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Group MMS from iPhone to Android

Hello,
Just had a question. I sometimes receive "group mms" messages from friends with iphones who are on AT&T (i'm on verizon with a DX). It seems like the list of recipients isn't being sent along with the MMS. So it looks like a message that's directed at me, and not at a group of people. Also, this makes it difficult to respond to everyone that was on the original list for the message. Not to mention the fact that the individual replies from other people go into the list of text's between that person and I, and not into one viewable group conversation. I had this problem with an old feature-phone that i had as well, but just chalked that up to bad software. I've been searching here, on howardforums, and other places, but no one seems to know much about it. Has anyone else seen this, and is there anything that i can do about it?
Thanks in advance!

Hey djuniah,
I understand what you are saying. I have been having the same problem too. These are automated msg's sent out by the service providers.
I reckon, you contact your network provider and look into the processes. I did that when this problem was occurring and it was rectified.
Now, its no guarantee that you wont get another msg like it... but the network provider does his/her best to rectify it..
Hope this helps.

err, i don't think you understand what i mean. I'm talking about this scenario
Friend1 (with iphone on AT&T) -> Sends group mms to "Friend2, Friend3, and me"
Friend2 (with iphone on AT&T) -> Sees the message with all of the other people's names attached. When they reply, it goes to everyone in the group mms
me (droid x on verizon) -> I see the original message from friend1 in the same thread as all of my previous messages with friend1. When friend2 sent their reply, i see that message in the thread with all of my previous messages from friend2. When i want to reply, i have to reply to each of them individually, not as a group.
I called vzw and the operator there said he saw the same issue on his OG droid. I've assumed this was a network issue for a while now, but i was wondering if anyone had any solid info as to why it was happening and if there was anything we could do about it.

bump to top

This isn't network trickery, as far as I can see. It's Apple intelligently using the features built into MMS long ago to send a group message, have other iPhones handle that group message in a way that you can 'reply to all' like email.
Someone (Google, Go SMS, HandCent) needs to simply build the 'group' feature into their application so that it can properly see the recipients of the MMS as a Group and reply to all. If I go into the message details of one of these MMS messages on my Evo, I can see everyone that got the message... Now, the app just needs to look at that and do something with it.
It's very similar to Beluga... albeit not as functional.

Yeah, i had come to a similar conclusion once i started looking at the message details. If most of those texting apps can handle sending group messages, i don't see why they havent/cant build the ability to notice them coming in...

seems like a really simple and practical thing to have

Any luck with this issue>?
djuniah said:
Hello,
Just had a question. I sometimes receive "group mms" messages from friends with iphones who are on AT&T (i'm on verizon with a DX). It seems like the list of recipients isn't being sent along with the MMS. So it looks like a message that's directed at me, and not at a group of people. Also, this makes it difficult to respond to everyone that was on the original list for the message. Not to mention the fact that the individual replies from other people go into the list of text's between that person and I, and not into one viewable group conversation.
Has anyone else seen this, and is there anything that i can do about it?
Thanks in advance!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any luck with this issue? I noticed it works for BB users also. I have iPhone users, BB users, and EVO (Android) users on a Group MMS chat and it seems that only us Androids are not able to reply to the "Group". We can create a group on our end and batch text each user, but the messages are not received in their "group mms" screen, its on a direct individual one. Need to figure this one out so I can continue my "My phone is better than yours" war with my iPhone friends. Heheh.

bump this back up, i just got into this issue a few days ago, if i cant me sms agent to iphone in handcent would that do anything for me

bump
this is a growing problem for me, and for Android i fear...
of my closest 20 friends, 18 of us use Android, 1 blackberry, the rest iPhone... and the group SMS (really MMS) messages are common - PLUS - the one BB user can reply to all with their device. granted the BB reply looks like email the way it contains the whole message with headers in its reply, but still it can play the game.
i find it really surprising that simply threading the messages that come in to multiple recipients hasn't been addressed, and if i had the technical skill i would address it myself.
i am currently on an Atrix using Cyanogen's beta, and have an Inspire running the 7.1 RC.... i have tried both the native SMS/MMS apps, Handscent (though not recently) and love GOSMS Pro (though it seems to periodically send out duplicate texts for some reason).
i would love to find a way to thread my SMS/MMS messages with groups like the iPhone does so i can join these conversations instead of receiving any number of random replies from people and having to piece together the conversation. ANY help with this would be appreciated.

