9. Messaging
In this chapter, you explore the fine points of texting with the Messages app. Topics include the following:
Using Messages to send and receive text and multimedia messages
Using alternative apps for messaging and chat
After mastering the calling features of the Galaxy S5, many users want to explore the world of texting—the exchange of short text and multimedia messages. Compared to a phone call, texting is equally immediate but considerably briefer and less intrusive. To help you learn about messaging, this chapter explains the ins and outs of using and configuring Messages, the default messaging app on most Samsung Galaxy S5s.
About Text and Multimedia Messaging
Phone calls can be time-consuming and, depending on the caller’s timing, intrusive. To get a quick message to a friend or colleague, you can text that person by sending a text or multimedia message. A message exchange between you and another person is called a conversation or thread. The messaging process is similar to what you’re probably familiar with from chat programs, such as Yahoo! Messenger. Either party can start a conversation. After the conversation is initiated, it can progress in a back-and-forth manner with each person’s contributions shown in colored balloons.
Two types of messages can be exchanged: Short Message Service (SMS) text messages and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) messages to which you’ve attached a photo, video or audio clip, or similar item. Although text messages are normally exchanged between mobile phones, some carriers also allow you to text to an email account or landline.
Texting is strikingly similar to emailing. You specify recipients, compose the message text, and—optionally—add attachments. The main differences are that texting generally occurs between mobile phones, the messages must be short (160 characters or less), and a subject is optional rather than the norm.
Some Differences Among Carriers
Different carriers have slightly different messaging features, determined by their implementation of text and multimedia messaging. Settings options depend on your carrier, too. As a result, not all of the information in this section will apply to every carrier.
Composing a Text Message (SMS)
A text message can contain only text and is limited to 160 characters. If a message is longer, it is transmitted as multiple messages but typically recombined on the recipient’s screen.
1. Tap the Messages icon at the bottom of any Home screen page. (If you’ve removed the Messages shortcut, tap Apps, Messages.)
2. A screen showing all ongoing conversations appears. Do one of the following:
• To continue a conversation, tap its entry in the conversations list, and then go to Step 9.
• To start a conversation with someone who isn’t in the conversations list, tap the Compose Message icon. Each message can have one or more recipients. Use any of the methods described in Steps 3–5 to specify recipients.
3. The New Message screen appears.
4. Manually enter a mobile number. If you know that the recipient doesn’t have a Contacts record, type the person’s mobile phone number in the Enter Recipients box and then tap the plus (+) icon.
5. Enter partial contact info. Type any part of the person’s contact information (such as a first name, area code, or email domain) in the Enter Recipients box and select the person from the match list that appears.
6. Select recipients from Contacts. Tap the Contacts icon. Select one or more recipients from the list by tapping each person’s check box and then tap Done.
Finding Recipients in Contacts
To find someone in Contacts, you can scroll through the list by flicking up or down, go directly to an alphabetical section of the list by tapping an index letter, or drag down or up in the index letters and release your finger when the first letter of the person’s name displays.
You can also filter the list to show only certain people. To view people with whom you’ve recently spoken, tap the Logs tab. Tap the Favorites tab to restrict the list to contacts you’ve marked as favorites. To search for a person, select the Contacts tab and type part of the name, email address, or phone number in the Search box; press the Back key to view the results; tap the person’s check box; and tap Done.
7. If a recipient selected from Contacts has only one phone number or you’ve set a default number for him, that number is automatically used. Otherwise, a screen appears that lists the person’s contact details. Tap the phone number—normally a mobile number—to which you want to send the message.
8. Optional: Remove a recipient by tapping the minus (–) icon following the person’s name. Similarly, you can change or edit a person’s phone number by tapping her name and selecting Edit in the dialog box that appears. (If recipients are listed as “Joan Duran and 1 more,” tap this text to list them separately and display the minus (–) icon.)
9. Enter your message in the Enter Message box. You can type the message or tap the microphone key to dictate your message. (If the microphone isn’t shown on the key, press and hold the key, and then select the microphone.) As you type or dictate, the number of remaining characters is shown beneath the Send button.
10. Tap the Send button to transmit the message.
When you specify multiple individuals or a contact group (see “Working with Contact Groups” in Chapter 5, “Managing Contacts”) as recipients, Messages considers it a group conversation. Each message is treated as a multimedia (MMS) message (even if it contains only text), is transmitted only once to the message server, and then is delivered to all recipients.
To treat this as a normal conversation, remove the check mark from Group Conversation. Each text message is transmitted repeatedly to the message server (once per recipient), but retains its normal text message (SMS) form.
