Multi Client Messenger? - Android Apps and Games

I hate the iphone (well all apple products really) but the one thing it did right was the iMessenger.
So I have been looking for a 3rd party messenger app that will do a few things that the stock android messengers wont do.
Main featute would be MMS over wifi
Also delivery and read report system
Ability to start and LEAVE group messages. The stock has no way of leaving group messages and I ended up having to block 19 numbers one time.
But most importantly I am looking for an app that will take advantage of these features when the recipient has the same app... but if the recipient does not have the same app it will default to standard. Kinda like imessenger does.
For example
Conversation with person A using the same app
I will recieve delivery and read reports. A typing icon when they reply. And I can send that person images over wifi
Conversation with person B using stock app will still send sms as normal but no read or delivery.. no typing icon.. and mms will default back to network.
Basically I have found apps that do what I want such as WhatsApp for example.. but I can only message people who havw the same app. The biggest problem I run intonwith 3rd party apps os getting everyone to switch over. No kne wants to swap over of they are comfortable with their current app.. I wamt to be able to text those who dont want to switch as well as those who do switch.

Related

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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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.
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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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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.

SMS Messages that are too long (Sprint)

Hey there,
If I send a message that is too long (like it breaks up into 2 messages after the 1st messages character limit is exceeded), the message will not send. I am using a 3rd party, 8sms, because I don't like utilizing Hangouts as my SMS and chat.
I'm sure they will blame it on me using the 3rd party app, because thats what they did last time I had a problem (not related to this)
Anyone else having this problem? Is it Nexus 5 wide, or just Sprint?
Thank you so much.
gsteelx said:
Hey there,
If I send a message that is too long (like it breaks up into 2 messages after the 1st messages character limit is exceeded), the message will not send. I am using a 3rd party, 8sms, because I don't like utilizing Hangouts as my SMS and chat.
I'm sure they will blame it on me using the 3rd party app, because thats what they did last time I had a problem (not related to this)
Anyone else having this problem? Is it Nexus 5 wide, or just Sprint?
Thank you so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It is doing the same thing when I switch it to Hangouts.
Sprint rep not very helpful. Did a bunch of phone resetting, changing the MSID, etc... to no avail.
gsteelx said:
Hey there,
If I send a message that is too long (like it breaks up into 2 messages after the 1st messages character limit is exceeded), the message will not send. I am using a 3rd party, 8sms, because I don't like utilizing Hangouts as my SMS and chat.
I'm sure they will blame it on me using the 3rd party app, because thats what they did last time I had a problem (not related to this)
Anyone else having this problem? Is it Nexus 5 wide, or just Sprint?
Thank you so much.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried any third-party SMS apps yet because I'm mostly happy with Hangouts, but it really annoys me that I can't even send a text with more than 160 characters. On previous phones, you could set up the messaging app to let you type to your heart's content and have the app automatically split the message up into 160-character texts. In Hangouts, it actually won't let you type more than 160 characters. You have to send the text and then start another one. There's no way that I can find to change this.
maxpower7 said:
I haven't tried any third-party SMS apps yet because I'm mostly happy with Hangouts, but it really annoys me that I can't even send a text with more than 160 characters. On previous phones, you could set up the messaging app to let you type to your heart's content and have the app automatically split the message up into 160-character texts. In Hangouts, it actually won't let you type more than 160 characters. You have to send the text and then start another one. There's no way that I can find to change this.
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Click to collapse
Yeah, that is what I meant by it not allowing me to do it on Hangouts either. It is truly annoying as ****. 8SMS is really just like the old messaging that we used to have before these updates. I am overall happy with it, just not with not being able to send a message over 160 characters, because it fails.
Does anyone else have a 3rd party SMS app that they like? I tried another one in the Play Store, but it had heaps of ads pop up after sending a text message... I gave that the swift delete quick!
Thanks for everyones help. This forum rocks!
I tried an app called Textra, just to see if it was 8SMS causing the problem.
Textra did the same thing...
I figured out the problem of why it wouldn't send text messages over 160 characters in 8SMS.
In the older versions of Android, on the messenger, it would automatically change the over 160 SMS to an MMS, and you could keep typing. By default, in 8SMS, this wasn't enabled. I had to enable it in settings.
Problem fixed.
Hopefully anyone who uses 8SMS will find this post. I highly recommend this app. I am not a fan of hangouts for SMS.
This is standard for SMS, some phones trick you into thinking there is no limit by not showing you the count or the limit and automatically combining everything or converting the SMS into another protocol (like imessage)
More info here:
http://www.wirelessdevnet.com/channels/sms/features/sms.html
Specifically from the site:
"The messages are limited by size. An SMS message can’t exceed 160 characters. (BTW this limitation is due to the limitation in the MAP protocol in GSM) In case of longer e-mails or information service messages like news, the messages need to broken down into more than one message. The need to break the messages into several smaller segments could make SMS comparatively costlier in comparison to GPRS (for the same kind of service). Also, This doesn’t look very appealing on a mobile device!
However
MMS (talked about later) would remove the limitation of small messages"
Personally I think in the year 2013/2014 and the technologies we have I'm sure it is possible to change this limitation by introducing a new SMS method or protocol/etc but that requires someone to actually spend the time and money to introduce a new standard that replaces one that has been in place for a very long time
I was having the same issue. There are two options to get long text messages to work on Sprint. I'm also using 8sms (great messaging app, really recommend it over Hangouts).
The first, like someone else stated, is to select the option to convert long messages to picture messages. Make sure you select anything over 1 message long to be converted.
The second option that I discovered is to enable "split counter" in the settings. This will split the texts and send them as consecutives SMS messages without converting them to MMS messages. Hope this helps.

