Help MMS Texts Showing Up as Slideshows

Szadzik said:

What exactly is not decent about the current one? The fact that it wants you to view photos in a slideshow?

Why not install Handcent or any other app and use that? No need to root at all.

As opposed to some other unnamed OSes, Android allows you to replace ny system app.

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Many folks have already stated that they are still seeing this issue with other SMS apps. I also see this on my GS3 from time to time and like someone said, the slideshow only appears if the pic has text in it.

It appears one has to root/install new app to fix this.. It does not bother me enough to root.. so i'm good.

Hey all...just reviving this thread...I'm having the same issue with my Galaxy Nexus running Jellybean.

Unusually though I can recieve pictures with texts from my from bro's iphone (on iOS6) and my friends Galaxy S2 (on 4.0.3.) perfectly fine, irrespective of whether text is added on prior or post attachment. BUT problems when sent with text from my wife's and a colleagues Galaxy Notes (running 4.0.4.) again irrespective of whether text is added on prior or post attachment.

I know this used to be an issue with iphones etc as well before and I just wonder if ICS or Jelly bean had sorted the issue out until Touchwiz introduced it again with 4.0.4. onwards...

I almost think it's a Samsung issue. I don't ever recall this happening on my HTC Vivid (AT&T) but I did have the issue on my SII Skyrocket now my SIII. I have used Handcent and GoSMS at one point or another on all of my phones. Another issue I have is when I get a MMS, I often have to touch a "download" button to get the message. Not sure if this is a settings issue or just another general text issue. This always happens when I receive a group text message, and happens often when I receive a picture. Sometimes I get a combination of both problems, I have to "download" a picture then it opens as a slideshow. I'm getting tired of scratching my head over these issues. Anyone tried contacting Samsung about any of these issues? WE need a solution.

mac1679 said:

I almost think it's a Samsung issue. I don't ever recall this happening on my HTC Vivid (AT&T) but I did have the issue on my SII Skyrocket now my SIII. I have used Handcent and GoSMS at one point or another on all of my phones. Another issue I have is when I get a MMS, I often have to touch a "download" button to get the message. Not sure if this is a settings issue or just another general text issue. This always happens when I receive a group text message, and happens often when I receive a picture. Sometimes I get a combination of both problems, I have to "download" a picture then it opens as a slideshow. I'm getting tired of scratching my head over these issues. Anyone tried contacting Samsung about any of these issues? WE need a solution.

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I to get this, using Handcent...really annoying.

As I recall, I also seen this way back when I had my Motorola XT (couple of years ago). I believe they told me way back then that this is functioning exactly as they designed it to so I wouldn't necessarily assume it was a "bug". Like another said, it isn't that bothersome to me. If I need to, I just save the pic and then I can do what I want with it.

I too have just switched from a iphone to an S3. This picture stuff is unbelievable. Has no one found a good solution? ie other than handcent and gosms. Samsung are you out there? do you monitor these forums? Hows about fixing this problem.

I also made a thread about this problem. I have 2 galaxy 3's with different carriers. One is unable to pinch to zoom within a text & the other HAS this capability! Not cool! I contacted both samsung & the carrier of the unfortunate fone & was told that pinch to zoom SHOULD work within texts. They instructed me to do a master rest of the phone which would cause a loss of EVERYTHING! I was hoping to find an alternative answer in this forum.

confusious said:

I also made a thread about this problem. I have 2 galaxy 3's with different carriers. One is unable to pinch to zoom within a text & the other HAS this capability! Not cool! I contacted both samsung & the carrier of the unfortunate fone & was told that pinch to zoom SHOULD work within texts. They instructed me to do a master rest of the phone which would cause a loss of EVERYTHING! I was hoping to find an alternative answer in this forum.

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this is a pain in the ass, hopefully a fix is near.

i dont think they will fix it, from what ive read its been the way Samsung devices read MMS even going back to the dumbphone days

I just switched from the iPhone 3G to the S3 recently so I'm still learning.
What I discovered was if you press down on the picture (sent with text), it gives the option to save it. Once it's saved then you can zoom in/out like normal. It's an extra step but at least you won't be frustrated wondering what the details of the picture look like.

Im on Sprint and not even getting the pictures embedded with text and its showing up as MMS so when i click the text its a slide show - very frustrating esp since i cant see the pic if someone adds text within it -

I recently got the GS3..changing from iPhone. Well everytime I recieve multiple pictures from an iphone user, they come through as a slideshow...I cant save them or pinch and zoom or anything like that.
I can DL them to my SD card, but they still show up as mulitple images.
I use HANDCENT and it still doesn't matter.

Any help is appreciated

spf62 said:

I recently got the GS3..changing from iPhone. Well everytime I recieve multiple pictures from an iphone user, they come through as a slideshow...I cant save them or pinch and zoom or anything like that.
I can DL them to my SD card, but they still show up as mulitple images.
I use HANDCENT and it still doesn't matter.

