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Texting from iPhone to Android

I

iAdamator

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Sep 10, 2013
698
172
South San Francisco, CA
Hey all

Whenever I text with my friend who is on a Galaxy S4, our text messages get broken up into multiple messages unlike when using IM or iMessage. I'm on an iPhone 5. Is there a way to make it keep messages together? Advanced smart phones can certainly handle more than 160 characters in one message!

I've checked all my message settings and they seem correct. He says him and his Mom text (she is on an iPhone 4) and the messages come through in one big block.
 
Do you use the emoji? That changes the encoding on the text and you get less characters before they get broken up. If you turn on 'Show Character Count' in Settings > Messages, you can see the character count once you get to the second line.
 
I do have emoji on but I dont use it much. I also have the character count on.

Is long messages even possible from iOS to Android? I know we aren't using iMessage of course, but can you even do it or is it always going to be broken up 160 character messages?

It's not only his messages to me getting broken up, mine to him do the same.

----------

Can MMS be forced on the iPhone?
 
iAdamator said:
Hey all

Whenever I text with my friend who is on a Galaxy S4, our text messages get broken up into multiple messages unlike when using IM or iMessage. I'm on an iPhone 5. Is there a way to make it keep messages together? Advanced smart phones can certainly handle more than 160 characters in one message!

I've checked all my message settings and they seem correct. He says him and his Mom text (she is on an iPhone 4) and the messages come through in one big block.
Click to expand...
In my experience it sucks messaging Android users. Can't be a carier thing, just one of the things you love with on Android.

Ie, they receive photos instead of group messages.
 
thats weird... i text with my wife all the time.. same setup me s4, no issues whatsoever...
 
SMS is limited to 160 characters in 8 bit encoding (alphanumeric characters) or 70 characters in 16-bit encoding (Chinese, Japanese, etc. - Unicode).

(In case you're wondering why Twitter is limited to 160 characters, it's because of the SMS limit)

iOS is smart enough to piece the multiple messages together when it's broken up by the carrier.

For some reason Android isn't. It does this stupid (1/3), (2/3), (3/3) thing (assuming the message requires three messages to send).
 
Everyone is correct. SMS services are limited to 160 characters. That has been the rule of SMS since texting was invented. Since iphone -> android uses SMS service when you regularly text, your best bet is to convince him to get an iOS device LOL.

But seriously, yeah lol. I use Whatsapp or viber to text android friends, we often go over the 160 character limit. But the limitation is on the technology itself, not the phones.
 
iAdamator said:
Hey all

Whenever I text with my friend who is on a Galaxy S4, our text messages get broken up into multiple messages unlike when using IM or iMessage. I'm on an iPhone 5. Is there a way to make it keep messages together? Advanced smart phones can certainly handle more than 160 characters in one message!

I've checked all my message settings and they seem correct. He says him and his Mom text (she is on an iPhone 4) and the messages come through in one big block.
Click to expand...

No, they can't. Try reading up on what SMS actually is and maybe you'll understand it a little bit better.
 
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