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SMS and Blocking mode

Z

Zilliman

Newbie
1) One of the most obvious and needed feature of the SMS application would be the ability to grab all or some of the texts and copy them somewhere. The Android standard application, on my phone called "Messaging" allows you to select a number of texts in a discussion, so far so good, and the only thing you can do is ... delete them. Didn't the programmer think, "hold on, why not let them save those messages somewhere, email them perhaps as an attachment, or maybe convert them to a Word or CSV text document before sending". No he obviously did not. But you can download third party SMS applications or SMS backup programs that will allow you to save your SMS messages, typically all of them, not just the ones you care about, and in any case those applications are not from Google. So why isn't this a standard feature?

2) Say you start typing a large text and then you change your mind before sending it. You will have to delete it character by character, you know ho winfuriating this is? There is no "delete this " button. Again, what was the programmer thinking, there should be a button "kill message" so you can kill it instantly.

3) Say you do not want sounds and notifications when you receive an incoming SMS from a particular person. Actually say you do not want the phone to make noises when you also receive calls from a particular person. Well, there is the "Blocking Mode". First of all, it is not subtle. Obviously the programmer who wrote that lived in a commune or in some prison, and had no idea what "privacy" means. So first you get a large orange notification for everyone to read "YOU ARE IN BLOCKING MODE". FFS was the programmer a trained monkey?! Then you have the option of blocking everyone in your contact list except a few select people. Really? Again, what about if I want to block one person? Why would I ever want to block everyone? I might as well turn my phone on silent then. I am very sorry I called the programmer a trained monkey, I am doing a disservice to all the monkeys out there.
 
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vosg has hit it there. Your complaints are about your phone's specific app, but that's not the same on all phones. And if you don't like what that app offers, just go to the Play Store and find a better one.

In more detail:

1) Depends on your message app. My stock HTC app allows me to select a message and then "share" it (various cloud services or via email), but only one message at a time that I can see. Textra, my default message app, allows me to multi-select messages and then share them as email (but doesn't offer as many other sharing options as the stock app). Play around with a few and you may find one that does just what you want.

2) Know what you mean. A quicker way is to long-press a word to bring up the select/edit options, select the whole message and then delete, but that's still less convenient than a simple way to cancel.

3) Another one where it depends on which app you are using. My stock HTC app allows me to simply block individuals. My preferred third party app (and most third party apps) allows me to customise notifications for individuals, so I can easily turn off sound/vibrate for one person if I don't want to be disturbed by them but might want to receive ther messages.
 
Mikestony said:
Rant or otherwise, no need to stress our language filter ;):thumbsupdroid:
Click to expand...

Thanks for the replies and on the title I used a word which I had no idea would be filtered out.

The point is that I am describing stock Android applications, all part of the Android distribution. In my case a bit old, 4.2.2 - but the crudeness is still inexcusable.

We need to consider that a few applications like SMS, Phone, Contacts, Settings (and more) - are vital to the operation of the phone. Imagine for example that your phone came without a "Phone" app, and you'd have to download one...

It is great that we have choice but that does not mean that the distribution has to come with badly written apps full of ommissions.

In addition the apps we download are loaded with ads, mosttly going over the Internet to download the latest ad to plaster on your screen - so it wastes your Internet as well as being annoying.

FWIW I have downloaded two SMS apps, "GO SMS Pro" and "ZERO SMS" both OK (and with ads). They are strikingly similar, so at a guess they must be using some common library. Both are better than my stock app, "Messaging 4.2.2" , but still not good enough. For example they let me select a number of messages but only then let me delete them, not store them or forward them or email them.
 
OK, so lose GoSMS, it's not your friend and you're opening yourself up to Chinese spam.

Try Textra, it has some of the features you want. Maybe all, I don't know.

As for stock Android - unless running a Nexus or a more recent Moto, no one else is likely to see the same issues and it's why you were asked what phone, not what operating system.

"Stock" is the most assumed and abused description out there for Android.

And on that point, notifications have changed a lot for Lollipop.

The stock Google sms app is now Messages, not Messaging, yeah?

Anyway, if you're complaining about application code written by Google or a manufacturer, join the club. It's not that we don't sympathize, it's just not news. Have you seen Gmail lately? I rest my case.

Anyway, Textra is excellent, so is its big brother Chomp and there are plenty more to choose from.

And btw - depending on what version of what stock you have, under your main settings, Storage, you may find that you can direct your messages to be stored to your sdcard area rather than hidden internal storage.


Btw - the Nexus and newer Moto phones run as close to compact Android as you'll find.

If you want a richer app set out of the box, buy a Samsung or HTC.

Still no guarantees that you'll like the apps and won't want to replace them. But they're far less idiotic.

Also btw - Gmail is full of ads and you didn't have to go get it separately.