installing the vzw messenger app DID "solve" the problem for me. I prefer to use GOSMS Pro, but when i get a group message, i reply to it with the verizon one. However, now i get double the notifications from GOSMS. For some reason, it's pop-up thinks i got 2 messages instead of one (with the same content). This is far from ideal, but it does work.

what about outside of VZW?
i wish there was an app i could get my hands on like your VZW app, maybe its not perfect, but it gets you through the issue until something better comes along. being on the Atrix and the Inspire i'm with AT&T coming off an iPhone, and periodically having to go back if there's reason for me to play a role in some happening which is causing an unusually high number of group texts.
from what i can tell, Handscent and GOSMS Pro are really the only contenders in the platform-wide SMS/MMS alternatives, I'm surprised they've spent so much time focused on making their themes pretty instead of addressing this well documented but unaddressed issue.
has anyone else found other alternatives?

Bump
I've been looking for this for a year. Today an iPhone user asked me why is that we cannot reply to group messages. She's anoyed because she have to forward all the messages received from Androids to the rest of the group...

Threads... why?

Ive seen MS chose to combine IM and SMS and to me this looks really messy.
First of all the integration of IM is quite nice but I wish it was kept seperate from SMS conversations since these are to the majority of people still different than IMs and used on different devices or apps. I dont want to continue a conversation automatically on a different app or something. This will be very annoying to the other user.
Certainly if somebody just left his/her pc on or IM on accidently....
They should have added facebook private messaging as well and IM/SMS seperated like it was and just added a chat pivot in the messaging hub.
to me an sms is still something every user has always with him her, like when u send somebody an address or something it should be on their phones and not deliverd trough IM and its annoying having to switch first.
Its kind of short sighted implementation, the idea is good but the reality will be very annoying the way it works now.
you will get a ton of sms like notifications for every IM which can be annoying since on a chat conversation people send much more messages per minute than trough sms. Having to toggle online offline all the time will be a pita
am i the only one who thinks this will be garbage? Instead they should have allowed third party apps like whatsapp to use this on user permission. I hope I can switch off the live messenger. Or just revert back to the original sms screen

I like the idea to have an overview of my messages regardlessly whether they come via SMS, Windows Live or Facebook. Although I agree that getting notifications for all those messages shown on the SMS tile would be kind of overwhelming. But I can imagine Microsoft changes the way the tile works. So it still shows the number of SMS, but in addition to that shows an icon or something when you recieve a chat message from Facebook or Windows Live.

In my opinion.. the best feauture ever, of every OS. Loved that!

I love it as well, and think its nice not to have to go to 4 different places for my facebook, text, wlm & (eventually skype).
While I hope they either have a toggle setting for separate 'rows', or add it soon after Mango for those who really don't like it, I honestly doubt they want to mess it up by having too many places for messages. It fits in pretty perfectly with their vision for the overall UI design imo.

For me,M$ thread is not a new idea,it just copying the messaging app in the HP webos...however HP webos messaging is better,they can download apps that support HP connect and integrate into the messaging app(so,this means they can have more than 1 im clients in 1 messaging app).
Feel so sorry to HP webos,always being copied by others,even the UI design of playbook has been copied

Marvin_S said:
First of all the integration of IM is quite nice but I wish it was kept seperate from SMS conversations since these are to the majority of people still different than IMs and used on different devices or apps. I dont want to continue a conversation automatically on a different app or something. This will be very annoying to the other user.
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Threading will be the beginning of the end for SMS IMNSHO. Most people still use SMS because it's what they know and are used to.
My wife is a great example, she keeps sending me SMSes while I'm out because that's what she's used to. Even though I've had email (and to some extent IM) on my phones since forever. With a "messaging hub" it takes all the guesswork out of the equation - she'll write the message as she normally does and the phone will decide whether it should deliver via FB, Messenger, Skype or SMS.
Now, if you don't want to continue the conversation if the user has moved to a different device you don't have to. The phone will tell you how the message was sent as well as what services the recipient is currently logged on to.
Marvin_S said:
to me an sms is still something every user has always with him her, like when u send somebody an address or something it should be on their phones and not deliverd trough IM and its annoying having to switch first.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This just proves my point - you're used to SMS. And again, you can choose whether to send as SMS or IM.
Personally I find this feature great. Two things should be done to make it even better though;
1. Implement a industry-wide protocol so it doesn't matter if you're on a crackberry, iphone or windows phone. Sure, Skype and Messenger goes a long way towards achieving this but there are still people who use smaller IM services only.
2. Allow third-party apps to hook in to the messaging hub - there's a few apps out there today that are not chat apps as such but still implement messaging. Being able to receive (and reply to) these messages from the same place would be great. It would also make it easier for other IM services to integrate with the OS.
dkp1977 said:
Although I agree that getting notifications for all those messages shown on the SMS tile would be kind of overwhelming.
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Click to collapse
But why? Are you less likely to want to read a message coming in thru Messenger than one delivered via SMS? I for one don't care how my messages are delivered, I just want to be notified. It's a bit like having three post boxes outside your house - one for deliveries by DHL only, another for Deutsche Post and a third for everyone else - i.e. pointless

