Let me preface this post by saying that I've been dealing with and looking for a solution for this for about a year. Basically, ever since I moved from iOS to Android, and I've not found a suitable solution to it yet. I've searched this forum diligently, googled for it and really just found a bunch of nonsense posts and unanswered questions or suggestion to install handcent or sms go pro. I'll say up front that I don't really want to do that. I like to style and smoothness of the stock messaging app.
Now, to the issue. What I constantly have issues with, across multiple roms and Android versions, is the ability to handle group mms, specifically from group mms where iOS initiates the group mms (if that has anything to do with it or not, that's the observation) or an iOS person is in the reply. Basically what happens is either the group mms ends up having download issues, where the initial mms or replied mms from a user in the group doesn't download and gets stuck downloading and never completes. I've had these issues with gingerbread, ics and now jb as well as across cyanogenmod, aokp, aosp and now aocp roms. I've tried flashing several modems as well as updating my apn settings several times, according to this post http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1576199 The thing is, once I update my apn settings to that, I can send and receive mms message, picture and video just fine. It's only ever group mms that causes the issues.
None of them seem to work well with group mms, and I'm beginning to think this is just an android thing. Now I don't want to get into an iOS/Android thing here, but basically what I'm wanting is group mms capability to just work on Android. I don't want to have to deal with the downloading messages, messages not coming through, or having to sit there with the mms open for 5 minutes while it downloads and finally gets around to displaying it.
Are there just known issues with android and group mms? Is group mms just a thing that apple and at&t have some trickery with? (me not knowing anything about group mms other than it just works in iphones) I just want some kind of answer like, "no, it doesn't work well on Android phones and others are having the same issue." Or perhaps, "no, you're just crazy and doing something wrong because group mms works flawlessly on my sgs2." Either way would give me a sold answer! :laugh:
Lastly, I will add that I have used go pro sms and it did seem to handle group mms much better. However, I prefer the look at feel of the stock app much better, hence why I prefaced this thread with that comment about not wanting to switch. I do realize that if there is a limitation of the stock app, I might be stuck, but to me go pro just feels clunky and cluttered. Thanks in advance for all the suggestions.
I feel the same way about go sms pro, it's clunky. What I've done for now is use a theme that's as close to stock holo as possible. Someday I'll get around to creating a theme that mimics the stock app. The popup notifications are pretty ugly to me in go sms pro, so I use "sms popup" for notifications - it uses the holo theme and is nice and slick.
Don't forget to set mms to auto-retrieve in the stock app. It does hang for sometimes, and sometimes may not download too. Also, the notification doesn't actually popup for mms messages, but it's there in the popup queue the next time I get a normal sms.
Kind of a convoluted setup and i wish it was just built in, but for its all we've got to deal with.
Sent from my SGH-I777
Thanks for the info. I might consider trying it again and seeing if there is a theme out that that looks nice, but from what I remember, all of the convoluted settings was another thing that put me off. I didn't like having to dig through settings to find a fix for something. Honestly, I'd just like the stock app to work, and I wasn't for sure if people were having my same experience or not, or if I was possibly doing something wrong. I'd appreciate some more opinions if possible.
I thought I'd post back here with a few results. I recently reinstalled Go Pro and tried it again. I still find the UI to be somewhat clunky but have used a theme that minimal and it's bearable. I have, however, had NO with mms messages since switching to it. It really has been pretty flawless. Furthermore, I upgraded to the newest version of AOKP which reset my APN settings. On the stock app, I'd always have to go back in and reset them to the ATT PHONE and ATT MMS settings per the thread I referenced earlier. I wouldn't be able to do anything with mms without settings that. Well, I didn't do that this time using Go Pro and I've had no issues with any mms messages. This just kind of confirms to me this has something to do with the stock messaging app, which is disappointing. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.
Latest Android 4.2 supports this btw.
xdabomb911 said:
Latest Android 4.2 supports this btw.
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Thanks! I look forward to trying this out.
Related
Hi,
I have been semi interested in this SMS system. Mainly because I like the idea of integrated systems with Facebook perhaps.
