Some text messages delayed (but only some). Whose phone is the problem?
March 12, 2015 6:55 AM Subscribe
I have an iphone 5c and my boyfriend has a Galaxy 4S. In the past month or so, we've had an issue where there can be a several hour (or day) delay in his receiving texts from me. It doesn't ALWAYS happen, but does several times a week. Is it his phone or mine, and how do we fix it?
There are also times where our phone call cuts off and can't be re-initiated for several minutes. I've googled for fixes, but what I've found mostly pertains to iMessage and iCloud issues, and I don't use either of those so I doubt that's it, nor does it seem like that's the issue because some texts between us do work. It seems to happen most often when he's at his office, so he thinks it may be partially where his phone is inside the building, but sometimes the text won't come through until the next day, and I would think if the location was the problem, wouldn't the text go through once he left the building, rather than 12 hours later? I got my phone last year, he's had his a little over two years (I think). Is his phone maybe just buggy? Is there anything we can do about this?
There are also times where our phone call cuts off and can't be re-initiated for several minutes. I've googled for fixes, but what I've found mostly pertains to iMessage and iCloud issues, and I don't use either of those so I doubt that's it, nor does it seem like that's the issue because some texts between us do work. It seems to happen most often when he's at his office, so he thinks it may be partially where his phone is inside the building, but sometimes the text won't come through until the next day, and I would think if the location was the problem, wouldn't the text go through once he left the building, rather than 12 hours later? I got my phone last year, he's had his a little over two years (I think). Is his phone maybe just buggy? Is there anything we can do about this?
Response by poster: We actually share an phone account (T-Mobile), so it's probably not a carrier problem.
posted by odayoday at 7:11 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by odayoday at 7:11 AM on March 12, 2015
My wife and I are both on the same T-Mobile account and sometimes we get delayed messages or messages delivered out of order. I doesn't happen often but it certainly does happen.
posted by mmascolino at 7:15 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by mmascolino at 7:15 AM on March 12, 2015
It's likely not the fault of the phone, but the carrier. Text messages are best effort, definitely not real time, even if quite often it works that way. You say you don't use imessage, so there's at least that. Even if you have the same carrier, it can definitely be a carrier problem.
As text messages are treated less importantly than actual data, the way you get around this is by not using text messages, and use a cross platform app for your communications. Of course, then it will depend upon whatever you use having robust services. I'll not that quite often on my phone, I might not get a notification via hangouts on my android phone as much as 10 minutes after it was sent. Once a conversation is open, I don't see any delay, but if my wife is in the house trying to get my attention (or we're at a store, etc) that delay is a deal breaker, so I wouldn't suggest hangouts.
posted by nobeagle at 7:15 AM on March 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
As text messages are treated less importantly than actual data, the way you get around this is by not using text messages, and use a cross platform app for your communications. Of course, then it will depend upon whatever you use having robust services. I'll not that quite often on my phone, I might not get a notification via hangouts on my android phone as much as 10 minutes after it was sent. Once a conversation is open, I don't see any delay, but if my wife is in the house trying to get my attention (or we're at a store, etc) that delay is a deal breaker, so I wouldn't suggest hangouts.
posted by nobeagle at 7:15 AM on March 12, 2015 [3 favorites]
Is one of you on a cheap tariff? Either way, you need to both text a third person.
posted by devnull at 7:18 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by devnull at 7:18 AM on March 12, 2015
Response by poster: Would the carrier cause the message to be delayed up to 18 hours, though? I feel like this just started happening in the past month, and we've been texting each other regularly for the past 8 years. It also doesn't seem to happen with anyone else, although we obviously text each other more than we text other people, so that could just be a percentages thing.
posted by odayoday at 7:22 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by odayoday at 7:22 AM on March 12, 2015
T-mobile is notorious for this. When I was a TSR (years ago) I got calls about this daily and we usually blamed "network traffic" which may be right or may be bullshit.
posted by fiercekitten at 7:26 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by fiercekitten at 7:26 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
In case it's helpful, this is how SMS works. It basically piggybacks on the check-in packets that phones are constantly exchanging with cell towers, so if you're having signal issues it could be related to that. Might be useful information for context, anyway.
posted by danteGideon at 7:30 AM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by danteGideon at 7:30 AM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
I have an iPhone 4 and my boyfriend has a Galaxy something (5 I think)? He's on TMobile and I'm on AT&T. We have the same issues, and many times our texts just get eaten by a void. Started when he upgraded his phone to a 5 and simultaneously switched to TMobile. So, just a data point that yes this can happen, and it's probably due to the network/phones combo.
posted by sockermom at 7:50 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by sockermom at 7:50 AM on March 12, 2015
You might make sure that in your iPhone you do not define your boyfriend's phone as another iphone in the address book. This can cause the iphone to try to talk via a proprietary apple protocol and then only fallback to SMS after a too-long wait. Try deleting his contact and make sure his phone is listed as a "mobile" phone, not an iphone.
posted by nickggully at 8:11 AM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
posted by nickggully at 8:11 AM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
I assume it's iPhone's fault and Apple is punishing your boyfriend for having a non-Apple phone, as they have been known to do. I also just hate Apple, so feel free to disregard this speculation.
