Channel 9 Forums - Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

Stephen Schaff — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 17:32:05 GMT

I have been frustrated by this for a while, but today I saw this video that made me decide to post about it.

Windows Phone 8 sends group text messages great. (Most phones can).

But it fails on group texting after that. The problem here is that Windows Phone reads responses to group messages as a direct message from that person to you.

So when you respond in turn no one else in the conversation knows what you said.

The only workaround is to constantly switch screens between group responses that are sent from the Windows Phone and the individual responses of others in the conversation.

Am I missing something? Is there a setting I don't know about?

I hate to say this, but my iPhone could keep a group conversation all in the same screen

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

magicalclick — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:26:27 GMT

Don't know about wp8, but, wp7 works because I got charged for it and ppl in the group was wondering who I am.

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

GoddersUK — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 20:56:34 GMT

There's a setting to enable "true" group messaging; the catch is that it uses MMS. I've never been able to get it to successfully work though, but I think that's probably a network issue.

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

kettch — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:07:11 GMT

@GoddersUK: Yeah, I think it's a hack in order to get the cell network to do something that it doesn't really support.

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

GoddersUK — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 22:43:47 GMT

@kettch: I should have added, for the OP, that (on WP7, at least) the option can be found under settings, applications (swipe left), messaging.

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

Stephen Schaff — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:51:40 GMT

@GoddersUK: Thanks for the tip. I changed the setting on my phone.

As a side note, why is using MMS a "catch". It all costs the same right?

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

GoddersUK — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:56:06 GMT

@Vaccano: Well it's a bit of hack because it's not an SMS, so it's not really a group SMS - it's a group MMS (you'll find, for instance, that some more basic phones won't support MMS however you can send MMS messages to email addresses). I don't think they cost the same here in the UK, no idea about anywhere else. Also, if I were you, I'd test it before you actually try and use it because when I tried it it didn't work (although I think that was a network issue, rather than a Windows issue).

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

kettch — Mon, 25 Feb 2013 23:58:43 GMT

@GoddersUK: MMS messages are billed as data instead of as an SMS.

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

GoddersUK — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 00:32:10 GMT

@kettch: It's weird. I was just looking at this on O2's website and it lists an SMS as costing 12 p and an MMS as costing 25 p but with a footnote about data usage. So I have no idea whether it's charged at 25 p/message, at data cost and the 25 p is estimated or 25 p + data (and what data liability the receiving party may have).

Coffeehouse - Windows Phone 8 Group Texting Fail?

kettch — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 01:07:51 GMT

@GoddersUK: Hmmm... apparently I was mistaken. AT&T is now charging $0.20 for SMS and $0.30 for MMS. There is an unlimited messaging plan that covers everything, apparently no data is required (unless you have a smartphone of course).

I believe that the confusion is exactly what the carriers are hoping for.