Saving a Message as a Draft
If you aren’t ready to send the message, you can save it as a draft by pressing the Back key. To later open the message, select it in the conversations list. You can then edit, send, or delete it. (To delete a draft message that you’re viewing, open the menu and choose Discard.)
• To delete unwanted phrases, tap the Trash icon, select phrases to delete, and tap Done.
• To add a new phrase, tap the plus (+) icon, enter the phrase, and tap Save.
• To edit an existing phrase, tap the phrase to open it for editing, make the necessary changes, and tap Save.
>>>Go Further: More Ways to Start a Conversation
• Immediately after completing a call, you can begin a conversation with the person by tapping the Message icon.
• To text someone to whom you’ve recently spoken, launch Phone and then tap the Logs tab. Find the person in any log and then swipe his entry to the left. You can use this swipe technique on the Contacts and Favorites tabs, too—as long as items are displayed in List View rather than Grid View.
• Open the person’s record in Contacts and tap the envelope icon.
• You can also send a message to a group you’ve defined (see “Working with Contact Groups” in Chapter 5). Tap the Contacts icon, the Groups tab, and the group’s name. Select the specific members whom you want to message and then tap Done.
>>>Go Further: More Message-Composition Options
• Adding a Subject. Unlike email messages, text messages generally don’t have a Subject. If you’d like to add one, tap the menu icon and choose Add Subject.
• Inserting Smileys. If you want to insert a smiley (also called an emoticon) into a message you’re creating, tap the menu icon, choose Insert Smiley, and select the smiley to insert. It appears at the text insertion mark. To insert more elaborately drawn emoticons, switch to Emoticons input. Tap the emoticon icon to the left of the Enter Message box or long-press the multi-mode key and select Emoticons.
• Embedded links in messages. If a message contains a web address, email address, or phone number shown as underlined text, you can tap the embedded text and choose Open Link, Send Email, or Call to visit the page using the phone’s browser, address a new email message to the person, or dial the phone number, respectively.
• Texting to email or a landline. If a recipient doesn’t have a mobile phone, you can send text messages to an email address. Some carriers, such as Sprint, even allow you to send texts to a landline phone. Create the message as you normally would, but specify an email address or landline number in the Enter Recipients box. As appropriate, the text message is emailed, or the service calls the landline and a computer voice reads the text when the phone is answered. (Emoticons are read, too!)
• Schedule a message. Rather than send a message immediately, you can set a date and time at which it will be delivered. (The scheduled time must be at least 6 minutes in the future.) Prior to tapping the Send button, tap the menu icon and choose Schedule Message. Set a date and time for delivery, tap Done, and tap the Send button. A copy of the message (in gray) with the scheduled delivery time appears in the conversation. When finally sent, the message color changes to match that of your normal outgoing messages.
Composing a Multimedia Message (MMS)
A multimedia message (MMS) is any message that has one or more attachments, such as a picture, video, audio recording, Contacts record, or Calendar item.
Some Attachments Are Just Text
Material that you add to a message from Maps, My Location, or Memo is text and does not result in a text message becoming a multimedia message.
1. Perform Steps 1–9 of the “Composing a Text Message (SMS)” task—that is, every step other than tapping Send.
2. Tap the paper clip icon at any time during the message-creation process.
3. Select the item type that you want to attach to the message. If you’re attaching a file that’s already on your phone, continue with Step 4. If you want to create a new file, skip to Step 5.
4. Attach an existing file. Select the item(s) to attach, opening enclosing folders if necessary. For most item types, you complete the attachment process by making the selection or by tapping Done. Go to Step 6.
Size Matters
Existing video clips and audio recordings such as songs may be too large to transmit as part of an MMS message. Depending on the file type, Messages may either reject the item as an attachment, ask you to trim the item, or compress it for you. Photos, on the other hand, are automatically compressed to meet MMS size limits.
5. Create an attachment (Take Picture, Record Video, or Record Audio). Take a new picture or capture a video. Tap Save to add it to the message or tap Discard to try again. When you finish recording an audio clip, tap the Stop button to save it, listen to the clip, and tap Done.
6. A thumbnail representing the media is inserted into the message or the item is shown as a file attachment. As you add items, the total size of the message and attachments updates.
7. If you want to view/play, replace, or remove a multimedia item, press and hold its thumbnail and then select the appropriate option. (If you remove all attachments from a message, it reverts to a text message.)