One solution is that the both of you could install WhatsApp. It's a real-time text messaging system that's super fast. You can actually see if the other person is typing, it's so quick. It doesn't matter if you have different kinds of phones either. It's available in both Apple's store and Android's store.
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:22 AM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
One solution is that the both of you could install WhatsApp. It's a real-time text messaging system that's super fast. You can actually see if the other person is typing, it's so quick. It doesn't matter if you have different kinds of phones either. It's available in both Apple's store and Android's store.
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:22 AM on March 12, 2015 [2 favorites]
^ Oh, one other good thing about WhatsApp is it will show you when a message was successfully delivered to the other person's device and also when it was read. Basically, it works and feels the way text messaging does between two iPhone users, where it shows you when they are typing and indicates when a message has been read. It might solve your problems if you can stand using another app for messaging.
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:32 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by AppleTurnover at 8:32 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
I expect T-mobile has some version of this... I'm on Verizon, and any time I (or anyone else I know) has sudden problems with delayed/unreceived texts, it's because they needed to update their roaming. This is (to my poor understanding) something that updates the default cell towers. When there's a change in the local cell tower routing/etc, things can get wonky.
This question suggests pulling out the battery (if you can on either phone) to get the same effect with T-mobile.
posted by DoubleLune at 8:37 AM on March 12, 2015
This question suggests pulling out the battery (if you can on either phone) to get the same effect with T-mobile.
posted by DoubleLune at 8:37 AM on March 12, 2015
Since switching to T-Mobile my wife and I have the same problem. I thought it was something weird with GTalk SMS integration as it seems that sometimes messages are 'captured' by a gmail browser window and not sent to my phone as well but I guess that is wrong.
posted by srboisvert at 8:48 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
posted by srboisvert at 8:48 AM on March 12, 2015 [1 favorite]
This happens with texts my boyfriend and I send each other too. It's rare, but it does happen. We have a shared plan on AT&T and we both have iPhones.
posted by smich at 9:05 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by smich at 9:05 AM on March 12, 2015
I have a Galaxy 4S and share a TMobile account with hubby; we've had the exact same issues over the last month or so. I thought it might have something to do with my phone as I had to turn the phone off and on again in order to correct it, but it hasn't recurred in a couple of weeks so I blew it off.
posted by vignettist at 9:48 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by vignettist at 9:48 AM on March 12, 2015
(I prefer Viber to whatsapp...works a lot smoother/easier/more features...stickers...whatsapp was doing a lot of spyware/data mining when I tried it *sigh* I could just tell. I could. It was creepy.)
posted by sexyrobot at 11:21 AM on March 12, 2015
posted by sexyrobot at 11:21 AM on March 12, 2015
I occasionally have similar problems on T-Mobile. It definitely happens on all carriers, but T-Mobile seems to have a few more SMS problems than others. It's rare but definitely a thing. Sometimes it's fixed by me rebooting my Android phone, but who knows if the reboot actually fixed anything or if I just needed to wait.
Since my wife and I message each other a lot we eventully switched to using Google Hangouts instead of SMS. Now we never have this problem. This might seem confusing but it's pretty easy: Hangouts are how I communicate with my wife and texting is how I communicate with everyone else. Pretty simple.
posted by Tehhund at 12:47 PM on March 12, 2015
Since my wife and I message each other a lot we eventully switched to using Google Hangouts instead of SMS. Now we never have this problem. This might seem confusing but it's pretty easy: Hangouts are how I communicate with my wife and texting is how I communicate with everyone else. Pretty simple.
posted by Tehhund at 12:47 PM on March 12, 2015
I have perpetual problems with this on both sprint(or their MVNOs like boost, qwest in the old days) and a bit with t-mobile.
the solution was to switch to a cheap prepaid plan on at&t.
posted by emptythought at 3:22 PM on March 12, 2015
the solution was to switch to a cheap prepaid plan on at&t.
posted by emptythought at 3:22 PM on March 12, 2015
FWIW, I have an iPhone on T-Mobile and have been having crazy problems with SMS in the last couple of weeks (delayed messages, duplicate messages, truncated messages, corrupted messages, the works). I'm leaning toward "blame T-Mobile".
posted by neckro23 at 5:34 PM on March 12, 2015
posted by neckro23 at 5:34 PM on March 12, 2015
I received a voice mail today that was left 3 days ago... I doubt it's your phones...
posted by HuronBob at 6:16 PM on March 12, 2015
posted by HuronBob at 6:16 PM on March 12, 2015
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by sevenless at 7:09 AM on March 12, 2015