Texts are being received in Chinese

[Capybopy]

I have noticed the same thing with texts from my mom. She has a Windows phone and I have the Note 4. But we are both on the AT&T Family plan. We just use regular messaging- no special app. Just started in the last few weeks. Is AT&T the common thread here?

AT&T does seem to be part of it, but the common thread is the messaging app called Go SMS

 

[mikedt]

I thought I was over this problem, but I'm not. Yes, it's as soon as we go beyond 80 characters it happens. Of course switching to a different app is the obvious thing to do...It's just that I love the features of Go SMS and am reluctant to give them up. I went two years with not a problem, so why now? I emailed Go Sms support support twice with no response.

1. Could be they don't know how to fix this apparent long term problem with it, like might be impossible to replicate the problem in China.
2. Could be they're just not interested in fixing it, and most GO users are in China, where this is not a problem anyway.
3. Could be that Sungy Mobile support in Guangzhou can't read English.

 

[Capybopy]

I do understand the explanation about the encoding. But what I don't understand is why it is happening now, but never did before.

 

[mikedt]

I do understand the explanation about the encoding. But what I don't understand is why it is happening now, but never did before.

I guess something has changed, possibly something in how particular carriers are processing the SMSs. Because it's not happening to everyone, however there have been various reported problems of it over a long period. But it seems to me that GO(Sungy Mobile) either can't or are unwilling to fix it.

GO SMS doing SMSs in an apparently non-standard way for English. AFAIK they only use double-byte encoding, 80 character limit, if sending texts in Chinese, Japanese or Korean(CJK), because of the thousands of different characters in those languages.

 

[Carles Brantley]

I just started having the same problem getting texts from my wife in Chinese. I even had one that was half Chinese, then about the middle of the text was readable English. We both have Samsung Galaxy S5's on an AT&T Family Share plan with Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 and are using the stock Google message app. We've never installed GoSMSPro, so it doesn't appear to have anything to do with the particular app sending or receiving the texts. The common denominator here is AT&T. If you try to contact them for support and they realize you aren't using AT&T Messages, you're on your own.

 

[ardentlyenthused]

This is caused by a character encoding issue on AT&T's end. I recently wrote a post about what's causing the issue and how to workaround it. You can read the post here.

Following the method in the linked post:

This:

䁐䁡䁵䁬䀠䁩䁳䀠䁤䁥䁳䁰䁥䁲䁡䁴䁥䀠䁡䁢䁯䁵䁴䀠䁨䁩䁳䀠䁭䁯䁮䁥䁹䀠䁳䁩䁴䁵䁡䁴䁩䁯䁮…䀠䁨䁥䀠䁪䁵䁳䁴䀠䁳䁩䁴䁳䀠䁨䁥䁲䁥䀠䁡䁮䁤䀠䁧䁯䁥䁳䀠䁯䁮䀠䁡䁮䁤䀠䁯䁮䀠䁡䁮䁤䀠䁯䁮䀮䀠䀠䁈䁥䀠䁺䁯䁮䁥䁤䀠䁩䁮䀠䁯䁮䀠䁣䁡䁢䁬䁥䀠䁴䁨䁩䁳䀠䁴䁩䁭䁥䀮䀮䀠䁉䁴䁳䀠䁡䁬䁷䁡䁹䁳䀠䁥䁩䁴䁨䁥䁲䀠䁣䁡䁢䁬䁥䀠䁯䁲䀠䁴䁨䁥䀠䁰䁨䁯䁮䁥䁳䀮䀠䁈䁥䀠䁳䁡䁩䁤䀠䀢䁩䁴䁳䀠䁧䁯䁮䁥䀮䀠䀠䀠䁗䁥䀠䁤䁯䁮䀧䁴䀠䁮䁥䁥䁤䀠䁴䁶…䀠䁦䁩䁦䁴䁹䀠䁢䁵䁣䁫䁳䀠䁡䀠䁭䁯䁮䁴䁨䀠䁦䁯䁲䀠䁉䁮䁴䁥䁲䁮䁥䁴䀠䁉䀧䁬䁬䀠䁫䁥䁥䁰䀠䁰䁡䁹䁩䁮䁧䀠䁢䁵䁴䀠䁴䁨䁡䁴䀠䁩䁳䀠䁩䁴䀮䀠䀢䀠䀠䁉䀠䁴䁯䁬䁤䀠䁨䁩䁭䀠䁨䁥䀠䁩䁳䀠䁮䁯䁴䀠䁴䁡䁫䁩䁮䁧䀠䁴䁨䁥䀠䁔䁖䀠䁡䁮䁤䀠䁴䁨䁡䁴䀧䁳䀠䁴䁨䁡䁴䀮䀠䁂䁵䁴䀠䁡䁷䁨䁩䁬䁥䀠䁬䁡䁴䁥䁲䀠䁩䁮䀠䁴䁨䁥䀠䁣䁯䁮䁶䁥䁲䁳䁡䁴䁩䁯䁮䀠䁨䁥䀠䁭䁥䁮䁴䁩䁯䁮䁳䀠䁨䁩䁳䀠䁲䁯䁴䁡䁲䁹䀠䁤䁵䁥䁳䀠䁮䁥䁥䁤䀠䁰䁬䁡䁹䁥䁤䀮䀠䀠䁉䀠䁳䁡䁩䁤䀠䁉䀧䁭䀠䁳䁵䁲䁥䀠䁴䁨䁥䁹䀠䁡䁲䁥䁮䀧䁴䀠䁴䁯䁯䀠䁭䁵䁣䁨…䀠䁡䁮䁤䀠䁨䁥䀠䁳䁡䁩䁤䀠䁴䁨䁥䁹䀠䁡䁲䁥䀠䀲䀵䀰䀮䀰䀰䀠䁱䁵䁡䁲䁴䁥䁲䁬䁹䀡䀠䀠䁉䁴䀠䁤䁲䁯䁶䁥䀠䁨䁯䁭䁥䀠䁡䁧䁡䁩䁮䀠䁴䁯䀠䁭䁥䀠䁴䁨䁡䁴䀠䁩䁴䁳䀠䁨䁩䁳䀠䁭䁯䁮䁥䁹䀠䁴䁯䀠䁵䁳䁥䀠䁡䁳䀠䁨䁥䀠䁳䁥䁥䁳䀠䁦䁩䁴䀠䁡䁮䁤䀠䁮䁥䁥䁤䁳䀠䁉䀠䁨䁡䁶䁥䀠䁯䁲䀠

Becomes:

[Omitted for privacy sake] is desperate about his money situation… he just sits here and goes on and on and on. He zoned in on cable this time.. Its always either cable or the phones. He said "its gone. We don't need tv… fifty bucks a month for Internet I'll keep paying but that is it. " I told him he is not taking the TV and that's that. But awhile later in the conversation he mentions his rotary dues need played. I said I'm sure they aren't too much… and he said they are 250.00 quarterly! It drove home again to me that its his money to use as he sees fit...

 

[Capybopy]

Thanks so much for your great article! I wish the problem were the other way around in our situation. Meaning I wish I were the one getting the chinese texts from her. But she is the one getting them from me and she isn't going to want to go to the link provided and translate ....That translator link is brilliant, so whoever did that I give my kudos to! For us, I think the suggestion to take a screen shot of the texts and sending it as a pic might work best. Thanks again.