Database Users

SMS being split after 160 characters

Hi.
For some reason, all Sms that are over a certain length (looks like 160 chars) get delivered as 2 separate texts! This happens in the stock sms app and on Handcent. There is an option on Handcent that says 'Split 160', but this is for sending messages, and is set to 'Dont Split'.
Its getting really annoying because the texts just split a word within the the middle of it.
Anyone else have the problem??

This is the standard behavior of SMS... the protocol is limited to 160 characters. However the receiving phone should rebuild the message.

For me it does not split the mess, it (the one time it happened) converted it to an mms :-$ so the reciever (with an old phone) did not get it :-\
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Tjotte said:
For me it does not split the mess, it (the one time it happened) converted it to an mms :-$ so the reciever (with an old phone) did not get it :-\
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's weird... I get the correct behavior and the message goes as MMS only if I attach an image

There is an option to have it convert to MMS if it's greater than 3 SMS's (I think).. on the premise that if your paying for your texts it will be cheaper to send 1 MMS than 3 SMS... you can switch it off in the menus somewhere.

murtz said:
Hi.
For some reason, all Sms that are over a certain length (looks like 160 chars) get delivered as 2 separate texts! This happens in the stock sms app and on Handcent. There is an option on Handcent that says 'Split 160', but this is for sending messages, and is set to 'Dont Split'.
Its getting really annoying because the texts just split a word within the the middle of it.
Anyone else have the problem??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep i know what you mean the same happened to me 2 Days ago when i was texting with a Friend. Although it never happened before. All SMS over 160 Characters i got delivered in Split SMS. I thought it is a Error with the Cell Operator , the next Day all was back to normal again.

i got the problem when i type over 3sms it gets turnd into a mms

As lornova said above, the SMS standard limits each SMS to be 160 characters in ASCII or 70 characters in Unicode. This is called SMS concatenation.
Basically, if your SMS is over 160 characters long, your handset will split it over two SMS messages and send both. On the receiving end, the handset of the receiver will know that the two SMS messages are concatenated so it will join them together. This is transparent to both the sender and receiver so they will see it as one message.
Support for SMS concatenation depends on the handset (which most handsets support) and the operator's SMSC.
However, three SMS changing into an MMS is new to me. But since there can only be a maximum of two concatenated SMS, this is a clever solution.

I see. I guess the 'joining' isnt working properly on the X10 then! Is there a setting or something I need to configure?

WaiShingLee said:
Basically, if your SMS is over 160 characters long, your handset will split it over two SMS messages and send both.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's not what he is talking about. As far i understand he talks about his RECEIVED sms over 160 characters get split on his Xperia not what he sends.
I can reproduce that error as it happens to me too. What i send perfectly stays in one SMS even over 160 Characters but sometimes SMS which i receive from others with like 240 Characters get split in 2 SMS on the Xperia inbox.

That's strange. I can't reproduce the problem. I sent a long SMS (200 characters) from a Sony Ericsson W980 to a Sony Ericsson X10, and the X10 managed to join it just fine so that it appears as one message.
It appears as one message on the stock Android Messaging inbox and on the chompSMS application.
It may not be the X10. Maybe your operator's SMSC does not support the concatenated SMS.

SMS unsplitting depends on the sending carrier
I have a Nexus One running Android 2.3 (CyanogenMod 7.1.0).
Long text messages (over 160 chars) received from Verizon phones get unsplit correctly, and I see them as one message. Long messages received from AT&T (the handset is an HTC Vivid running Android as well), are not recombined, and I see the as a bunch of 160-characters SMSes.
This is super annoying, but it looks like there's no app that can simply let me manually merge an SMS into another.

murtz said:
I see. I guess the 'joining' isnt working properly on the X10 then! Is there a setting or something I need to configure?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I am no expert in this,but I believe x10 doesn't cause this,in my case and in where I live,I have never receive any split messages for quiet a long time already..(years...)and I often send and receive sms of more than 500 character and it is sent,received and displayed just fine.I strongly believe,this is due to your carrier,however,I just have no proof,and below is the screenshot me sending an sms to myself in more than 1000 characters,and I send,received and displayed just fine.
Have a nice day
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Even before Android, SMS was 160 characters. Some phones had the options or only allowed one or more choices of: messages ends at 160 characters - end of message and the sender has to manually create a new message to continue (and you naturally get more than one message), the sender types indefinitely and the messages splits into 2 (or more) SMS, OR it changes into a MMS. This is not something the receiver has a choice on. It's the person's phone who sends the message and the options they pick (and are allowed) that cause this. Android is the same way... since SMS and MMS is still the same though I don't know what the MMS limit is.
There may be a carrier default (aside from the 160 SMS characters which is universal). Often there's options the sender either doesn't know about or hasn't changed. Many have unlimited text so it doesn't matter if they send 14 SMS messages at once.