As for ads in other apps, buy the one you like and make it go away.

Did I mention that Textra has no ads?

So there you go.
 
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Thank you.

TEXTRA was the first alternative I had tried, but somehow I did not like it. I am trying it again. It is missing two important features to me which were covered by both GoSMS and ZeroSMS:

1) Privacy 1 - you cannot hide messages from one or more senders, so even if you turn notifications off, anyone can still see your messages
2) Privacy 2 : the stock Messaging app still receives all messages and anyone can actually see the messages there

These features are also missing from Chomp which I am using now.
 
So, when using Textra or Chomp or other, you do turn off notifications, etc, in your stock messaging app, yeah?

If people are seeing things elsewhere - lockscreen or whatever - that can be addressed as well.

If app level notification shutoff isn't enough, you can usually clamp it in main settings, Apps, All, at the top of app's details.

If privacy is a real concern, and why not, you can password protect your phone on an app by app basis.

Check out "Smart AppLock (App Protector)"

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.sp.protector.free

There are a bunch of those, you'll have to find one you like.
 
The stock messaging app will still allow you to see messages regardless of what app you use. SMS are stored in a central database and any message app can read them. Your only way round that is to hide the default message app: many custom launchers allow you to hide apps from the app drawer, or you could download one of those apps that lets you password protect certain apps and use that to close it off from other people. Of course if an app includes a "chat" feature that isn't actual SMS (i.e. is really internet-based instant messaging, like Google's Hangouts) that won't by visible to other apps.

Edit: Ah, Early's spotted something I didn't: I assumed that you meant that people could open the other app and read messages, rather than that you got notifications from the stock app. So yeah, if that was your problem it's simple: just turn off notifications from the app you aren't using.

Edit 2: If you want to hide message from specific senders so that you need to access a code to read them, Evolve SMS has that as an option (I think it's a paid add-on though). Chomp lets you set a pattern lock to access the app at all, but I don't think it has a per-conversation option to do that. My knowledge of other apps is too out of date to comment on them - Textra, Chomp, Evolve and the HTC message app are the only ones I've used in the last year.
 
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Textra and Chomp do not have "Private" settings. Other apps do and somehow "steal" those private messages from the central database/wherever they are stored, so the messaging app, and any other app, never knew what happened.

The keywords here are "privacy" and "subtlety". I do not want a big banner on my phone "here are your secret applications/messages, enter the secret code to access".

Currently I am experimenting with an application called Shady Contacts.

A poor choice of name, if subtlety were a virtue.

However it seems to be able to hide the incoming SMSs very well. I presume it can also do the same for incoming calls from "private" contacts, I have not tried.

Additionally I am looking for a 6.5" phone to replace my not so good Chinese phone (DG650), any suggestions welcome.
 
Well, it seems you've clarified the requirement and have found something to get you started.

Will let you know if I see any inexpensive 6.5" phones running standard Android.
 
Yeah, that's a different requirement. I like to keep the option of changing SMS apps if one I like better comes out, so I'd not want messages removed from the database (though I guess there's an option to make them "public" again?).

6.5" is a very specialised market, and there haven't been many of those released by major brands ever (Sony's Xperia Z Ultra, released in 2013, was 6.4", but that's the closest I can think of). I did a quick search on GSMArena, but almost everything there is "only" 6".
 
6.5, seems to be a bit of a no man's land. There's phones up to around 6in, phablets, which is probably the largest can comfortably carry in a pants pocket, and then tablets really start at 7in. There some some off-brand Chinese ones of course.
 
It's a combination of age and convenience. 6.5" is easy to carry unless you are involved in sports maybe, otherwise it fits in hoodie or other pockets easily. I would even go for 7" or 8" since I almost always put it on the loudspeaker whenever I make or receive calls. Most use I make is like a very convenient tablet, for emails, browsing, and so on, when away from my PC. I know other people are "glued" to their phone for example my cleaner she works around the house with her iphone permanently wedged between her face and shoulder, so much that I have suggested to her a wireless earpiece.

Before the 6.5" Chinese phone, I bought the Nexus 7" tablet with LTE - unfortunately it could not make/receive calls. A great shame.

I think the Samsung tablets are capable of making calls, but the smallest is 8" which is a bit too much. Ideal size would be 7" I think.
 
I think the largest phone from a well known manufacturer is probably the Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3. The Mega is actually sold as a phone and not as a tablet.
 
Hadron said:
So Sony are not a well-known manufacturer (Z Ultra was 6.4")? ;)
Click to expand...

I don't actually see many Sony phones, they're available here, just not particularly popular it seems. So never pay much attention to the brand. Unlike Samsung, LG, Huawei, ZTE, Coolpad, Lenovo, Xiaomi, Oppo, Vivo, and Apple of course.
 
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