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Hangouts SMS option
- Thread starter kathayes
- Start date
Rxpert83
Dr. Feelgood
1) I'm not sure what you mean by 1
2) Its just taking over your SMS functions as well. I'd you use hangouts already, its one less app
Rxpert83
Dr. Feelgood
Thanks, you can send hangouts in much the same way. It'll use data and not sms
But if you send it as an SMS, it will count towars your sms limit
I think it's a little different. I don't think it chooses automatically like that. You start a hangout with a contact, and you choose either to message them through their Google account or choose their mobile number which automatically makes the hangout sms.
You can clearly see which current threads are sms and which are messenger.
You can clearly see which current threads are sms and which are messenger.
Not sure if this should really go here, since it isn't specific to the One, as far as I know. Android 4.4 is supposed to move towards Hangouts being the default SMS app. I generally do not use Hangouts for anything, but after reading about the 4.4 update, I thought I would give it a look. Using the latest update to Hangouts, I enabled it as my SMS handler. All in all, it is working out a lot better than I expected, but it has one thing that annoys me to no end. It has a hard limit of 160 characters. The stock SMS app automatically splits longs texts for me. I can see no option within Hangouts to enable that functionality. Has anyone messed with Hangouts since updating to 4.3? Am I just blind and not seeing how to enable this?
If they don't have the ability to do this, I am going to be highly annoyed at having Hangouts as my default SMS. I know you are supposed to be able to change it, but the whole OS is supposed to be geared towards Hangouts being the default. And yes, I am aware that it is a petty complaint, and that sending long texts is probably a failing on my part.
I've just gotten used to being able to happily type away texts to my wife while I am sitting in boring conference calls, and don't want to have to keep an eye on how many characters I type.
If they don't have the ability to do this, I am going to be highly annoyed at having Hangouts as my default SMS. I know you are supposed to be able to change it, but the whole OS is supposed to be geared towards Hangouts being the default. And yes, I am aware that it is a petty complaint, and that sending long texts is probably a failing on my part.
I've just gotten used to being able to happily type away texts to my wife while I am sitting in boring conference calls, and don't want to have to keep an eye on how many characters I type. Looks to be a hard limit right now. You should post this in the App section to get more chatter...
Right before posting I typed an sms in hangouts. Once the countdown went to zero I stopped seeing text so to me that too would suggest the app has a hard out at 160.
But maybe not...
But maybe not...
GuitarG20
Clueless Senior Member
Right before posting I typed an sms in hangouts. Once the countdown went to zero I stopped seeing text so to me that too would suggest the app has a hard out at 160.
But maybe not...
When mine hit 0 it split out into 1xx/2, implying that it was then splitting it into two messages... let me root around in settings to see if there's something there.
EDIT: It's super basic and I didn't see anything there... hmm. I'm on AT&T, what carrier are you using it on? Also what version of android? (keep in mind I'm on a HOXL running sense 5 and 4.2.2)
Right before posting I typed an sms in hangouts. Once the countdown went to zero I stopped seeing text so to me that too would suggest the app has a hard out at 160.
But maybe not...
From what I was reading in the Google Hangouts group forums, people on AT&T and Verizon say Hangouts is splitting their sms, but Sprint isn't. One of the mods said it was because Sprint doesn't allow it, but the link he posted just goes to a generic Sprint page saying sms messages are 160 characters. I'm not sure how Hangouts would work differently on different carriers. It isn't like Sprint has their own version of Hangouts. Anecdotally though, it appears that it does work differently on Sprint than on other carriers.
That needs to be fixed. Having to manually split my messages is annoying. I really wasn't happy to hear I was essentially going to be forced into using Hangouts. I WAS pleasantly surprised that Hangouts has improved a lot since I first tried it. Hopefully enough people will complain and they will fix this. It's really the only thing keeping me from using it right now.
yes i use sprint so thank you for confirming I have not yet lost my mind.
however, i dont see where you are FORCED to use hangouts as I still use google voice and whatsapp.
and i use google voice exclusively. hangouts it not yet compatible with google voice so until then i will use whatsapp.
however, i dont see where you are FORCED to use hangouts as I still use google voice and whatsapp.
and i use google voice exclusively. hangouts it not yet compatible with google voice so until then i will use whatsapp.
Well, forced was a bit of exaggeration. With Android 4.4,Hangouts will be the default SMS app. You can still use third party apps, but there is some concern about how well it will work. I'll have to find the article because I can't remember the specifics. And since the HTC One is supposed to get 4.4 within 90 days, I wanted to get used to it ahead of time. Things could change.
geekhandstrong
Well-Known Member
Actually very few of my texts are less than 160 characters, so you're not alone in thisIf they don't have the ability to do this, I am going to be highly annoyed at having Hangouts as my default SMS. I know you are supposed to be able to change it, but the whole OS is supposed to be geared towards Hangouts being the default. And yes, I am aware that it is a petty complaint, and that sending long texts is probably a failing on my part.
