SMS Charges

[Anonymous]

I use Apple iPhone and am on O2 Text & Web tariff (am deaf so I don't make calls).

Since I started using iPhone, I've noticed that every time I send a SMS less than 160 characters and 1 emoticon, I get charged twice. This only happens with emoticons added in SMS.

I've never had that problem when I used an android phone.

Can anyone shed any light on this please?

Many thanks.

[Bambino]

I believe the emoticon changes the SMS to an MMS, which are charged at 40p per message. I think you'd be better off using iMessage or Whatsapp or email.

[jonsie · Accepted solution]

Better to not use emoticons or smilies as they count for 90 characters in some cases or automatically turn sms into mms.

Text messages being sent as a MMS

[Anonymous]

Thank you both for your replies with answers.

Will just leave the emoticons out apart unless using them in iMessage/Whatsapp/Email.

[jonsie]

That's the best option to be honest. You could just keep an eye on the character count by enabling it in the settings or just using the typed ones such as 😞 or 🙂 which say basically the same thing but count as 3 characters.

[Anonymous]

To add : If on iOS 8 then the smiley face on your keyboard if used do not change the text to a mms.

[Bambino]

You're very welcome. Glad we were able to answer the query for you. 

[Anonymous]

Yes I've noticed the old emoticons such as 🙂 are okay and I do have my character count on

[Anonymous]

@Anonymous 

I do have iOS8 but the smiley face on my keyboard does charge me twice for using them

[MI5]

It's all dependant on character count.
160 is one SMS
320 is two SMS
480 is three SMS
Anything over three sms will be charged as an MMS.