And you are missing my point. He is complaining that his friends device can't handle an SMS that is being broken apart by his device. He is looking for a way to either circumvent this or use MMS to send just text.
My point is that instead of trying to use systems that are not designed to do what he wants, that he find a system that can do what he wants. Mail is suited for what he is trying to do but he just doesn't want to hear it.
Apple using systems that are in place is one thing, but Apple can't change limitations that the carriers have. SMS is not going to change and MMS is for multimedia which is what the carrier wants it to be.
In this case the OP simply needs to find a better way to send his message rather than trying to bend a system to fit his needs.
FYI, I am also one of the "1" that don't send long texts. Why? Because that isn't what it was for and there is a limitation. If it is long, I use e-mail, simple enough.
And the point you are missing is this: It is the year 2011, going on 2012. SMS is not used just for 160 character messages anymore. How do I know this? Talk to a teenager. How else do I know this? Other phones have specific ways to circumvent the limitations of SMS that are
no longer relevant. It is called, have the OS change the message type to MMS the second that 161st character goes down. It's a very old feature. My Nokia flip phone had it when I was in grade school.
I am not simply dreaming up fun ways to "bend the rules" of SMS. This was common on flip phones from like 2003. And were MMS "just for media" - it actually would be just for media. It's not. MMS is also the option for longer-sized texts. It was 8 years ago, and the newest smart phones today also use this option.
So while you're entitled to proselytize about SMS purity or whatever you're hung up about - most phone manufacturers use this method. And MMS allows it because it was actually supposed to be a way to send larger things over-network - including text. Thats why it allows text. In fact! I believe that some carriers, if they recieve a large SMS that hasn't already been broken up by the phone, will convert it to MMS before it gets sent to their user.
You are the only person still using the definition of SMS from when it was invented in the late 90s. It's very different now, in that both carriers and manufacturers have worked around limitations that are no longer necessary or valid the best they could without revamping the whole system. But they did in fact try to revamp the whole system as well.
So. I state. Yet again. No. I am not looking for an email. I am looking to send a text message in the second decade of the 21st century. Which can very well be over 160 characters, assuming your phone's OS or the carriers involved handle it correctly. Since carriers vary - phones are primarily responsible for this task, and MMS is a widely-used and my preferred method of doing this.
Which is why I asked for suggestions in terms of apps, workarounds, or native feature. I did not ask to debate about what SMS was for 2 decades ago. Nor did I ask for rude, oddly-shaped people like the poster below to make snarky comments.
One would assume the the adults on this forum should know enough by now that if you do not have anything constructive to say that is topic related, you don't say anything at all. Apparently, a few people missed that lesson in kindergarten.