Are you on a custom rom?
________________________________________
CheerS!  
Milton
From Sony Ericsson Xperia™(locked bootloader) on "FeraLab v4"
using XDA premium
"  HiT ThAnKs If I'm NiCe To YoU!  "​

if it is a custom rom and it comes from a cdma handset this could be the issue as cdma doesnt support longer than 160,,, so it may cause such issues.
miui roms have issues like this sometimes.

Hi guys just my 2 cents, don't know the rates if an mms in ur country. But my advice if you are going to write a long mesh always use Mms as it gives u 1000 words n will cost you cheaper than sending a long mesg via SMS like 3 parts which will cost u more..n mms are just fine, u don't need to attach a pictures along with it. I can just use mms as a normal SMS if u want to write a big mesg....cheers
Sent from my X10 using XDA App

[Q] Why can I not send Picture messages on Nexus 4?

So I just got my nexus 4 today. Amazing phone... but the only problem I keep having is sending picture messages. I was able to receive picture messages, but that also took a long time to receive. I am on Tmobile and anyone else experience the same problem? Any suggestions on if I should contact Tmobile or if I should play around with the APN settings? Or is just because my phone had about 25% of battery left? Any help would be great. Thanks

mkamal23 said:
So I just got my nexus 4 today. Amazing phone... but the only problem I keep having is sending picture messages. I was able to receive picture messages, but that also took a long time to receive. I am on Tmobile and anyone else experience the same problem? Any suggestions on if I should contact Tmobile or if I should play around with the APN settings? Or is just because my phone had about 25% of battery left? Any help would be great. Thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
have the same issue on mine, just stuck on SENDING. also on TMO.

Same on Straight Talk :/

Had the same problem. Make sure your APN settings are correct for your carrier, fixed it for me.

This is mine from my sensation.
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cloud1111 said:
Had the same problem. Make sure your APN settings are correct for your carrier, fixed it for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
yah this is why i am going to make a run to att in the morning and let them cut my sim down and stick in their apn. then i can test what they want me to use around here. then test flashing different modems later on.

The nexus 4 is made to be world phone with no specific carier affect. Call up your carrier and ask them to send the MMS settings to your phones. That should fix it.

dlovely said:
have the same issue on mine, just stuck on SENDING. also on TMO.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is exactly what my phone is doing also.
cloud1111 said:
Had the same problem. Make sure your APN settings are correct for your carrier, fixed it for me.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
When I check my APN settings... how exactly do i "make sure" my APN settings are correct for my carrier
qpqpqp said:
The nexus 4 is made to be world phone with no specific carier affect. Call up your carrier and ask them to send the MMS settings to your phones. That should fix it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I will try calling my carrier today and ask them to send the MMS settings... lets see if this works.

Also make sure your using the stock messaging app and not a third party one. That has also been known to cause issues. There's a few threads out there about this same issue that mention this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium

deleted my APN and then manually created a new one with the exact same settings. rebooted. turned wifi off and attached a new pic and sent, it worked. tried it again with wifi on and it gets stuck "sending". sounds to me like my problem may be with wifi because if toggled back and forth turning it off and on and can reproduce the issue every time. for some reason mine doesn't like wifi on when sending mms.
BTW the old ones are still stuck showing "sending" so i'm not sure if they ever get delivered, have to wait for my girl to get home and ask her. the beauty of being with a school teacher, she can't use her phone at school!

Monk4Life said:
Also make sure your using the stock messaging app and not a third party one. That has also been known to cause issues. There's a fee threads out there about this same issue that mention this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup... I am using stock messaging. IDK why its not working on stock...
dlovely said:
deleted my APN and then manually created a new one with the exact same settings. rebooted. turned wifi off and attached a new pic and sent, it worked. tried it again with wifi on and it gets stuck "sending". sounds to me like my problem may be with wifi because if toggled back and forth turning it off and on and can reproduce the issue every time. for some reason mine doesn't like wifi on when sending mms.
BTW the old ones are still stuck showing "sending" so i'm not sure if they ever get delivered, have to wait for my girl to get home and ask her. the beauty of being with a school teacher, she can't use her phone at school!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm... well i just tried your method of deleting the old and setting up exactly as before.. and still nothing. I was able to send a picture message a few times yesterday but they went like 15 min after i sent it and ever since then... nothing.

