3 iPhones & a Moto Z3 walk into a Group Chat and 1 iPhone gets no texts
November 5, 2020 12:52 PM Subscribe
I'm in a group chat and I periodically don't get text messages from the other members of the group chat. Me - iPhone 6. Other people - iPhone 6s, iPhone X, and a Motorola Moto Z3. If I group text with the other iPhones it works 100% of the time. But if all 4 phones are in a group text, every few weeks for the last couple of months I stop getting any messages from either of those 3 phones (6, X, Z3). We tried deleting the whole message chain, tried having the other people delete and re-add me as a contact using my number without a "1" at the front, and making sure there are no parentheses around it in their contact for me. I soft reset, deleted files, everyone rebooted their phone, and so on. Finally I got one of the new iPhones a few weeks ago. The problem persists!
Since I can group chat the 6s and the X together reliably, I feel like it has to be the Z3. But what does the Z3 owner need to do to fix the issue of me not getting ANYONE's texts in a group chat where the Z3 is involved? Also I don't get how it would happen only to me and not the X & 6s owners.
Since I can group chat the 6s and the X together reliably, I feel like it has to be the Z3. But what does the Z3 owner need to do to fix the issue of me not getting ANYONE's texts in a group chat where the Z3 is involved? Also I don't get how it would happen only to me and not the X & 6s owners.
Signal.
posted by terrapin at 2:05 PM on November 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
posted by terrapin at 2:05 PM on November 5, 2020 [1 favorite]
It's probably your own mobile service provider. How is the reception where you usually drop out of these group chats? Have you noticed any problems communicating to other people who don't have iPhones?
When only iPhones/iPads are in a group chat, everyone will be using iMessage (blue bubbles), which is an Apple-specific chat program that uses the internet to send and receive messages, not mobile service. It is usually reliable (and when it isn't, it notifies the sender).
When iPhones/iPads are in a group chat with other phones, all the devices fall back to MMS (or the more complicated version of SMS). This has nothing to do with the internet and requires specifically mobile service (not wifi). This is a very poor protocol that can often simply not work without any indication when you have weak mobile service.
Your solutions can be:
- Everyone switch to a system that doesn't use MMS, like Facebook Messager, Slack, Signal, Discord, etc.
- Get the Motorola user an iPhone
- Get better mobile service where you live
posted by meowzilla at 2:06 PM on November 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
When only iPhones/iPads are in a group chat, everyone will be using iMessage (blue bubbles), which is an Apple-specific chat program that uses the internet to send and receive messages, not mobile service. It is usually reliable (and when it isn't, it notifies the sender).
When iPhones/iPads are in a group chat with other phones, all the devices fall back to MMS (or the more complicated version of SMS). This has nothing to do with the internet and requires specifically mobile service (not wifi). This is a very poor protocol that can often simply not work without any indication when you have weak mobile service.
Your solutions can be:
- Everyone switch to a system that doesn't use MMS, like Facebook Messager, Slack, Signal, Discord, etc.
- Get the Motorola user an iPhone
- Get better mobile service where you live
posted by meowzilla at 2:06 PM on November 5, 2020 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Let me also add, sometimes the missing messages appear days later, in gigantic bunches. First time it happened I got like 100 texts in non-stop notifications for about 15 minutes straight.
posted by cashman at 2:13 PM on November 5, 2020
posted by cashman at 2:13 PM on November 5, 2020
The batched messages generally indicate issues in the sms/mms gateways in between your mobile providers.
Find out what providers people are using and see if there is a pattern there that sheds light on the issue.
Or as others said, switch to a messaging app that doesn't use sms/mms on all devices.
posted by TheAdamist at 2:48 PM on November 5, 2020
Find out what providers people are using and see if there is a pattern there that sheds light on the issue.
Or as others said, switch to a messaging app that doesn't use sms/mms on all devices.
posted by TheAdamist at 2:48 PM on November 5, 2020
This thread is closed to new comments.
The only thing I've found that works reliably is to use platform-neutral chat applications. Hangouts was great but it's apparently on its deathbed, because Google. WhatsApp is off the list because Facebook. Signal works well enough, so does Telegram.
posted by mhoye at 1:30 PM on November 5, 2020 [1 favorite]