Another Removal Option
You can also remove a multimedia item by selecting it and tapping the Delete key.
8. Tap Send when the message is complete.
Managing Conversations
There’s more to participating in a conversation than just creating messages. The following tasks explain how to respond to new message notifications; continue, review, and delete conversations; and search for messages.
Responding to a New Message Notification
If you’re in Messages and a message for the current conversation arrives, it simply appears onscreen as a new message balloon. If you’re doing something else with the phone, the phone is resting quietly on your desk, or you’re viewing a different conversation, a new message notification appears.
Depending on your Messages settings (see “Configuring Messages Settings,” later in this chapter) and what you’re currently doing, you may be notified of a new message in one of several ways:
• The message text appears briefly in the status bar and is replaced by an envelope icon. The Messages shortcut on the Home screen shows the number of new messages.
• A pop-up notification with options may appear. Tap Call to initiate a phone call to the person, tap Reply to type your reply in the pop-up—without leaving the current screen, tap View to open the message and its conversation in Messages, or tap the X to dismiss the pop-up window.
• You can view a preview of the new message in the Notification panel. Tap the message notification to view the complete message or respond to it in Messages.
• You can launch Messages (if it isn’t currently running) and open the conversation that contains the new message.
• Finally, if the screen is dark when a message arrives, press the Power button to see a preview of the message on your lock screen. To remove the message from the lock screen, tap Clear.
Continue a Conversation
The default length for a conversation on your phone is 200 text or 20 multimedia messages—whichever occurs first. As long as the length limit hasn’t been exceeded, a conversation can be continued immediately or whenever either participant wishes—days, weeks, or even months after it was begun.
Creating a New Message
Don’t worry if you mistakenly create a new message to someone already in the conversations list. Messages automatically treats the message as a continuation of the existing conversation rather than generating a second conversation with the person.
1. If Messages isn’t running, launch it by tapping its Home screen shortcut or by tapping Apps, Messages.
2. On the Messages main screen, select the conversation that you want to continue. The conversation appears.
3. Tap in the Enter Message box to display the onscreen keyboard.
4. Create a text or multimedia message as described in “Composing a Text Message (SMS)” or “Composing a Multimedia Message (MMS),” earlier in this chapter.
5. Tap the Send button to transmit the message. It is appended to the end of the conversation.
Reviewing a Conversation
As long as you haven’t deleted a conversation, you can reread it whenever you like. This is especially useful when a conversation contains important information, such as the time of an upcoming meeting, a phone number, a web address (URL), or driving directions. To review a conversation, select it from the conversations list on the Messages main screen (as described in the previous task) and scroll through the messages by flicking or dragging up and down.
Delete Conversations
For the sake of privacy, saving storage space, or eliminating clutter in the conversations list, you can delete entire conversations.
1. Launch Messages by tapping its Home screen shortcut. (If you’re currently in a conversation, press the Back key until the conversations list appears.)
2. Tap the menu icon and choose Delete.
3. Select the conversations that you want to delete, or tap Select All to select all conversations.
4. Tap Done.
5. Confirm the conversation deletion(s) by tapping OK.
Delete Messages
In addition to deleting entire conversations, you can selectively delete individual messages from a conversation.
1. In Messages, open the conversation from which you want to delete messages.
2. Tap the Delete icon.
3. Scroll through the conversation, and select each message that you want to delete.
4. Tap the Delete button.
5. Tap OK to confirm the deletion(s).
Deleting a Single Message
To delete a single message in a conversation, you can press and hold the message, tap Delete in the Message Options dialog box, and confirm the deletion by tapping OK.
Other Options for Individual Messages
In addition to deleting individual messages, you can copy message text to the Clipboard for pasting elsewhere, lock a message to prevent it from being deleted, save the multimedia elements in an MMS message, forward a message to others, or view a message’s properties.
1. Within a conversation, press and hold a message for which you want to display options. The Message Options dialog box appears. SMS and MMS messages offer slightly different options, as explained in Step 2.
2. Tap an option to perform one of the following actions:
• Delete. Delete the current message.
• View Slideshow (MMS messages only). Display message text and certain types of attachments (such as photos) as a slideshow.
• Copy Text. Copy the message text to the Clipboard, making it eligible for pasting into another message or app, such as an email message.
• Forward. Send the message to another recipient—passing along a picture, phone number, address, or driving directions, for example.
• Lock. Prevent an important message from being inadvertently deleted—even if you delete the conversation that contains the message. After a message has been locked, the Lock command is replaced by Unlock. You can optionally override the lock while attempting to delete the message or its conversation.