I really like this new feature as well. I am confident that any replies you send to someone will use the same service they used to "text" you, unless you choose to change it. People on non-WP7 phones won't suddenly need to be jumping all over the place.
On the other hand, when other people send you messages from multiple sources (SMS, FB, WLM, etc), you will be able to get all of the messages in one convenient place. I like that.

[Q] Group SMS

So on my iphone I could have group conversations with 3 other people and it would all be in the same conversation window, I but now, on my one x, when I try this it just sends to everyone individually. It works on my friends droid because he has the verizon messaging app which isn't available to att users (I think)
anyways I was just wondering if there was a simple solution to this (I've tried two 3rd party messaging apps with no luck)

Yeah, you're not gonna be able to get that, AFAIK. The "WhatsApp Messenger" app does this, but that's not actual text messaging, it's an IM app that uses your contacts phone numbers to identify them, and can only message other WhatsApp users.
Just for my own curiosity, when you would do this with your iPhone, would all the other participants be iPhone users? Or would it be a mixed bag of BB/Android/WP7/iPhone?

You should check out the app 'GroupMe'.
Great app that can do either real texting or over the internet messages.
The catch is, you have to message a 'Group number' and GroupMe then forwards that message on to everyone else.
This enables you to add/remove people to a conversation.
You can make these numbers private or public
I'm pretty sure they support every os and you can also just use their website to send messages.
It's all free which is the best part.

This is one of my biggest gripes with Android ICS. My Galaxy Nexus wasn't able to do group SMS either and, coming from an iPhone where I had lots of groups, it's a pain in the ass.
Also, using 3rd party apps that require every other person you want to chat with to also have the app is not a real solution. GroupMe is even worse than the rest b/c if someone EVER had the app (and no longer does) it doesn't recognize that and just doesn't deliver the message at all.

NextNexus said:
This is one of my biggest gripes with Android ICS. My Galaxy Nexus wasn't able to do group SMS either and, coming from an iPhone where I had lots of groups, it's a pain in the ass.
Also, using 3rd party apps that require every other person you want to chat with to also have the app is not a real solution. GroupMe is even worse than the rest b/c if someone EVER had the app (and no longer does) it doesn't recognize that and just doesn't deliver the message at all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The awesome thing about GroupMe is you don't need the App at all. You can use their service purely through texting.

[email protected] said:
The awesome thing about GroupMe is you don't need the App at all. You can use their service purely through texting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You didn't read what I wrote. If someone EVER had the app and got rid of it then the app doesn't recognize that and simply doesn't deliver the message at all. This is even worse than simply not being able to message people who don't have the app b/c now the sender has no clue whether their messages were delivered to each recipient.

NextNexus said:
You didn't read what I wrote. If someone EVER had the app and got rid of it then the app doesn't recognize that and simply doesn't deliver the message at all. This is even worse than simply not being able to message people who don't have the app b/c now the sender has no clue whether their messages were delivered to each recipient.
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Click to collapse
If I am not mistaken, If the user changed his settings through the web interface he could set it up to be texting only again.
I have never ran in to this issue personally. When I removed the App from my phone I would still get the messages, just not through texts until I switched the settings.
Sorry for not fully understanding the first time.

Group MMS Fix?

