160 characters??????
Environ-MENTAL

Why is it that I can only write messages up 160 characters? All while my  friends send pages of texts to me? It even happens with Verizon mobile to mobile. I have a Blackberry curve and I would have thought it would be capable of doing more then that simple task. I have unlimited texting if it matters any.

 Anybody know what I might have to do? Well besides writing less! :mantongue:

Thank You in advance!

**Andrew**

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Re: 160 characters??????
Environ-MENTAL

NEVER MIND! I read the other frustrated customers. I can't believe the best company in mobile communication, sux in the vital field of text.

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Re: 160 characters??????
DaniLove13
Contributor - Level 3

Yeah I have a Curve as well and I hate having to remember where I left off on a text!!! Grr @ Blackberry. And yes, I know i should just call whomever I' sending my whole life story to but most of my friends have T-mobile or At&t lol

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Re: 160 characters??????
StreetDocRN
Champion - Level 1

Hi,

First of all, I believe it is a standard for all cell phones, no matter who the provider is, for SMS (Short Messaging Service) to be 160 characters or less.  If you want to send longer messages, send it MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) which can be a lot longer.  That is probably why you get "pages and pages" of text from certain friends.

Doc

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Re: 160 characters??????
DaniLove13
Contributor - Level 3

StreetDocRN wrote:

Hi,

First of all, I believe it is a standard for all cell phones, no matter who the provider is, for SMS (Short Messaging Service) to be 160 characters or less.  If you want to send longer messages, send it MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) which can be a lot longer.  That is probably why you get "pages and pages" of text from certain friends.

Doc


 

Well Blackberrys are not "Enhanced Messaging" capable like most regular phones. Blackberrys can RECEIVE messages longer than 160 characters, we just can't send them.

And Enhanced Messaging only works for messages sent to other VzW phones. The max is 160 characters to send to other carriers.

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Re: 160 characters??????
SuzyQ
Community Leader
Community Leader

Text messages are intended to be SMS, Short Message Service?  D...uh - limited to 160 characters.  More than that, send an email or call....why do people complain when a service works as it is intended?  SMS was NEVER meant for long messages.  :smileyindifferent:

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Re: 160 characters??????
bebeshoes
Newbie

My story in as much of a nutshell as I can put it:  Was with TMobile while in college.  After graduating last month, my dad offered to pay my cell bill but only if I switched to Verizon, as that's his business plan. Of course I switched.  Free cell phone service, who wouldn't?

 

But, just recently I realized this really isn't what I want from a cell phone company.  Every other cell phone service I know has no problem splitting text messages up into multiple ones if they exceed a certain character limit.  TMobile did this, AT&T does this, and Sprint does this.

 

But, with VW, for some reason or another, all of my buddies who don't have VW are simply cut off mid text message if what I send exceeds 160 characters. 

 

character limits are exceeded??!  This is seriously a breaking point for me.  I'd rather pay my cell bill, and you know, get everything I actually PAY FOR, rather than deal with this bull **bleep** of my friends not receiving everything I've typed.  I don't see the logic in not providing us this very SIMPLE text mesaging service that EVERYONE ELSE seems to understand EXCEPT Verizon.

 

Why is it that Verizon doesn't allow this?  My dad signed onto $30/month unlimited text expecting, oh, I don't know, UNLIMITED TEXT?!  Seems misleading that not all of my friends get everything I intend to send via text. And it's bull **bleep**.  Will this change soon?  Or should I go ahead and go back to TMobile?

 

{word filter avoidance}

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Re: 160 characters??????
happydemon
Newbie

Just looking for help on this, is there a way to get your phone to text mms, and if not, anyone know if you can set an alert to tell you when you go over 160, only part I get irritated about, is trying to figure out how much of text got cut off after I thought I was done with message

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Re: 160 characters??????
dahlenw
Newbie

Here is an LA Times article on the guy who decided 160 was enough for SMS.  Use MMS or email if you want to send more than 160.  If you want to learn more about SMS and alternatives take a look at this article from How Stuff Works.

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Re: 160 characters??????
TheAskWhyGuy
Newbie

This article still doesn't change the fact that this is the most asinine policy. I just came over from AT&T and am appalled that I can't type past 160 characters on my Blackberry and have it sent in two seperate text messages. It's no issue on the AT&T network. Go past 160? Msg 1/2, Msg 2/2. It's very much making me consider going back to AT&T.  I'm serious. This "micromanagement" of SMS policy is a strong message to me that Verizon could very easily micromanage my other abilities. Really, I'm absolutely appalled. I'm hoping someone at Verizon is reading this. There's absolutely no excuse for limiting functionality in this way. If I go over a couple of characters, Verizon's forcing me to start a whole other message to that person??? STUPID!!!

 

What this does:

It pushes its customer base to buy an application for $6.99 (BlackBerry - makes me wonder if the developer works for Verizon and made this policy) which bypasses this idiocy anyway 2) stop what I was texting, erase the last portion of that sentence, send it, start a new message and continue where I left off.  A lot of[edit]

 

Seriously.  Give me a very good reason why this is the way it is.  Not an article of the history of SMS (might as well give me a history of why cars are generally as wide as they are). Don't tell me I can use MMS instead (all phones/networks don't support MMS and when I send an kludged MMS message off, I shouldn't have to worry about whether or not this message is going to get to the recipient on account of some forced 160 character limit).

 

 

[edit]

 

 

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