Extending length of SMS on Touch

[thefish123]

Hi everyone,

On my Razr I could extend the number of characters allowed for an SMS message from 140 to something like 300 using a firmware hack. Apparently if it is too long Bell’s network splits it up into two messages. Anyway, I would imagine doing something like this on a WM device should be easier? Or not?

Is there a registry setting we can use to give us a little more space when typing out SMS’s?

[dharvey4651]

I can almost swear I found this in the registry back when I had a Wizard but I can't remember where. Damn those hundreds of registry entries...

If I find the same entry on my Sprint Touch I'll let you know.

[neurocutie]

On my Razr I could extend the number of characters allowed for an SMS message from 140 to something like 300 using a firmware hack. Apparently if it is too long Bell’s network splits it up into two messages. ...I'd be surprised if this worked generically, though it might work for a few circumstances. SMSs are fixed at 160 by convention and it would require cooperation of *every* relay in the chain to get an increase, not just at the sender's client end. I know that from my testing, Sprint pretty much obeys the 160 char rule and doesn't seem to pass anything beyond 160. Perhaps Bell does, but you'd also need the cooperation of the other carrier, any 3rd party services in between (most inter-carrier SMS relays are handled by a 3rd party), and also the recipient's device.

[98classic]

sprint told me sms were supposed to be 500 characters when i signed up, yea i believed them, haha

[thefish123]

On most other Bell phones I think the limit is 160 (on the Touch it's 140). Perhaps that is because the Touch lets you enter a “subject” line? At any rate is it possible to extend it and then I can experiment with how long a message I can send.

[alpha_omega]

So you just want it to allow you to type a message more then 160 characters? For instance if you go over that it will allow you to continue to type but when you send it then it will break it up into however many messages that it needs too? Or are you trying to send a message in on txt that is longer then 160?

[Rudegar]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service#Message_Size

[dharvey4651]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short_message_service#Message_Size

Thats all fine and good but that doesn't answer the question. Sorry if that comes off a little rude(not intended offensively). That merely explains the concept of SMS and how it can be 70-160 characters depending on bits. It is also for the GSM service whereas we have CDMA devices.

Thanks for trying though.

[neurocutie]

Thats all fine and good but that doesn't answer the question. Sorry if that comes off a little rude(not intended offensively). That merely explains the concept of SMS and how it can be 70-160 characters depending on bits. It is also for the GSM service whereas we have CDMA devices.

Thanks for trying though.Well, like it or not, that material is extremely relevant, because the priorities are interoperability and economy of transmission. Sprint originally *tried* to go on its own with its Shortmail service, which allowed 1000 chars, but it fell down on precisely those two issues: the long messages would only work within the Shortmail system and obviously could not work across other carriers, and its implementation was not "lightweight", but relied on the Internet and dedicated website -- not economical at all. Obviously in the end, Sprint folded up and joined the rest of the world in supporting standard SMS specs. The great part about SMS is that it uses so little resources and therefore can co-exist with voice channels and doesn't require a "heavyweight" data channel (of course that means transporting SMSs cost carriers next to nothing to provide and yet carriers can charge $$$ for SMS)...

[Goodge]

Previously on any GSM phone I've had, txt msgs were 160 characters (if longer it would span to multiple messages). Now that I've moved to Bell (CDMA), the Touch only allows 140 before spanning. If you type an accented character by mistake (such as with the accented a character always popping up), it doesn't tell you, but the message gets clipped down to 70 characters (and spanned across multiple). I suspect these missing 20 characters are related to some sort of character-set identification, specifying the bit-count of the characters you're using. When you use an accented character, you get 16-bit characters, resulting in even less.

Long story short, there should be some way to get 160 character messages, as that's the "standard" for most providers. Whether its possible on our phones is another question. Also, has anyone else noticed that our phone won't join multi-sms messages back into a single message? If someone sends me a message of 200 characters, I literally get 2 seperate messages, whereas on my previous GSM Atom, it went and joined it back into one...

[thefish123]

Also, has anyone else noticed that our phone won't join multi-sms messages back into a single message? If someone sends me a message of 200 characters, I literally get 2 seperate messages, whereas on my previous GSM Atom, it went and joined it back into one...I have noticed that I am now getting multiple messages from the same person and they obviously look like one long message broken up. I don’t know if my Razr (my previous phone) used to reassemble them or if I just never received such long text messages before but in any case I have only noticed it since getting the Touch.

If the network automatically splits up long text messages and most phones reassemble the message back into one then what would be the problem with allowing the Touch/Vogue, or any phone for that matter, to send messages of 160, 200, 300 whatever length? Especially if this is as light on network resources as they?

Can anyone confirm the 140 vs. 160 character limit due to the subject line present in the Touch? It might seem like a small difference but that extra 20 characters can really come in handy!! Percentage wise it’s a pretty big difference.