Any help is appreciated

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no fix thats just the way it is

confusious said:

I also made a thread about this problem. I have 2 galaxy 3's with different carriers. One is unable to pinch to zoom within a text & the other HAS this capability! Not cool! I contacted both samsung & the carrier of the unfortunate fone & was told that pinch to zoom SHOULD work within texts. They instructed me to do a master rest of the phone which would cause a loss of EVERYTHING! I was hoping to find an alternative answer in this forum.

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Have you verified that this is the case by having the same message sent to both phones at the same time?

Before I switched to GoSMS, the issue with pictures showing up as a slide show was intermittent. I never figured out the common denominator, but I didn't care to, either. GoSMS fixed it.

I've had this issue since Android 2.1 on my Nexus One. I'm now on the Galaxy Nexus with 4.2 (stock and not rooted) and the issue is still there. The stock messaging app still has the problem and Handcent doesn't fix it for me either. Go SMS Pro is the only app that I've run across that offers any type of improvement. You still get the play button in the message as if you're about to watch a video (which is really frustrating because I don't want to watch a video with sound sometimes so I'll open it later just to see a picture with text). However, when you tap it it doesn't show up like a slideshow like the other apps. Instead it shows up in a new window with the pictures and text delineated. You can then tap a picture for full screen and save them individually.

I have been able to narrow this down as to what causes it. This slideshow will always happen when receiving an MMS with more than one photo. It will sometimes happen when there is just one photo and text. The order is important: if the text comes before the picture then it works, but if the text is after the picture then you get the slideshow (I may have mixed up the order, but one works; other = slideshow). If there is just a single picture then it seems to always work fine.

I'm pretty sure this is actually an AT&T issue where they bundle the MMS up differently when the recipient is not an iPhone. I can't confirm this but I would like to know if anyone has experienced this issue when receiving MMS from non-iPhones or iPhones on non-AT&T networks.

I really wish someone would build an app that fixes this properly so the experience is similar to that on the iPhone (pictures and text directly in the message as it should be).

spf62 said:

I recently got the GS3..changing from iPhone. Well everytime I recieve multiple pictures from an iphone user, they come through as a slideshow...I cant save them or pinch and zoom or anything like that.
I can DL them to my SD card, but they still show up as mulitple images.
I use HANDCENT and it still doesn't matter.

Any help is appreciated

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It's kind of a pain in the butt, but I use VidTrim Pro to extract individual pictures from the slideshow. It's not always the best app, but it gets the job done.

I echo cptncrunch. My ex-wife has the same problem and I sent the text message after attaching the picture and it worked for her. She is using the S3 and added Handcent when she received the text it flipped how I sent it to her. She receive the text and then the picture instead of the picture and then the text.

I'm having this issue after doing a factory reset. I didn't have the issue prior to the reset. After updating to JB, my GS3 had performance issues therefore I had to do a reset. All issues are resolved but now all of my MMS messages are slideshows and the only way to view the full-size photo is to save it first. Has anyone heard of a fix for this?

My carrier us VZW and all updates are installed.

This issue is the exact same with my phone which i have had about a year and half. Just like the above phones it is an Android. This have actually never been an issue for me till about 2 months ago. Just randomly started to happen. It only seems to occur when I get multiple photos in one message or there is text with same message as photo. Looking back this seems to have been an issue for random people across several devices for several years now. All I have to say is "REALLY?"

Plus one on this issue.

I have seen a few "imitate the way iOS does messaging" apps in the Play store, anyone tried any of those?

tc5998 said:

Plus one on this issue.

I have seen a few "imitate the way iOS does messaging" apps in the Play store, anyone tried any of those?

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I decided to use GOSms. It solves my issue of the slide show. But now I have to deal with ads because I'm not paying for another app where stock should work properly.

FYI, Handcent makes my phone crash so I stopped using it.

I can't even believe this is an actual discussion. I cannot fathom what genius would consider this even a halfway decent idea. I hate everything about it, especially the fact that it is so incredibly primitive. Whoever is responsible for it (Samsung, Android, whoever) needs to fix it NOW. This is utterly ridiculous & not ONE single person likes or prefers it, so why on EARTH is this still an issue!?!? Who the hell do we yell at about this to make them fix it!?

Yes, I have the same problem. But you can take another tool to help you.

As said before, the workaround seems to be to send the picture WITHOUT TEXT and as ONE PIC instead of multiple pictures.
It's STUPID but it works.

TwoScoops said:

If someone simply sends me an MMS picture with no text, I can view the picture and zoom in and out on it. This is good.

If someone sends an MMS picture and adds text to the message, it goes to that stupid slideshow. This is bad.

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Hi all, Noob here.

I found this thread via a search because I'm experiencing the exact same problem and it's driving me CRAZY! I never had this issue on my Motorola Droid 2 or X, so I'm guessing this is a Samsung thing, not Android?

Anyway, I just wanted to bump this up again with TwoScoop's summary of the core problem in hopes that some day we'll get a fix.

Nothing like having the screen size of a Note 2 and not being able to open/zoom in on a picture!