I think it should be mandatory on every phone and in every car. It's a cheap option anyway and as Mr. Honda once said when asked about the cost of putting radios in every car, it's not expensive when you put one in every car. Then we would all be safer on the roads as most people would opt to go hands free while driving.

Of course, there'd still be plenty of numpties out there who just have to have their phone clamped to the side of their head whilst driving. But if it was mandatory to have Bluetooth in new cars, it would be easier to outlaw non-hands free cell phone use whilst driving. Texas, for example, has voted on this multiple times and the vote is always close and always falls short.

People with older cars can get a Bluetooth headset or get a Bluetooth kit added to their car. Or they can wait til they're done driving, or they can pull off the road.
 
i agree with just about all these points. on older phones i found myself texting more than talking because it's convinient. i actually do like the keyboard and can type extremely fast/accurate which is great.
no copy/paste really stinks, but i could live with it... IF i were able to forward messages or send messages to multiple people. when you send out something like 'what's up tonight?' having to type that same phrase to 10 different people is annoying as all hell.
i would love to be able to delete certain lines of the conversation or even better make multiple conversations for the same person.
i guess i don't mind that the message pops up on my screen as the phone is typically in my pocket, but it irritates me how apple's interface always defaults to your last visited page. if i receive a message from person A, but was previously texting person B, i would need to go into SMS, go back to messages, then select person's A conversation. why every menu can't default to the 'main page' of the app is beyond me. likewise with the address boko part of the phone. if i was previously looking in the R's, then performed other tasks on the phone and went back into the phonebook, i'm still at R's. so unless you remember exactly where you left each applciation it's a crap shoot as to where you'll be.
little annoyances like these will be the reason i'm getting rid of the iphone. i like it for certain features, and it looks so great, but it performs too weak in major phone tasks. can't wait to get a SE k850.

rriggs said:
I probably use my texting more than the actual phone. Here's my review: Overall, fairly pleased. The conversational flow is nice.

Gripes:

No way to not display incoming messages unless you lock your phone. If someone txts you something private, POOF, there it is right in the middle of your screen for the whole world to see. I always keep my phone face down on my desk at work due to this. There should be options to a) not show anything, b) show you have a message, but not from who or what c) show from who but not what, d) show both (aka current display).

No MMS!!! To add insult to injury if you do receive one, you can't even use the iPhone to look at it because it's shown in Flash. Grrrrrr!!

When we do get MMS, if it's not obvious, if someone does send you a picture via MMS it should show up right in the current conversation.

No multi-recipient.

No way to forward a message.

No way to delete just parts of a conversation. When someone sends you something private you might want to delete a few lines, but keep the conversation.

It would be nice if it would make multiple conversations for a single person. Eg. If you could put a particular conversation into an archive for later viewing, that would be really cool.
Click to expand...
 
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