What do you guys use? I know there is the stock SMS but i don't know - it just doesn't appeal to me any more
Or more importantly, I would love an SMS system which could put a hidden prefix of *0# at the start of each message (and not show it that I sent it like that when viewing messages) because my network requires this stupid prefix for delivery reports.
Your suggestions would be very much appreciated
Edit: Ok skip about FB integration. Seems FB get annoyed about others using their service but happy to leech other people. Hmm..
I used Handcent SMS since forever, but now for some reason it's no longer available on the market.
I found GOSMS and am actually quite happy. I like it better than Handcent. And the themes are pretty cool, especially Machine City.
CrypticHedgehog said:
I used Handcent SMS since forever, but now for some reason it's no longer available on the market.
I found GOSMS and am actually quite happy. I like it better than Handcent. And the themes are pretty cool, especially Machine City.
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Thanks for reply Though I guess more importantly for me is the prefix idea. I don't suppose you know or heard any similar SMS program that would do this? I did add it as a feedback suggestion to these guys. No idea if it would be implemented though.
Did you delete the stock SMS?
shadowdogg said:
Thanks for reply Though I guess more importantly for me is the prefix idea. I don't suppose you know or heard any similar SMS program that would do this? I did add it as a feedback suggestion to these guys. No idea if it would be implemented though.
Did you delete the stock SMS?
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I'm also using GO SMS PRO and for me it's awesome, but I don't have very big requirements. For normal user it has got everything, for sure it's better than stock sms app.
E :I'm not sure that an app supports adding prefixes.
Sent from HTC Desire HD using Tapatalk.
Just a complaint I guess. I assume this is the same for everybody.
I use GO SMS but have problems with basic text entry frequently. It is irritating. So I end up using the ATT messaging for text and GO SMS when there is an attachment.
Anybody else have either problem?
(Stock ATT with ICS.)
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
I use handcent after some suggestions on this and other forums. It works great and has no limitations + its free.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
I used handcent, but switched to gosms, because of how they both handle animated gifs. Handcent would always show them small, and would never zoom in for me. It's a small gripe, but I love getting lolcats images from my friends, and removing the extra steps on getting the files to view properly was clutch.
Killerfish1450 said:
I use handcent after some suggestions on this and other forums. It works great and has no limitations + its free.
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I717 using xda premium
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Where does it say there are no limitations? ATT allows 600KB. Occassionally you can send up to 1MB but I still call that a limitation.
I swear I messed around with all the top texting apps looking for something as good as what iOS comes with. Not really interested in theeming too much, but I like it when they look nice. Seems like they all have some level of compromise.
Basically what I want is: high quality mms images sent, and group mms texting that works well.
AT&T Messaging compresses their images pretty heavily, has good group texting though not always a fan of going full screen when you start entering a text and not being able to see the conversation. At first the images were only tiny but they fixed that. Also I do like the full communication flow (vvm, call log, etc). (A-)
Go SMS had a setting where you could send uncompressed images. Group mms worked but was wierd; I'd get 2 notification sounds when I recieved a group mms because there was a slight lag between receiving the mms and go adding it to the group thread causing it to beep when I got it, then beep again when it was added to the group thread (gap was usually 1 second). Also, go seems to interfere with AT&T messaging (B+).
Built in seemed to have a group mms function however it wouldn't display the names of the individuals speaking. So it read like me or the crowd. Also mms images seemed to be compressed. cool:
Handcent to me did not seem much different from go and kinda looked unprofessional (apologies I kinda skimmed it, when I used it on GB briefly it didn't do group mms, then in ICS just didn't differentiate much over go). (n/a)
I tried ICS messaging by Tim Hutt (and later the JB version) it looked f'n awesome, LOVE the UX, however group mms didn't work for me.
I came from an iPhone (3G & 4). Overall like the Note more, but I keep feeling that the iOS messaging app works better (texting with it has other caveats like, attaching files is more cumbersome and the auto correct is maddening). But it sends group mms pretty transparently and entering the text in full view of the conversation flows more naturally.