• Share. Share the message by posting it to a social networking site, emailing it, transferring it to a computer or another phone, and so on.
• Save Attachment (MMS messages only). Save an attached item, such as a picture or video, to the Download folder.
• View Message Details. Examine the message properties, such as who sent it and when, the date and time it was received, and its total size including attachments.
• Translate. Translate the message text from its current language to another.
1. On the Messages main screen, tap the Search icon. A Search text box appears.
2. Enter the search text; matches appear as you type. Continue typing until the desired message is shown.
3. Do one of the following:
• Tap a message to display the match. The conversation appears and displays the selected message. The matching text is shown in blue anywhere that it appears in the conversation.
• Tap the search key on the keyboard to display a list of all matches. The matches are shown in blue. Tap a match to display the message in the context of its conversation.
Designating Priority Senders
After you get into the swing of messaging, a set of people whom you frequently message will develop. To make it easier to message them, you can designate those individuals as priority senders—creating icons for them that appear above the conversations list.
Priority Senders for the Home Screen
You can also initiate messages to favorite recipients from the Home screen by adding a Direct Message widget for each person. To see the widget (see “Add Widgets” in Chapter 3, “Making the Phone Your Own,” for instructions), tap Widgets, Contacts, Direct Message.
Add Priority Senders
1. On the Messages main screen, tap the Tap to Add Priority Senders text. (If you don’t see this text or the plus (+) icon at the end of an existing priority senders list, tap the menu icon, choose Settings, and ensure that Priority Senders is enabled.)
2. The Add Priority Senders screen appears.
3. Current conversations. Tap Inbox to select senders from those in the conversations list. Select senders by tapping check boxes and then tap Done.
4. Contacts. Tap Contacts to select senders from Contacts. Select a tab that makes it easy to find the senders, tap their check boxes, and then tap Done.
Recommended Senders
If Messages displays individuals in the Recommended section, you can select them there.
5. Icons for the selected individuals are added to the scrolling Priority Senders list (above the conversations list).
Manage Priority Senders
You can add new people to the priority senders list, remove senders, rearrange their icons, and disable the feature.
1. Navigate to the main Messages screen. Priority sender icons are shown above the conversations list.
2. Press and hold any priority sender’s icon and choose Manage Priority Senders from the pop-up menu that appears.
3. Remove priority senders. Tap the icon of each sender that you want to remove and then tap Done. (Tap Cancel if you remove someone by mistake.)
4. Rearrange priority senders. Perform Step 2. Then press and hold the icon of the sender that you want to move, drag it to the left or right, and release it in the desired position. When you’re finished rearranging icons, tap Done. (Tap Cancel if you remove someone by mistake.)
5. Add senders. If necessary, scroll the list to display the plus (+) icon on its right. Tap the icon and perform Steps 2–5 from the “Add Priority Senders” task.
6. Disable or enable priority senders. To disable the priority senders feature, display the conversations list, tap the menu icon, choose Settings, and remove the check mark from Priority Senders. To enable this feature (or re-enable it and restore a priority senders roster that you previously created), ensure that the box is checked.
Configuring Messages Settings
You can customize the way Messages works by changing its settings. All changes take effect immediately. Note that Settings options differ among carriers, depending on the features that each supports. The most common settings are discussed in this section in the approximate order in which they appear.
1. Launch Messages. If you’re already in or viewing a conversation, press the Back key until the conversations list appears.
2. Tap the menu icon and choose Settings. The Settings screen appears. Scroll as necessary to view the entire menu. The following steps explain the most important settings.
3. Default Messaging App. Tap Default Messaging App, Default Messaging App to specify your preferred app for text and multimedia messaging. When you respond to an incoming message notification or tap the messaging icon on a Phone or Contacts screen, the default messaging app launches. (You can also set or change the default messaging app by opening Settings and tapping Default Applications, Messages.) If you set a new default messaging app, you might also want to replace the Messages primary shortcut on the Home screen with that of the replacement messaging app. See the “Rearranging and Replacing the Primary Shortcuts” sidebar in Chapter 3 for instructions.
4. Display. The following settings determine the appearance of conversations:
• Bubble Style. Enables you to vary the color and/or style of message bubbles. The top bubble is used to display your messages and the bottom one is used for messages received from others. Select a style pair from the scrolling list and tap Save.
• Background Style. Enables you to specify a different color background or pick a photo on which to display conversations. Select a style from the scrolling list and tap Save. (Select the first thumbnail to use an existing image or take a photo to use as the background.)