mkamal23 said:
Yup... I am using stock messaging. IDK why its not working on stock...
Hmm... well i just tried your method of deleting the old and setting up exactly as before.. and still nothing. I was able to send a picture message a few times yesterday but they went like 15 min after i sent it and ever since then... nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i'm rooted but on stock messaging too. are you using wifi or mobile? the delete/manually recreate apn was something i saw on androidcentral when researching the issue. i'm about to call t-mo to rule out anything on their end. i never knew this was such a popular issue according to google.
if i send with wifi on it hangs on sending. i wait a minute, still stuck at sending. i then toggle off wifi and go back to messaging, and the for some reason it sends. weird...

dlovely said:
i'm rooted but on stock messaging too. are you using wifi or mobile? the delete/manually recreate apn was something i saw on androidcentral when researching the issue. i'm about to call t-mo to rule out anything on their end. i never knew this was such a popular issue according to google.
if i send with wifi on it hangs on sending. i wait a minute, still stuck at sending. i then toggle off wifi and go back to messaging, and the for some reason it sends. weird...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was using mobile. I know its not working on WiFi. I had no problems before this on my GS2. But yeah... let me know if u get in hold on tmobile. I prob will try to do the same later today after work.

mkamal23 said:
I was using mobile. I know its not working on WiFi. I had no problems before this on my GS2. But yeah... let me know if u get in hold on tmobile. I prob will try to do the same later today after work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
called t-mobile, kinda useless. they verified apn settings and said everything was fine. the only useful info they gave which i completely overlooked was sending MMS to myself lol didn't even think of trying that instead of spamming my girl with useless pictures.
turns out i was wrong about just blaming wifi alone. the issue with mine was using wifi and adblock plus! i turned off adblock plus and everything was better. uninstalled the app until it's fixed and went with a hosts file replacement to block ads in the meantime.

having this problem too, i can't send via 3g or wifi, maybe i need to reboot

Monk4Life said:
Also make sure your using the stock messaging app and not a third party one. That has also been known to cause issues. There's a few threads out there about this same issue that mention this.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda premium
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, THIS is weird. I was using Go SMS Pro and no pictures would go. But when I went to the stock messaging app for the pictures, they went almost immediately. The APN settings were correct, don't know what stops them from going with Go SMS.

Can confirm that Go SMS doesn't send pics no matter what.

Connection Problem - No Email & Not Sending Pictures
I took my phone to T-Mobile today They made a call to an "expert" and while I waited, the problem was solved. After updating to 4.3 on my Nexus 4, I couldn't connect to my email and could not send pictures. I was asked to delete my email accounts and re-enter them:victory:. This solved the problem! I guess after the upgrade, my connection/emails, whatever couldn't be 'read' so had to start from scratch. All of my email was there. Hope this helps someone else who's having this problem.

I'm on rogers canada, can't send pics sms either… stock or go sms
Via Google voice Δ |\|€×u$™ 7 FHD on Tapatalk²

I'd really recommend GO SMS for text/MMS service. On go SMS settings change the maximum MMS size to 500 KB, and check "preserve image resolution". Also put Nexus as your user agent. Same with stock messaging if you prefer the stock. If you are using go SMS make sure to disable the stock so it does not interfere with each other. Hope it helps. This is my settings I use and it works.
Sent from my Nexus 4 using xda app-developers app

Hangouts

So... MMS is not working on Hangouts. The reason being is because it uses its own custom apns.xml, with bad info. I suppose this is in regards to them not wanting to release source code? Why it doesn't revert to stock apn is beyond me. Anyone able to shed more light on this?

Steamer86 said:
So... MMS is not working on Hangouts. The reason being is because it uses its own custom apns.xml, with bad info. I suppose this is in regards to them not wanting to release source code? Why it doesn't revert to stock apn is beyond me. Anyone able to shed more light on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is this a common problem on stock ROM? Haven't heard this discussed yet...that's a bummer.

Common problem with any ROM, the app, and a mass of phones in general.

im also having the same issues, the come in as trying to download, but fails to download at all (no data is being sent or recived

And this is due to false and or failed apn. Hangouts resorts to its own instead of the phones. Edit in your actual APN values. I bet it will work. An alternate fix is to extract the apk, remove the apns.xml file, and repack. Thus making it resort to stock apns. Have fun. GL.

