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How do I know the character count when writing Text Messages?
- Thread starter Flying Dutchman
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Is this documented anywhere on o2s' (or AT&T if you're in the US) contract, or in the iPhone terms and conitions? I know that the 160 limit was the case with most other phones but I (perhaps stupidly) assumed that there was no longer a limit.
There is most definitely a 160 character limit on O2, certainly on their PAYG package. I know this because when I type a long message it sends the first 160 chars, I get the little popup showing me my credit has reduced by 10p, and then it sends the next 160 chars and I get another popup indicating my credit has reduced by a further 10p
Certainly for PAYG a character counter would be nice!
The 160 limit is a standard across the industry in the SMS specification rather than the specific phone. The ability to send concatenated messages is also a part of the standard and is a feature of pretty much every phone on the market these days. The difference with the iPhone and other phones I have had is that the iPhone does not display the characters/no of sms a particular message will take.
I do not have an iPhone contract so can not read it but a quick look on the 02 websites terms and conditions on the iPhone
http://www.o2.co.uk/termsandconditions/iphone
There is no mention of the length of the message, this could be taken two ways
1. One message as displayed in the iPhones UI
2. One message as deemed by the industry standard 160 characters
From a user standpoint the terms used are unclear and obviously lead to conclusion number 1 above however from a technical standpoint I am almost certain it is number 2.
AT&T's terms and conditions state:
As to the question of enabling a SMS count I haven't seen any option however I haven't really been looking.
If that's the case then the way the iPhone does it is really bad design - people who are familiar with older phones may be aware of this, but on switching to the iPhone it wasn't clear to me at all. Everything on the UI indicates that I've sent one message, no matter how many characters it is. Awful!!
the iPhone does actually have a limit, I have sent some VERY long text messages and after a while it cuts off and reads as two messages. However, I still believe there is a 160 character limit, you may not see it, but anyone who receives your messages on a different phone does. Try checking your bill online for when you know you sent a longer text message and see what it says.
I'm using is BiteSMS however this requires jb. BiteSMS counts the characters and when you exceed 160, it automatically creates a second message. There may be other SMS apps (jb needed) that do this, too.
As a point of reference, my Verizon BB counts down from 160 and when you reach 0, you can't type anymore.
I just sent them this message:
"Hi guys,
I am reading discussions about the SMS limit of 160 characters and the fact that the iPhone doesn't have a character counter. This should be a simple fix for you guys without having to add a counter, just simply have the characters that are over the 160 limit turn a different color or become italic. Problem solved, the feature is there for people who want it and can be ignored by the rest of us.
If you'd like more help please feel free to email me,
David ... "
That's a very intelligent (and apple-y) way of solving the problem. I hope they listen to your suggestion.
they have an option in 'usage' to enable a numerical read out of the battery, i wish there was an option in 'messages' to enable a numerical read out of character count.
I ended up using about £40 worth of messages on top of my contract because of the lack of a counter. I also sent apple feature requests asking for this (as well as other sms features) every version from 1.3 to 2.0 
I definitely don't, that would look ridiculous. How about adding a dot in the header of the messages app and when you get over 160 it puts a small dot next to that?
Wait, there's a limit to how long a text message can be? I mean, I've gotten wall-of-text SMS messages before... never had a problem.
Seems like something you shouldn't really worry about.
Seems like something you shouldn't really worry about.
Anything over 160 characters counts as multiple text messages. They're displayed as one.
I don't really care, my friends need to update their phones
I tend to send long text messages to some of my friends, the ones that have iPhone get the entire body text message and then ones with non-iPhone's get split messages (1/2, 2/2). It sucks but not my problem.
Unfortunately, when they send me a lengthy message, I see 1/2 " " then another message 2/2 " ".
I tend to send long text messages to some of my friends, the ones that have iPhone get the entire body text message and then ones with non-iPhone's get split messages (1/2, 2/2). It sucks but not my problem.
Unfortunately, when they send me a lengthy message, I see 1/2 " " then another message 2/2 " ".
Agree, BiteSMS does it really nicely. The number in the middle of the circle is how many messages you've sent, the dark blue band around it shows how many characters you've used, so in this picture they've got about 80 characters spare. Once you've used 160 characters the number in the middle changes to 2 and the band starts going round the circle again.
On BiteSMS You can also count how many messages you've sent over the past month or whatever. Where it says no messages sent in the photo, it would normally say 299 or something. You can reset the figure whenever you want, I did this to keep track of how much of my allowance I'd used every month. Also, while the "Send via Carrier" button looks huge it comes in handy. The tiny "send" button on the stock app really annoys me now.
I never even considered this before, as I have unlimited SMS. I forget there are still some people out there that don't
As an optional feature, that would be ok. As long as its not a forced display.
But the people receiving your text may not have unlimited.
I could have sworn I've gotten long messages from some people as one message, and conversely - shorter messages broken up into, presumably, 160 character chunks from other people.
Is it possible that smartphone to smartphone text messages are intelligently "stitched" together at either end?
Is it possible that smartphone to smartphone text messages are intelligently "stitched" together at either end?
Some phones allow longer messages to appear as one. I believe there is some extended SMS information that allows the sending and receiving phone know that the message is supposed to be one long one.
I would agree with this post totally... except for the word "handy". It's long been a standard that 160 is the limit per text... and even Twitter is built on that premise (subtracting 15 or so for the name). So WHY???.... other than purely evil business strategies, would Apple leave a simple character counter off? I've yet to see a phone that DIDN'T have this?
And with this new 3GS, I've already gotten a couple replies asking me to re-send the end of my text, because it (obviously) went over the 160... but also because they didn't get the 2nd text.
This isn't rocket science. Just more powers-that-be flexing their proprietary muscles.
Bastahds!
I'll make use of this thread resurrection to be annoyed about this. While I usually use a twitter app, I do sometimes tweet via SMS and this is really irritating, because my tweets usually (when I'm on anything that gives me a char count) are close to the max 140 characters. By the time I know I'm over, it's because I get an automated response telling me it's been abbreviated and linked.