Why does text convert to picture message

[sinistersai4d]

Just hit send after 3 messages and type the rest and it send again. It doesn't matter since the receiver gets them as separate messages anyway.

Also, when I text my mother long messages her phone only gets the first two.. and when she sends me long messages her phone only sends the first two. I'm assuming other phones do this, so theres no point in raising the limit, just so people could b*tch about the recipients not getting the whole message.

[extorian]

It depends highly on the network and handsets involved. On T-Mobile UK, I've had no problem sending huge SMS messages. They're received as one big one.

Many years ago, I used to get informed when the first one arrived and it used to say [Some text missing] at the bottom, until the next one arrived. It would then suddenly appear.

I've never had a problem where I've only sent or received the first two.

I agree, however, that you can just hit send before it converts to an MMS.

[stevem]

There has been a lot of responses in this thread about what one 'should' and 'shouldn't' do, and why. But it's clear everyone has their own reasons for choosing SMS or MMS and much depends on your application, network, and tariff.

Personally I have sent very long SMS for many years on many different phones (most recently an HTC TyTN II on Win Mob 6) and had no problems sending them or having them received at the other end. I have done that on O2 and T-Mobile UK, on several phones. On T-Mobile alone, depending on which tariff you have, it may be more or less economical to use MMS or SMS. For me right now, its SMS because they are free, MMS are not.

So that's my story. But in my opinion, it should not be up to the phone how you decide to manage these things.

It should be a selectable option - "Automatically convert long SMS to MMS" - yes / no. The user should be in control! Isn't that what Android is / should be all about? If not, I would have bought an iPhone. (Oh now I'm in trouble )

[extorian]

Welcome to the AC forums stevem.

Right - exactly.. it's all about the user being in control. That's why often the OS and apps that come with it are pretty basic, and instead they're improved upon by people making their own versions. This is something you simply can't get on an iPhone because Apple do not allow any app that "replaces core functionality" on their app store.

So... go to the Market, and while I don't use it any more so can't confirm it, download Handcent and see if it has such an option. It has hundreds, so I'm quite confident it will.