Unpacked com.google.android.talk-2.apk. Removed the apns.xml. Repacked and reinstalled. MMS working...
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Last step, Google, give me some free play credit... lol

Last step, Google, give me some free play credit... lol[/QUOTE]
Can this be done on a stock ROM, unrooted? I can't seem to find com.google.android.talk-2.apk in my phone's storage.

You can do it yourself without root if you download the apk. It does install deeper though.

Updated*

Will this work on the Sprint variant?

Any

No luck yet
Steamer86 said:
Try this. Report back. File was too big for attachment. http://www.mediafire.com/download/w...le.android.talk-2.0.122%20%28904984-30%29.apk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Alright, so I tried to install this as an update to Hangouts after turning on Unknown Sources, it prompts to install and then says application not installed. Tried uninstalling current release of Hangouts downloaded/installed through Play store, rebooting, and installing the one you linked to again. This time it installed, then immediately crashed during setup.
Running on Sprint LG G2 (LG-LS980) Hardware Rev. 1, Android 4.2.2 Stock ROM un-rooted (so far )

Use this one. My apologies.
https://www.mediafire.com/?th743vvcb1xc6g8

Steamer86 said:
Use this one. My apologies.
https://www.mediafire.com/?th743vvcb1xc6g8
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No apologies necessary my friend, on the contrary, thanks for trying to help me out here! That one installed no problem, and the first test I tried was downloading a previously received message that was "stuck". It still tried to download but never succeeded, just kept Retrying. I' waited for someone to send me a picture message to see if ones sent after the update was installed would work, but no joy. I then full uninstalled Hangouts, and used yours as a base install. This time it installed fine, but as soon as I clicked "Done", Hangouts crashed. Then every time I tried to launch hangouts, it would also crash.

Damn, that sucks. No clue why it would be crashing, pretty basic and only one file removed. Ben writhing perfect here. I am rooted though.

My problem is a little bit different.. I can send and receive MMS IF I enable the data plan. If data plan is disable..MMS cant send or receive anything.
Arent MMS supposed to connect to data automatically without us have to manually enable it (data)?

No. MMS use data. The carrier (if included in plan) negates it. It actually goes across the data network and does not auto switch. You won't get any MMS or standard internet services if in a non data zone unless on Wi-Fi or are using as app that supports MMS over a Wi-Fi connection. I was under the assumption that hangouts was supported, if sent to your actual hangouts id and not mobile number. The integration can be cumbersome to end users as it is not fully auto and can't really distinguish when you do or do not have a data or Wi-Fi connection. This is left to the user to distinguish. Best to let your contacts know to send MMS to your actual Google id. Just doesn't work that way. Why some prefer separate when not on MMS / data plans.

Steamer86 said:
No. MMS use data. The carrier (if included in plan) negates it. It actually goes across the data network and does not auto switch. You won't get any MMS or standard internet services if in a non data zone unless on Wi-Fi or are using as app that supports MMS over a Wi-Fi connection. I was under the assumption that hangouts was supported, if sent to your actual hangouts id and not mobile number. The integration can be cumbersome to end users as it is not fully auto and can't really distinguish when you do or do not have a data or Wi-Fi connection. This is left to the user to distinguish. Best to let your contacts know to send MMS to your actual Google id. Just doesn't work that way. Why some prefer separate when not on MMS / data plans.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I could never get MMS to work in hangouts on the sprint lg g2... When I flashed to a custom ROM however, it worked flawlessly. Go figure.

asrulz said:
My problem is a little bit different.. I can send and receive MMS IF I enable the data plan. If data plan is disable..MMS cant send or receive anything.
Arent MMS supposed to connect to data automatically without us have to manually enable it (data)?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just tested this without enabling the data plan, and it works excellent. I'm having a d802.

Crap, was I drunk...lol. I have never really tested. I'm on Verizon, if I don't have some type of data enabled I will not get an MMS either way. 4G / data can be disabled, as long as I can get get a 3G for delivery.

Android Messages MMS broken on GS8 when Wifi is on

Unfortunately the MMS function of Android Messages is broken on the GS8 when Wifi is turned on. Unlike my Nexus 6, which is what I'm coming from, the GS8 completely dsables LTE/data when Wifi is on. And since Android Messages doesn't support Wifi, you cannot send/receive MMS messages. When viewing the latest reviews on the Play Store for Android Messages, I'm not the only one with this problem. I spent a good portion of my day yesterday trying to figure out how to keep data on when Wifi is on but no luck. And apparently this has been broken for a while because I remember going on a MTB trip to the actual mountains where there was no cell/data reception, and had to use Hangouts (ugh) to talk to the family since Android Messages won't talk over Wifi.
Not sure if there's a workaround, as I'm using Samsung Messages for now until Google (hopefully) fixes this.