Messages App

Hey guys,
I know this might be an odd question but when I send images via Messages app, I cannot send the full size image via messaging. Is there a way to stop the compression feature?
- hobo
I believe that the stock messages app uses MMS and the size are controlled by your carrier. the standard messaging app does not work like iMessage or other 3:rd party texts apps that use "internet" to send messages.
If im not totally off on my information most normal sms/mms have a locked size in kb of how big they can be.
So if you wanna send full size images I would suggest that you and the person you wanna send pics to use a 3:rd party app like Telegram, Facebook Messenger, Google Allo etc. they work Cross OSes, Windows, Android, MacOS, iOS.
Just got this phone a few days ago. First Samsung phone. I found the app would crash after sending mms messages. I finally just loaded Android Messages. Too bad. I hate having redundant apps.

Pixel 3a on Verizon - the Google Messages app doesn't handle verizon group texts very

I was invited into a group chat with 3 other Verizon users, we all have Android phones - but they all use the official (God awful) Verizon Message+ app and I'm using Pixel's default (Google) texting app, which I really like so far. Problem is... When I first was invited into the group text, it worked - kind of. I got text messages and stuff, but instead of replacing the phone numbers that prefixed the messages, it'd just show the phone numbers.
So I asked them what they used, and downloaded the Verizon texting app and switched to that - I could see avatars, the background picture, it read my contact info for each user correctly, etc.. But the app is terrible, I mean a truly god awful piece of garbage - you can't even save images to your phone, just to "Verizon".
Anyways, rant aside - I switched back to Google's texting app and now I'm not getting any messages in the group text - and I asked in person, they're still sending messages, they're just not coming through for me.
So my main question is: How do I fix not receiving group texts anymore? I tried deleting cache + data for the google texting app like I saw being recommended, but that didn't fix it. I really don't want to switch back to the Verizon message+ app if I can help it because it really is terrible.
Any help would be appreciated. I'd even accept another texting app suggestion if it has feature parity with the google app, I just want to do everything I can to avoid Verizon's app.
Jogee said:
I was invited into a group chat with 3 other Verizon users, we all have Android phones - but they all use the official (God awful) Verizon Message+ app and I'm using Pixel's default (Google) texting app, which I really like so far. Problem is... When I first was invited into the group text, it worked - kind of. I got text messages and stuff, but instead of replacing the phone numbers that prefixed the messages, it'd just show the phone numbers.
So I asked them what they used, and downloaded the Verizon texting app and switched to that - I could see avatars, the background picture, it read my contact info for each user correctly, etc.. But the app is terrible, I mean a truly god awful piece of garbage - you can't even save images to your phone, just to "Verizon".
Anyways, rant aside - I switched back to Google's texting app and now I'm not getting any messages in the group text - and I asked in person, they're still sending messages, they're just not coming through for me.
So my main question is: How do I fix not receiving group texts anymore? I tried deleting cache + data for the google texting app like I saw being recommended, but that didn't fix it. I really don't want to switch back to the Verizon message+ app if I can help it because it really is terrible.
Any help would be appreciated. I'd even accept another texting app suggestion if it has feature parity with the google app, I just want to do everything I can to avoid Verizon's app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does your device have a "dual messenger" option anywhere in your system settings?
Sent from my SM-S767VL using Tapatalk
No promises, but you might try Textra. I think the problem come from Verizon's app can send over Wi-Fi (desktop apps) and is not really sms compliant.
Thank you both, but sadly no option for dual messaging and I've used Textra and wasn't a huge fan. As awful as the Verizon app is, I may just have to keep using it ?

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