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O2-UK Maximum Text (SMS) Length???

Icewind

Icewind

macrumors regular
Original poster
May 23, 2006
166
13
Scotland
Guys,

I tried searching for the answer to this, but nothing much pops up in the results (well, which actually answers the question).

Does anyone know how many characters can be typed into one SMS/Text message on O2 network with the iPhone 3G? I've been sending my girlfriend texts and she doesn't receive some of them. I've tracked this down to the ones that appear to be pretty long texts. She receives the shorter ones though!

With the iPhone SMS interface, it's so damn easy to rattle on and type loads of words then send. The message appears to be sent from my iPhone, but she doesn't receive the longer ones! There doesn't appear to be any indication of maximum text length while your typing, i.e most other (read crappy) phones have an indicator like 10/160, which increments for every character you type.

Any help would be great... Cheers
 
160 is the standard, so it is the same with o2 and the iphone

160 characters is between 5 and 6 lines of text in the sms app, as i worked it out to be
 
twynne said:
I wasn't sure the answer, but your post reminded me (for what it's worth) to go request the character count as a feature when composing text messages. Add your vote:

http://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone.html
:D
Click to expand...

I havent tested this yet, but will tonight because I had just assumed.

On my previous phones (HTC Touch on T-Mobile for example) I just typed as much as I want and if it went over the 160ish limit it simply used (and charged as) two or more texts. I think the way it worked at the other end was if the phone supported it they were re-joined as one big text, if not then it was recieved as 2 (or more) texts....

I hadn't given it a thought on the iPhone, just assumed it would work the same, but now im not so sure - some intensive testing tonight.
 
steveapp said:
On my previous phones (HTC Touch on T-Mobile for example) I just typed as much as I want and if it went over the 160ish limit it simply used (and charged as) two or more texts. I think the way it worked at the other end was if the phone supported it they were re-joined as one big text, if not then it was recieved as 2 (or more) texts....
Click to expand...

That's exactly the way I had understood things to work. My old MotoRAZR (4 years old) seemed to send a long SMS as multiple texts. I know my girlfriends phone can accept long texts from other people no probs, as she gets quite a few jokes coming in from her friends that are almost like short stories :)

Either O2 or the iPhone have a capped number of characters that can be sent in one SMS!

Hmmm.... I'm gonna try some more tests too. Let me know how you get on tonight.. Thanks
 
should receive them as either multiple texts, or just one long one the other end. ipHone just lets you keep on typing on SMS...
 
Icewind said:
Guys,

I tried searching for the answer to this, but nothing much pops up in the results (well, which actually answers the question).

Does anyone know how many characters can be typed into one SMS/Text message on O2 network with the iPhone 3G? I've been sending my girlfriend texts and she doesn't receive some of them. I've tracked this down to the ones that appear to be pretty long texts. She receives the shorter ones though!

With the iPhone SMS interface, it's so damn easy to rattle on and type loads of words then send. The message appears to be sent from my iPhone, but she doesn't receive the longer ones! There doesn't appear to be any indication of maximum text length while your typing, i.e most other (read crappy) phones have an indicator like 10/160, which increments for every character you type.

Any help would be great... Cheers
Click to expand...


Is your girlfriend on the 3 network per chance? Ive been having this problem with mine, she hardly gets any of my txts and have esculated the issue with o2 and 3 many times still not resolved. This is on both 2g and 3g iPhones that ive had..

Would be interesting if she is?
 
I've already sent over 1000 messages since 12 July using my iPhone and some of these are 5-6 text messages long. They have all gone through fine to a number of recipients on different networks. I think the limitations are with the handsets that the users who are receiving messages, not O2 or the iPhone.
 
pw1500 said:
Is your girlfriend on the 3 network per chance?
Click to expand...

She is indeed on 3 Network... Hmmmmm :confused:

So, it looks like the problem is at her end then? lol And there she was... laughing and slagging off my cool new toy saying that it must be pants cos it can't send a simple text lol :D

[Edit:] She loves Apple kit really... She's just jealous that I'm in love with my new iPhone while she's stuck with her old Motorola :D
 
philgilder said:
you sure the motorola is the problem? :p
Click to expand...

lol.... Yeah... She loves me to bits cos I gave her my White C2D MacBook when I upgraded to my 15" MBP a few months ago (Got lots of Brownie points for that ;) )

Anyway... I done a test there. Sent a big SMS from the iPhone to my own old Motorola RAZR. It appeared as one complete text message, not separate pages. I have Bluephone Elite on my MBP, so I opened the message in there and checked the properties. The text message was 3 pages long (thats 80 words or a total of 380 characters long), so the iPhone can certainly send out massive text messages.. WooHoo. She had me kinda worried there for a while.
 
Icewind said:
She is indeed on 3 Network... Hmmmmm :confused:

So, it looks like the problem is at her end then? lol And there she was... laughing and slagging off my cool new toy saying that it must be pants cos it can't send a simple text lol :D

[Edit:] She loves Apple kit really... She's just jealous that I'm in love with my new iPhone while she's stuck with her old Motorola :D
Click to expand...


Haha my girl was blaming the iPhone too!! :mad: I new it was crappy 3. No idea how we can get this sorted?
 
pw1500 said:
Haha my girl was blaming the iPhone too!! :mad: I new it was crappy 3. No idea how we can get this sorted?
Click to expand...

Just keep sending stuff like...

"I Love You xxx"

"Fancy a quicky?"

"Wots for dinner then?"

"Going out with mates. cyal8r"

:D
 
Well when my friend had an iphone (i had a blackjack) she sent me a text with about 450 characters. it looked like one message and it came up on my phone as 1 message

The same thing when i typed a text to her (300+) I guess it's stated as more than 1 text on the bill, but it still sends as one
 
DevJ said:
Well when my friend had an iphone (i had a blackjack) she sent me a text with about 450 characters. it looked like one message and it came up on my phone as 1 message

The same thing when i typed a text to her (300+) I guess it's stated as more than 1 text on the bill, but it still sends as one
Click to expand...

Were you on the three (3) network when you received?
 
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