italics

[DWFII]

Maybe I'm barking up a tree but I wondered if there was an app or add-on that will let me italicize, underline and/or bold text in messaging.

And even in forums where a bold, etc., is usually one of the features, I can't figure out how to select text with my keyboard.

I'm on a Galaxy S6. And using Swiftkey.

 

[lunatic59]

There are no formatting options in text messaging (SMS). Even if you could add formatting in your message app, the recipient would get plain text.

As for selecting text with a keyboard ... Not sure if that's possible either. I know some keyboards have navigation arrows (left, right, up, down) but I don't recall ever seeing one with a cursor.

 

[DWFII]

Thanks that's what I thought. Seems like an obvious...and desirable...feature, though. I wonder why, at this stage of the game, it hasn't been implemented...if only as html code.

 

[lunatic59]

SMS messages are still limited to 120 characters and messaging apps follow no standard like HTML5 in how they render text, so the entire formatting code could exceed 120 characters before your first word. Other messaging platforms like Facebook messenger, WhatsApp, iMessage, etc are proprietary platforms and can implement advanced formatting, but it requires both the sender and recipient to be using the same thing.

 

[DWFII]

Excuse my ignorance but SMS is text messaging, right? I'm sure I have sent text messages longer (by a significant amount) than 120 characters.

And FWIW, I was thinking simple html...along the lines of

<i>?</i>

 

[lunatic59]

SMS = text messaging and stand for Short Message Service. Each individual message is limited to 120 characters, but longer messages are possible by converting them to MMS (Multimedia messages) where they are not subject to the limitations of SMS. However MMS messages require a data connection when SMS don't and in many case it must be the carrier's mobile data plan and not simply WiFi.

Some text apps will accept longer messages and split them up to satisfy the maximum, and some text apps will reassemble them on the other end which gives the impression of SMS handling longer messages. They don't.

Simple html requires that the recipient app be able to interpret the tags properly. SMS apps generally don't. You get italics in a web browser because the browser itself is rendering the web page. Open an html document in notepad and that's what an html formatted SMS would look like.

 

[DWFII]

SMS = text messaging and stand for Short Message Service. Each individual message is limited to 120 characters, but longer messages are possible by converting them to MMS (Multimedia messages) where they are not subject to the limitations of SMS. However MMS messages require a data connection when SMS don't and in many case it must be the carrier's mobile data plan and not simply WiFi.

Some text apps will accept longer messages and split them up to satisfy the maximum, and some text apps will reassemble them on the other end which gives the impression of SMS handling longer messages. They don't.

Simple html requires that the recipient app be able to interpret the tags properly. SMS apps generally don't. You get italics in a web browser because the browser itself is rendering the web page. Open an html document in notepad and that's what an html formatted SMS would look like.

Thank you for taking the time to explain that to me. I have only had a smartphone for three (?) years and was a late adopter at that.

That said, I understand about html--20 years ago I was writing web pages in Notepad.

What I'm wondering why a standard text app couldn't do such a conversion? If webpages 20 years ago could do it, why can't it be done in SMS/MMS today? Or is there some other, 'non-technical' reason?

 

[lunatic59]

SMS works over your carriers signal and doesn't require any type of data connection. It's been adopted by virtually every carrier on the planet so you can send a message from Verizon in Virginia to Startel in Sydney and it would go through. I still think there's a need for this. You might find this article interesting.

https://www.lifewire.com/definition-of-sms-text-messaging-578676

Now, if you want more features and formatting you need more bandwidth and a data connection would be better. The problem is getting EVERYONE to standardize on a single format. Ain't gonna happen. So if you want to send a message with italics from your Samsung Note to someone using an iPhone X, you both better be using the same messaging platform or it will either be mangled or not sent at all.