Does anyone know of any mod or ROM that will properly support group MMS in android as it is properly support on iPhone, WP7, and BlackBerry?
On the HTC One X the messages arrive properly but when I send a reply, it gets sent as an individual SMS. Interestingly, if I attach an image (thus forcing it to convert to MMS), it will reply-all correctly.
So I guess .... something has to be modified so that the OS knows to send as MMS (with text only) when responding to a group

Use goSMSPro or Handcent. Need to enable it in both.

jiggytom said:
Use goSMSPro or Handcent. Need to enable it in both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I appreciate the suggestion. I dont want to put words int eh OPs mouth, but I think they were referring to a way to mod or update native software so that the native messages app works properly with MMS. for many people, using a 3rd party app for messaging is not preferable.
that said, there are threads running around XDA regarding installing the stock ICS messaging app. perhaps that would work properly with group messaging on HOX (I would assume but haven't tried).

The stock app doesn't work with group messaging either, to my knowledge but someone can correct me if I am wrong.
Moto BLUR software has this implemented in their messaging app. Don't think its that easy of a thing to do.
Basically the messages come in as MMS and they are grouped together by the software.

This is the worst if you came from an iPhone and have a lot of friends with iPhones. I get group texts daily so I had to download Go SMS. After enabling group texting in Go SMS the group messages are shown properly in the stock HTC messaging app, but I still need to use Go if I want to reply to the group texts.

Gtg you have a one x to? Awesome this is a good thing
Sent from my HTC One X using xda premium

I've also been wondering this too.. I just installed Go SMS Pro but I still can't seem to get it to function like the iPhone would where its all in one conversation sort of like an online chat room. Hmmm anyone else have any tips?
edit: all working smooth now so happy.

jiggytom said:
The stock app doesn't work with group messaging either, to my knowledge but someone can correct me if I am wrong.
Moto BLUR software has this implemented in their messaging app. Don't think its that easy of a thing to do.
Basically the messages come in as MMS and they are grouped together by the software.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is good to know, thanks. So this issue seems to be isolated as a flaw in ICS, then, correct?

fitchpuckman said:
This is good to know, thanks. So this issue seems to be isolated as a flaw in ICS, then, correct?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I wouldn't say its a "flaw", its just an unimplemented feature. Not sure why they never took the time to do it, it's pretty popular.

jiggytom said:
I wouldn't say its a "flaw", its just an unimplemented feature. Not sure why they never took the time to do it, it's pretty popular.
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Click to collapse
Oh okay, thanks. I wasn't sure if it was a bug or just not developed. Seems very odd that they didnt implement group MMS.

gtg465x said:
This is the worst if you came from an iPhone and have a lot of friends with iPhones. I get group texts daily so I had to download Go SMS. After enabling group texting in Go SMS the group messages are shown properly in the stock HTC messaging app, but I still need to use Go if I want to reply to the group texts.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly this.
GoSMS is ok but is rather ugly, and crash-happy. What will happen is that a group message comes in, then gosms groups it into the threaded convo so I get 2 notifications for every 1 message. It's rather annoying. Handcent is even uglier.

I share your frustrations. I have tried ChompSMS since I used BiteSMS on the iPhone and it doesn't support MMS. I tried Handcent and the UI is cartoonish and it doesn't display contact photos correctly. The HTC messages app allows me to send a group MMS, but then I get individual replies back and it doesn't maintain the group.

Using at&ts message app and it does group txt, but you can't start one. It has to be sent to you first and from there it'll always reply to group
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA

gnabgibeht said:
Using at&ts message app and it does group txt, but you can't start one. It has to be sent to you first and from there it'll always reply to group
Sent from my HTC One X using XDA
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The att messages app also butchers picture quality through mms. Send yourself one and see.

mochzr said:
Interestingly, if I attach an image (thus forcing it to convert to MMS), it will reply-all correctly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
this. it's gotta be here. I hope the modders can figure a way of getting the phone to reply with an mms message, attachment free, when the message is sent within a group thread.

Bumping this thread.... anyway for a mod or an app that can force a text-only message to MMS when there are multiple recipients?? that's all I need :X

developer support requested
This would be PERFECT, especially if this pref could be added to stock SMS/MMS application. No need for Handcent or GoSMS, which are both ugly and unwieldy, IMHO.
mochzr said:
Bumping this thread.... anyway for a mod or an app that can force a text-only message to MMS when there are multiple recipients?? that's all I need :X
Click to expand...
Click to collapse

GO SMS group messages
GO SMS groups text messages like the iPhone does
Settings, Send settings, enable group MMS

dollypatel07 said:
GO SMS groups text messages like the iPhone does
Settings, Send settings, enable group MMS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GO SMS will slow down to a snail's pace if you have consecutive group texts coming in (which happens frequently as people are using it to converse).
It's slow, it's rather ugly, AND it gives you TWO notifications for every one group text. It's seriously terrible. WP7, WP8, BlackBerry, iPhone, all properly support Group MMS. Even some featurephones do it correctly as well.
I swear this has to be some kind of crazy oversight from Google or some kind of weird political war where no one will address such a simple issue. I mean if Verizon and AT&T can make an app that corrects this, then what gives??

