Help Group Texting Problem on T-Mobile GS3

[delirium9]

So I've had the GS3 (Carrier: T-Mobile) for a couple months so far, and I love everything about it except for one thing.

I get really annoyed when my friends send group text messages. On their phones, they see a flowing conversation of text messages all in one screen. Their screens look something like this.
"
To: Jim, Sally, Bob...

Jim: Hi
Sally: Hi
Bob: Hi
"
This is how it looks on the iPhone. This is also how it looks on my friend's Verizon Droid Bionic. His phone is over a year older than mine and he is using his stock text messaging app. Not only is he able to see the whole conversation on one screen, but when he replies, he replies to the whole group.

I, on the other hand, get a series of individual text messages from Jim, Sally, and Bob.

Jim
<Subject: no subject>
Hi
MMS |> (That's supposed to be a play button. If I press that button, I get a big black screen that shows nothing but a counter at the bottom that counts for 10 seconds)

This text is followed by a separate text from Sally. Keep in mind that I cannot view her reply in the same conversation as Jim's text. So if I reply to Sally below, the message only goes to Sally, not the whole group.

Sally
<Subject: no subject>
Hi
MMS |>

Also, I don't know who else is in the group unless they reply back to me!!!
Even if I text 4 people myself to start a supposed group conversation, I still get their replies back separately.

This is so annoying. Why is this group texting feature working for all my iPhone friends? Why is it even working for my friend who has an older Android than I do? His software is also older. He's on 4.0.4, and I'm on 4.1.1. When I was on 4.0.4 I still had this problem.


Is it a T-mobile problem?
What can I do to fix this?

 

[enb123]

Unfortunately, I think that's normal. I'm on Verizon and it's the same problem. There are a lot of apps that will achieve what you want - GoSMS Pro is a good one and I think Handcent, too. Those use SMS messages just like the native app, so your friends don't need to install them on their phones for it to work. By contrast, if you have friends who are willing to download a messaging app, I would recommend WhatsApp, which uses your data plan to send messages. It works great and is very full featured.

The stock app really should do this, though - I think all my prior Motorola phones back to the Droid X worked exactly the way you think they should. Hopefully, it'll get fixed in JellyBean.

One last frustrating thing - if you do install a 3rd party app (any of the ones I've mentioned and probably all others), the notification light may not work well with it - on my phone, it turns on and stays on when a message comes in rather than blinking.

I don't mean to come across as bashing, though. It's a great phone, but it kills me when something that seems like such a basic feature - group texting - isn't tested thoroughly and working from the start. Especially when everything else works so well but is so secondary, like the gesture controls, the ability to watch a video while doing other stuff, etc. That's all awesome, but I would prefer to wait for them to release that stuff while getting group texting right first!

Still love the thing anyway!

 

[delirium9]

Couldn't agree with you more enb123. After doing a little more research, it turns out that Verizon's stock app does have the capability. Or you can download Verizon Messages

Also, it looks like 4.2 will fix this. Why couldn't they just put this in 4.1 is beyond me "android.googlecode.com/issues/attachment?aid=244680377000&name=1.png&token=MgQXa6lsNAK52WhcXQ_IOb_PTm8%3A1353642436383&inline=1"

I really wish I didn't have to download a 3rd party app for this, but I guess it's my only option. I'll try GoSMS and verizon messages....I'm really disappointed that Google/Samsung/T-Mobile (or whichever mega-corp is responsible for this) has taken so long to fix this issue. It's been addressed by consumers as early as a year ago. Get your act togehter!