Not trying to "hate" but in terms of texting it seems that everyone gets that part right, and then tacks on visual junk like themes instead of nuts and bolts like group MMS and images.
Group mms has always been an issue with android. Sometimes it work some times it doesn't. It only seems to bother those that came from an iPhone. Mostly due to they are the only ones that ever used it lol
Sent from my Inspire 4G using Tapatalk 2
Handcent because friends have iPhones and they group text a lot. Handcent is the only app that can thread group conversations correctly. Google team needs to implement this into the next OS!
-Once you go NOTE, you'd say 4 inches a Joke
NOTE user:
"take a deep breath, make sure to get a good look at it, relax and slowly take it in, the size is overwhelming at first but you will have a happy ending afterwards".
Woman:
I like handsent .....remember to go into settings and make the send messaging a bigger limit size
Sent from my Dell Streak using xda premium
zelendel said:
Group mms has always been an issue with android. Sometimes it work some times it doesn't. It only seems to bother those that came from an iPhone. Mostly due to they are the only ones that ever used it lol
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yeah, that's probably true. Trick is, you use something, get used to it then don't have it or it works poorly you want to recapture it. Andriod wants to steal users from iOS need to get "party chat" working.
The thing is, the information is in the message, I really don't get why its a big deal. When you have an AT&T app that does it better than everyone, seems like something's wrong. I never figured AT&T as a development powerhouse but they're getting something done better than samsung to be sure and maybe Google? Just strange to me.
Late last year I switched from the iPhone to the Galaxy Nexus and really enjoyed using Android but I did have a few issues. Once Jelly Bean was released, almost all my issues were rectified except for two major ones that I couldn't get over and ultimately forced me to switch back to the iPhone when the 5 was released.
First was how poorly HTML email was handled in the GMail app. The emails were almost always blown to absurd proportions which forced me to scroll back and forth just to read it. This morning I was pretty excited to wake up to the news that in version 4.2 of the GMail app, it would incorporate pinch to zoom which should make this a moot point!
The second major issue was the inability to be part of group conversations with my friends & family who almost all use either iPhones or Blackberries. I understand that this feature is not important to a lot of people but the lack of this feature is a deal-breaker for me. I tried using all the replacement SMS apps and they were all clunky, buggy, or both. I also tried getting people to install 3rd party apps like whatsapp or groupme but they never caught on.
I've had the iPhone 5 for about 3 weeks now and to be completely honest, I'm already bored. I want to go back to an Android device and preferably the next Nexus device that will be released at the end of this month (assuming it DOES have LTE which, if lacking, would be another deal-breaker for me in 2012/2013). So does anyone know if Android 4.2 will have group SMS/MMS and if not, is there even an expected time-frame for this feature!?
Based on the amount of stars and replies this issue has received on the Android Code page, I'm sure there are many others who would greatly appreciate this feature finally being included.
http://code.google.com/p/android/issues/detail?id=24468
Mods-
I probably should have posted this in the Q&A thread. I'll post it there so please feel free to delete this thread. Sorry about that.
The stock text messaging app on my gingerbread Droid 3 supports group SMS, never knew AOSP didn't have this feature yet. If someone sends me a text that went to multiple people I can see everyone it went to and by default any reply I send replies to all.
Every Sense based Rom I've ever used has had the Group MMS / SMS option.
TEAM MiK
MikROMs Since 3/13/11
I think you're talking about iMessage? If so, I agree, it seems great.
Sent from my HTC One S using xda app-developers app
No not talking about iMessage and Sense based ROMs do NOT incorporate this feature (I previously had the HTC One X and it didn't have it). What I mean is that when I get a group text message from people, it comes as an individual message from the sender and I'm not able to reply to everyone in the group. On an iPhone or Blackberry, when you get a group text message, you see all the people in the group and can reply to everyone and it will handle it as a threaded conversation in a chat window. This has nothing to do with iMessage (on iPhone) or BBM (on Blackberry), it's simply a group text message. It's currently the biggest drawback of Android IMO.
