Auto-conversion of long SMS messages to MMS - Network stipulation?

[Anonymous]

Hello! Nice to be here

I finally took the jump back to O2 after 8 years on Orange, after much debate and research... So far I'm gobsmacked with the increase in signal strength in my area. I can actually take a call IN MY HOUSE! This may not seem such a landmark for many of you, but by jove you don't understand how much of a convenience that is.

Now, to my point!

I've done the updates etc. and automatically changed the settings as the alerts arrived, turned on and off etc. and all is good to go.

However - I just went to send a trademark lengthy SMS message to someone and after what I'd say was 2 SMS lengths, the phone changed and flagged "Converting to MMS...".

I've figured out now that a little smiley I put in was counting as around 3 full SMS's - the same little smileys that had been counting as single characters on Orange in the same standard messaging application.

Can I about this and why this is?

[Anonymous]

Hi there and welcome to the community which phone are you using I use a note 3 and any emotions I insert automatically change it to an mms there is nothing you can do about that and generally any text over 480 characters gets changed to an mms and watch out they are expensive if you are wanting to send emotions pictures etc you'd be better off with something like what's app

[Anonymous]

Hi and Welcome to the forum.

It's nice to hear your comments on signal strength. The recent trend of comments have been that people are suffering mast congestion and mast issues ,so your opening comment is a breath of fresh air.

To be honest at 40p per mms it's not that cheap to use.

Alternatives such as bbm , what's app , viber and e mail among others are better alternatives as long as the other parties have them downloaded too.

iMessage for Apple users.

Link on mms http://service.o2.co.uk/IQ/SRVS/CGI-BIN/WEBCGI.EXE?New,Kb=Companion,question=ref%28User%29:str%28Mob...

Welcome back to O2 and hope to see you around the forums.

[Cleoriff]

Hi @Anonymous 

Welcome to the forum...

Brilliant news about your increased signal strength now you have changed to O2:smileywink: It makes a change to hear this...

It is a sad fact that inserting emoticons into a text message will automatically convert the SMS to MMS at a hefty cost....

Personally I have stopped a lot of family members doing this..and as a result their bills are vastly reduced

Please have a read of the link provided by bandofbrothers. This should reveal all

[Anonymous]

Hi and welcome to the Community.

Depending on your handset there are two types of emoticons.

The plain green ones are normally ok top send as part of your text message.

The colourful ones are actually little pictures and so your phone sends them as mms.

On the plus side it is great to see your handset is warning you first so you have the choice.

[MI5]

Hi, I wrote a short guide a while back that might help http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Other-Products-Services/Accidental-MMS-Sending-and-How-to-Avoid-it/td-p...

[Cleoriff]

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@MI5 wrote:
Hi, I wrote a short guide a while back that might help http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Other-Products-Services/Accidental-MMS-Sending-and-How-to-Avoid-it/td-p...

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And THAT was the one I was looking for @MI5 ....as usual the search didn't find it..

[MI5]

That's why we have the Index page (just bookmark it) http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Other-Products-Services/Index-of-Help-Topics/m-p/638349#U638349

[Cleoriff]

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@MI5 wrote:
That's why we have the Index page (just bookmark it) http://community.o2.co.uk/t5/Other-Products-Services/Index-of-Help-Topics/m-p/638349#U638349

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It was that page I was looking for! ....I will however, do as you suggest and 'bookmark' it

[Anonymous]

Thanks for all the replies!

In particular that guide you posted was great, MI5, and I think I'll disable the MMS apn as the guide detailed. I really switched to bring my phonebill down (aswell as bump the reception, which as before, is absolutely gobsmacking. Phonecalls IN MY HOUSE!) and with the SIM only contract I got these MMS messages are the only pesky way I'm ever likely to add onto the flat cost.

What this seems to show is that it's an O2 stipulation that any fancy emoticons are counted as 90 characters? I have a Moto G, soon to have a Moto G 4G, and as such I'm using the default Android smileys.

With Orange I could insert these without consequence, and also send SMS messages of around 6 full lengths before the conversion to MMS.

Is there any way we can put a request in to O2 to have a rethink on this stance, as I'm on unlimited texts and this should cover me really