Native SMS retarded -- google wake up!
mochzr said:
GO SMS will slow down to a snail's pace if you have consecutive group texts coming in (which happens frequently as people are using it to converse).
It's slow, it's rather ugly, AND it gives you TWO notifications for every one group text. It's seriously terrible. WP7, WP8, BlackBerry, iPhone, all properly support Group MMS. Even some featurephones do it correctly as well.
I swear this has to be some kind of crazy oversight from Google or some kind of weird political war where no one will address such a simple issue. I mean if Verizon and AT&T can make an app that corrects this, then what gives??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GO SMS is a NO GO as the OP has said. I agree Google is slacking here, or there has to be something else.
Is the raw code unavailable to developers to recompile and change the native text messaging application and it's MMS settings?

Group text messaging?

I was just wondering if we will be able to ever get true group messaging like the setting applies within the messaging app. One feature I liked in the iphone (I think iOS5) was when I have a group convo with someone all of the messages from the different people will appear in the same thread. In the Galaxy S 3 it sends it out as a group message but when I receieve the message it goes into its own separate thread and not just that I would only get the text from the person that started the group message. Is this a simple glitch or is the whole option just really misleading?

blackguy101 said:
I was just wondering if we will be able to ever get true group messaging like the setting applies within the messaging app. One feature I liked in the iphone (I think iOS5) was when I have a group convo with someone all of the messages from the different people will appear in the same thread. In the Galaxy S 3 it sends it out as a group message but when I receieve the message it goes into its own separate thread and not just that I would only get the text from the person that started the group message. Is this a simple glitch or is the whole option just really misleading?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Id also like to know if we will be able to do this. My droid razr did this and it was great since all my friends have iphones
Sent from my Verizon Galaxy S3

jkat797 said:
Id also like to know if we will be able to do this. My droid razr did this and it was great since all my friends have iphones
Sent from my Verizon Galaxy S3
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Click to collapse
Exactly! which is why im just hoping an update comes soon! (even though Verizon sucks when it comes to that) or at least a modder finds a way to fix this problem if thats even possible that is

I use GoSMS, works great, not as clean interface as standard messaging app but having a MMS is more imporatnt to me.

VZ Messages
I use the VZ Messages app from the Play store (free). It works perfectly and has pop-ups. It seemed to work much better with group SMS than GoSMS did.

Definitely check out groupme. www.groupme.com and the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/...251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5ncm91cG1lLmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..
It lets people with dumb phones get in on the action. Everybody texts once central number, and texts are redistributed from the same number to everybody else and includes the name of the sender (which you can assign...pretty fun)
Downside being that people have to accept the group and add this number to contacts as "Bros" or whatever you want it to be. Couldn't be more effective for my needs though.

chris98891 said:
Definitely check out groupme...
It lets people with dumb phones get in on the action. Everybody texts once central number, and texts are redistributed from the same number to everybody else and includes the name of the sender (which you can assign...pretty fun)
Downside being that people have to accept the group and add this number to contacts as "Bros" or whatever you want it to be. Couldn't be more effective for my needs though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does it work for MMS as well? I couldn't see where it said one way or another on their website.

devilchrist said:
I use GoSMS, works great, not as clean interface as standard messaging app but having a MMS is more imporatnt to me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm in 2 group texts with 5 in each. I get on average of 60+ texts a day and the damn program LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGS. I would love an alternative.
chris98891 said:
Definitely check out groupme. www.groupme.com and the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/...251bGwsMSwxLDMsImNvbS5ncm91cG1lLmFuZHJvaWQiXQ..
It lets people with dumb phones get in on the action. Everybody texts once central number, and texts are redistributed from the same number to everybody else and includes the name of the sender (which you can assign...pretty fun)
Downside being that people have to accept the group and add this number to contacts as "Bros" or whatever you want it to be. Couldn't be more effective for my needs though.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't like Groupme because it is a different phone number. I do however like the interface.

I use go sms but it doesn't group real well, I always assumed it was the way they responded. maybe I'll check out be messenger.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app