Very surprised more iPhone to Android switchers don't find this to be a major hindrance. Based on the lack of replies, I guess I'm in the significant minority and that's why it's not being addressed.
NextNexus said:
Very surprised more iPhone to Android switchers don't find this to be a major hindrance. Based on the lack of replies, I guess I'm in the significant minority and that's why it's not being addressed.
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I agree with you. I've been using Handcent SMS as a temporary fix, but I've read that code already exists that adds the functionality to Google's messenger. Now we just wait for someone to bake it into a ROM.
Verizon's stock messenger program handles threaded MMS messaging too, but it's the ugliest program I've ever seen. I don't recommend that eyesore over Handcent.
NextNexus said:
No not talking about iMessage and Sense based ROMs do NOT incorporate this feature.
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I've been able to Group message on my EVO LTE (Pre-Defined Groups & Manually added Contacts), I'm not sure what is different.
Haven't used anything else but I'm able to send & recieve on my EVO LTE. Sense 4.1.
Not really solving your problem but Sense in general has had Group SMS.
Messaging>Menu>Group Message
Is there any possibility to integrate SMS`s between two different devices(like a smartphone and a tablet) with different numbers? I loved the possibility to send SMS from my Galaxy Tab 2 but I would like to integrate it with my phone(a Galaxy SII).
I am really surprised as to the lack of fuss over this issue as well. I have two cousins that I constantly wish to group message with for planning purposes, both of whom have iPhones and it drives me completely nuts that I can't do it natively.
I'm in the same boat as well. What the heck Google.
I would very much like my phone to stop converting SMS to MMS once it hits the 3x160 chars limit. I'm quite sure the previous version of this ROM based on ISC 4.0.4 had this option in menus somewhere. The 4.1.2 version does not it seems.
I read somewhere that the conversion behavior would be removed in Android 4.1.2 in general, so it would always just send long SMS, so but so far that is not me experience.
I have tried flashing the MMS.apk that is usually referred to on this and other forums, but this only makes the app split my messages into separate 160 character messages instead of sending one long SMS. That is not a good fix - it's almost worse.
As this is a low level setting somewhere in the OS, I am not sure if it would work to just flash the ICS 4.0.4 version of the MMS.apk - I'm guessing it's identical to the 4.1.2 version (more or less, if it even works at all) and you still have to find a way to toggle a hidden setting somewhere else.
I don't have enough posts to post directly in the nAa release thread, so I'm hoping someone here can help me, or bring the request into the official thread - the request being to restore/add the menu option to stop the message application from converting SMS to MMS due to size.
This is for the X10 mini pro
ROM I'm using now, without the option: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1837273
Previous ROM I used, with the option: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1636501
Since noone else found a solution, I'll post it myself for anyone else who might face this issue.
This method actually works really well http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1583232
Krakadoom said:
Since noone else found a solution, I'll post it myself for anyone else who might face this issue.
This method actually works really well http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1583232
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Bah, I take that back! This actually also just splits your long messages into separate SMS's. *sigh* :crying:
I've searched everywhere over the internet and found little to answer my question. I make sms themes for GoSms, right. Though the problem is that the plugin installed into the go sms program is quite limited. I saw that a theme maker was available for pc before but last information I see in its regard dated to 2012 I believe. I looked for anything from 2014 but I can't find it now for download because every link I found resulted in an empty page. Am I missing something? How are people still sharing or selling themes on the Android market with such limitations on the plugin? I can't change the default avatar pic for contacts with no pictures, I can't change the background I'd like to use for the bubble chat.. the plugin only gives me option to change the color and transparency with the only option for a background for the message list and chat conversation window. I'm quite confused here. I would love to be able to share and sell some themes but I won't do it without being able to theme Go Sms completely (as in no limitations as the plugin has). Can anyone help me with this please? Give me some insight or something. I've overly confused myself and down to wanting to give up. Any useful info is very well appreciated.
Noooby...? At least an I don't know reply is better than nothing. If nothing thanks anyway.
The reason you are not getting replies is that GOsms threads are banned from the site due to security issues.