Help Group Message Recipient Limit

[JDS300]

I found out today that I'm not able to reply to group messages (all in a single thread/conversation) if more than 10 people are included. Is this a limit of the phone, carrier, or Andriod (4.2.2)?

 

[Rukbat]

It's a limit of the way texting is done. (It's a protocol designed to send messages to pagers, it was never designed to be used for texting the way it's being used today.) Apple doesn't have the limit, because iPhones don't text, they send iMessages, which isn't the same thing.

 

[JDS300]

I was under the impression that iMessages only go to other Apple devices? So even if I have an iPhone and I'm sending a group message to Android users it is not an iMessage but a normal SMS/MMS message?

Either way, where is the limitation being placed? At the OS level, application level, or carrier level?

 

[bberryhill0]

I suspect the limit is in the underlying protocols but I couldn't find where. Maybe in Mobile Application Part (MAP) of the SS#7 protocol. The base is 128 byte packets which can be packed with 160 7 bit characters. There must be another packet that specifies the sender and the recipient.