But as for " the whole OS is supposed to be geared towards Hangouts being the default", so what? What do you care what Google want you to do? Use whatever suits you best and forget about the rest.
Actually very few of my texts are less than 160 characters, so you're not alone in this
But as for " the whole OS is supposed to be geared towards Hangouts being the default", so what? What do you care what Google want you to do? Use whatever suits you best and forget about the rest.
Well, I plan on using what works for me. The thing is, I liked the stock SMS app we already have. It just feels like I am being forced into a direction I don't want. I have tried other Handcent and Chomp, and really did not like them. They just have either been unstable, or had too much junk in them that I don't care about. The last I heard was that the default SMS app we have right now isn't a part of KitKat (I don't know that for sure, just a few comments from people who have it. That doesn't preclude it still being there, just not on the main screen or something). If that is the case, I will have to move to some other app. Until Hangouts auto-splits my texts for me, I will probably end up using Handcent, as it was the least annoying to me.
Regardless, it was just one of those annoyances I ran into, and was curious if there was a way around it, or what other people thought of it.
Rxpert83
Dr. Feelgood
I'd suggest using 8SMS also. :thumbup:
Installing now.
GuitarG20
Clueless Senior Member
If hangouts hadn't come along with sms support, I think I would have switched to 8sms. Thankfully, hangouts supports message splitting on AT&T so I'm gonna stick with it for now.
Ah, well I can tell you what I think of it: I uninstalled Hangouts, so there's no way I'll be using it as my message app
Right now I'm running a Sense ROM, and using the HTC message app, and would prefer to continue doing so. Even if the SMS functionality of Hangouts was perfect it would just be a more bloated messaging app to me (I don't use the rest of it, so that's just clutter from my point of view). So if I had a phone which only came with this I would either hunt for a 3rd party app I liked or extract one from an earlier ROM & see whether I could get it working (which sounds not so different from what the developer of 8sms has done).
Ah, well I can tell you what I think of it: I uninstalled Hangouts, so there's no way I'll be using it as my message app
Right now I'm running a Sense ROM, and using the HTC message app, and would prefer to continue doing so. Even if the SMS functionality of Hangouts was perfect it would just be a more bloated messaging app to me (I don't use the rest of it, so that's just clutter from my point of view). So if I had a phone which only came with this I would either hunt for a 3rd party app I liked or extract one from an earlier ROM & see whether I could get it working (which sounds not so different from what the developer of 8sms has done).
Honestly, I felt the same way about Hangouts prior to this update. It was slow loading, and not very user friendly. Since it didn't do SMS, I had no reason to use it. I don't use Talk, and the only time I ever used the Hangout function for video chat, was when Chickenfoot did a Hangout for their album release.
The newest Hangouts is actually fast, doesn't appear to take up a bunch of resources, and is pretty easy to use. The only thing keeping me from using it for SMS is that on Sprint it won't automatically split long text messages. Since the only thing I really have a use for in Hangouts is SMS, it kind of makes it worthless to me. If anyone uses the other features, it might actually be a good fit. I'm sure they will fix the splitting messages thing though.
If nothing else, I give Google credit for making some pretty impressive improvements to the program.
Hi All,
Updated to the new version of Hangouts yesterday. Apparently Google wants this to be the new stock messaging app on it's phones. It asked if I wanted to use Hangouts for SMS, so I clicked yes and decided to give it a whirl. Has anybody else done this on the HTC One? Thoughts? Experience?
So far as I can tell, there are some major bugs. SMS works just fine, but MMS will not download at all. At least not after trying 4 or 5 times, after that I gave up. There is no option to have the incoming messages display on the lock screen, which I find annoying.
Would be interested to hear about others experiences. Especially regarding the incoming MMS. And, no, it's not a carrier issue. They flow through just fine on the stock messaging app. Which I will be going back to shortly if I can't get it figured out within Hangouts.
Updated to the new version of Hangouts yesterday. Apparently Google wants this to be the new stock messaging app on it's phones. It asked if I wanted to use Hangouts for SMS, so I clicked yes and decided to give it a whirl. Has anybody else done this on the HTC One? Thoughts? Experience?
So far as I can tell, there are some major bugs. SMS works just fine, but MMS will not download at all. At least not after trying 4 or 5 times, after that I gave up. There is no option to have the incoming messages display on the lock screen, which I find annoying.
Would be interested to hear about others experiences. Especially regarding the incoming MMS. And, no, it's not a carrier issue. They flow through just fine on the stock messaging app. Which I will be going back to shortly if I can't get it figured out within Hangouts.