I'm having the same problem, was just about to post about it and saw your topic. Hopefully they issue a fix for this, don't particularly care for Samsung's Messages app.

Thought LTE with WiFi on is a carrier setting? My T-Mobile phone doesn't have any issues and uses WiFi calling just fine also.
Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk

My fiance's phone is having same issues with Google messaging app. Samsung app works just fine. She is using that for now.
We have reset phone. Activated new SIM card also.
I will not have her use Verizon message+ ever so I won't know if it's working.

Had the same issue. Turning wifi calling on and off did not make a difference.
I switched to using textra which works fine

Can confirm I have this issue with the google messages app; haven't tried with the samsung one.

Working fine on my S8+, Installed Google SMS app and its working fine on wifi.

Same issue using Android Messages

Does this mean that even if I disable wifi calling (Tmo variant s8), I won't be able to receive or make calls because data is disabled??

The Samsumg app works fine. It's Android Messages. Google needs to fix. I even turned on Developer Option and turned on the option to keep Data on while Wifi was on. Didn't make a difference. I reported it to Google, for whatever good that's going to do.

Same issues here. Verizon support told me it's because I'm using an app that doesn't support integrated messaging, but I know Messages worked on my S7 edge.
A new update hit APKMirror yesterday, but still having issues.

I had this issue using chomp sms. Found a post saying to change a setting in the app to have MMS behavior set to "system" instead of "legacy". It somehow fixes sms as well
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Doing a bit more research, I don't think this is an Android Messages issue, but more of a Samsung issue. I know that previous versions worked on my S7 edge, so I went back into the APKMirror archive and pulled out the release from December 2016. Still cannot send.
Samsung changed something with this phone release that is blocking Android Messages from working with MMS.

stevefrench85 said:
Doing a bit more research, I don't think this is an Android Messages issue, but more of a Samsung issue. I know that previous versions worked on my S7 edge, so I went back into the APKMirror archive and pulled out the release from December 2016. Still cannot send.
Samsung changed something with this phone release that is blocking Android Messages from working with MMS.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, seems they changed other things that break things as well, such as this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/galaxy-s8/help/chrome-push-notifications-reliable-s8-t3595599
Hopefully we get some fixes...

Something else to try, i enabled Advanced Calling and i seem to be able to send/receive on wifi with using Android Messages. It is working for me at the moment but not sure if that is what actually did it.
Also not sure if "Advanced" calling has gotten better, lots of reports of poor audio.

I believe it has to do with VoLTE, which you cannot edit on the s8 like you could on the s7. I can send MMS while on a call when on a 'HD' call, but can not when I'm am not on an HD call.

I am having a similar issue with Textra as well when sending MMS

I switched over to Pulse in the meantime and it's actually a pretty good app. It allows MMS/GIF/etc over WiFi on the S8; almost as good looking app but has more features.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=xyz.klinker.messenger&hl=en

ElBeaner said:
I am having a similar issue with Textra as well when sending MMS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Interesting. Textra and the stock Sammy Messages sends / receives MMS just fine on my VZW S8, but as noted above, Android Messages will not (and, I spent waaay too many hours trying to figure that out...).

tbcpn said:
Interesting. Textra and the stock Sammy Messages sends / receives MMS just fine on my VZW S8, but as noted above, Android Messages will not (and, I spent waaay too many hours trying to figure that out...).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine seem to get hung up when I have Wifi on(taking longer to send and I don't see the cell radio turn on like I did with my G6

[Q] Hangouts not appearing as default messaging app option

So I have Hangouts which I use for texting (via Google Voice features to be more specific).
Since GVoice isn't supported as a default messaging app, I've been using Hangouts.
However, on my S8, I can't make Hangouts my default messaging app since it doesn't appear as an option.
I've installed other SMS apps to see if it was some bigger issue, though they're listed properly.
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Is anyone else having a similar issue and/or know how to solve it?

I thought hangouts disabled non-voice SMS features awhile back. So you can SMS via your hangouts (e.g. "voice") number within hangouts, but anything to do with SMS inside hangouts is not considered "SMS" outside of hangouts—e.g. by the phone device.

.psd said:
I thought hangouts disabled non-voice SMS features awhile back. So you can SMS via your hangouts (e.g. "voice") number within hangouts, but anything to do with SMS inside hangouts is not considered "SMS" outside of hangouts—e.g. by the phone device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ugh. That's what I was afraid of.
I was using Hangouts on an older phone; maybe I was able to skirt around that disabling for a bit...
So basically there's nothing out there I can use as my default messaging app for my GV texts?

TheAma1 said:
Ugh. That's what I was afraid of.
I was using Hangouts on an older phone; maybe I was able to skirt around that disabling for a bit...
So basically there's nothing out there I can use as my default messaging app for my GV texts?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good question and I hope you get an answer to it.
In the meantime, as long as you have the APK for an older version that still integrated SMS, I don't see why you can't just uninstall the version on your S8 and replace it by sideloading the old APK. Or just get the version number and download it from any number of APK archive sites on the web.

Go to settings/apps and make sure hangouts has all the permissions enabled (including messages). After that, go back to hangouts and try to make it your default messaging whiting the app after you've enabled its permissions. Please report back if this works.

TheAma1 said:
Ugh. That's what I was afraid of.
I was using Hangouts on an older phone; maybe I was able to skirt around that disabling for a bit...
So basically there's nothing out there I can use as my default messaging app for my GV texts?
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Yeah, it's a shame. Google has so many chat products, and can't simplify a simple universal messaging service.
This is a good article about the Hangouts/SMS/Google Voice fallout recently. https://www.wired.com/2017/01/google-voice-update-makes-googles-messaging-strategy-confusing/

Nah even with all permissions enabled it's still not recognized by the OS as a possible default messaging app.

JDM9499 said:
Yeah, it's a shame. Google has so many chat products, and can't simplify a simple universal messaging service.
This is a good article about the Hangouts/SMS/Google Voice fallout recently. https://www.wired.com/2017/01/google-voice-update-makes-googles-messaging-strategy-confusing/
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Thanks for the link! It's indeed a real cluster...
I was initially looking into porting my GV number to my carrier (who knows when Google will shut-down GV altogether), but since I still need my carrier's number it's a dead end.
cabegol said:
Go to settings/apps and make sure hangouts has all the permissions enabled (including messages). After that, go back to hangouts and try to make it your default messaging whiting the app after you've enabled its permissions. Please report back if this works.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Tried it with current GPlay version (18.0) but still no option available.
The permissions were initially turned off, but even after enabling all of them there was no option in either Hangouts either or the default app section.
.psd said:
Good question and I hope you get an answer to it.
In the meantime, as long as you have the APK for an older version that still integrated SMS, I don't see why you can't just uninstall the version on your S8 and replace it by sideloading the old APK. Or just get the version number and download it from any number of APK archive sites on the web.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome suggestion which seems to have worked!
Well, sort of.
I ended up getting the last version before the official SMS removal (17.0).
Lo and behold, the SMS section appeared in Hangouts' options:
Through there, I selected Hangout as my default SMS app, as well as my GVoice number and account to be the default sender:
I then used Google Assistant to text a contact...
Which ended up using Hangouts (yay) but through my carrier's SMS (boo). It's also two separate threads in Hangouts (one with texts sent via GV, another via the carrier).
So, almost back to square one (the goal being to default-text via GV across the device).
Since Hangouts is the default SMS app, I'm guessing the current issue may be that the vocal command for "texting" is somehow tied to the carrier's SMS in lieu of GV. Especially since Hangouts' SMS default is GV...

Hangouts is moving support for SMS. Got a notification on my s6 the other day. Messages by Google is the new app specifically for SMS MMS like things now.
I know.....mmmmmm ghey...

I'm in the same boat. I hate native cell text messaging (and test messaging in general). GV has always been the lifesaver for me. But it is a pain that it no longer can register as a messaging app.
I honestly don't care what app is used as long as it routes the SMS through GV and does not require cell connection to be active and messages are stored server side on Google so are searchable and available on all devices.

Switched to a new phone and was not able to reply to SMS messages via my Google voice number. So I uninstalled Hangouts, sideloaded version 16, set my default SMS app to Google Hangouts through version 16 and it went back to working. I then updated the Hangouts app and it informed me that SMS will no longer work. So I pressed the show me button in the message to close the persistent notification, it sent me to the Android Messaging app that I closed and I can now use Hangouts to send SMS again. Hope that helps.

I just tried this and it looks like it no longer works. After it forces me to update to the latest version of Hangouts my default messaging app goes back to Messages and Hangouts is no longer an option. Does anybody else have any ideas?