• Change Font Size. When enabled, makes it possible for you to use the hardware volume control on the left side of the phone to increase or decrease the size of message text.
5. Quick Responses. These are text snippets you can use to quickly create messages or responses to incoming calls. Examples include “What’s up?” and “Please call me.” See the “Lazy Messaging” sidebar earlier in this chapter for an explanation of how to add, edit, and delete Quick Responses.
6. Text Messages. These settings govern the creation and handling of text (SMS) messages.
• Auto Combination. When enabled, text messages that exceed the maximum length limit are automatically combined into single messages. In general, enabled is the preferred setting.
• Delivery Reports. When enabled, you’re notified when your sent messages are successfully delivered.
7. Multimedia Messages. These settings govern the creation and handling of multimedia messages.
• Group Conversation. When enabled, you can create a single message for delivery to multiple recipients. When disabled, the carrier sends a separate copy of the message for each specified recipient.
• Auto Retrieve. When enabled, the entire content of each multimedia message is automatically retrieved—the message header, body, and attachments. Otherwise, only the message header is retrieved. (If you’re on a limited data plan and have friends who constantly attach material to their messages or you find that auto retrieve uses too much of your battery charge, you can disable this setting.)
• Roaming Auto Retrieve. When enabled, MMS messages and their contents are automatically downloaded—even when you’re roaming.
• MMS Alert. Enable this setting if you want to be notified that the message you’re creating is a multimedia message rather than a text message. If data charges are a concern for you, enabling this setting can be useful.
8. Delete Old Messages. Enable this setting to automatically delete the oldest messages in any conversation that exceed either the text or multimedia message limit. Tap Text Message Limit or Multimedia Message Limit to change the maximum number of messages of that type that are allowed in a conversation.
Manual Deletions
When Delete Old Messages is disabled, the maximum text and multimedia messages per conversation are ignored. However, you can manually delete old conversations or specific messages if you’re short on space, as explained in “Reviewing a Conversation,” earlier in this chapter.
9. Priority Senders. When this setting is checked, you can display, add, remove, and rearrange icons for people whom you regularly message—simplifying the process of sending them new messages or continuing a conversation. For more information, see “Designating Priority Senders,” earlier in the chapter.
10. Push Messages. When Push Messages (not shown) is enabled (default setting) and new messages are received by the network, they are pushed to your phone. That is, you don’t have to perform an action to receive the messages—they are simply transmitted to you.
11. Notifications. The following settings determine whether you receive notifications of newly received messages, as well as the manner in which the notifications are presented. At a minimum, all carriers support status bar notifications.
• Enable Notifications if you want to receive one or more notifications when a new message is received. To specify the types of notification methods to use, you must first enable this setting.
• Tap Notification Sound to pick a sound snippet to announce new messages. Select a sound from the scrolling list and tap OK.
• With Vibrate enabled, the phone vibrates whenever a new message is received.
• Tap Repeat Message Alert to specify how frequently you will be notified of the receipt of each new message.
• When Pop-up Display is enabled, notifications automatically appear on the Home screen or the app in which you’re working. In the pop-up, you can call the person, write a reply, or open the message in Messages, as explained earlier in “Responding to a New Message Notification.”
• When Lock Screen is enabled, new message notifications automatically appear on the lock screen.
• When Status Bar is enabled, notifications appear in the status bar—as a message preview and a new message icon.
When you tap a sound on the Notification Sound screen, it plays—enabling you to sample sounds before committing to one. If you’d rather not hear a sound when a message arrives, select Silent.
Preview Message (Verizon)
Verizon users have a Preview Message setting that combines the Lock Screen and Status Bar settings. They’re always both enabled or both disabled.
12. Emergency Alerts. These settings are used to specify the types of emergency alert messages that you want to receive and special notification options that will be applied.
Verizon Users Only
Verizon users can view and modify their Emergency Alert settings by running the Emergency Alerts app.
• Tap Emergency Alerts to enable/disable different types of alerts. By default, the important alert types are enabled. You can disable any type of alert except Presidential.
• Tap Emergency Notification Preview to hear a sample of the emergency alert sound.
• Enable Vibrate to cause the phone to vibrate whenever an emergency alert is received.
• Tap Alert Reminder to specify how often or the number of times you want to be reminded of an active alert.
13. Signature. This setting enables you to append a text signature to each outgoing message—in the same fashion as you can with email messages. Signature must be On in order to create or edit the signature text.
14. Spam Filter. These settings enable you to reduce or avoid unwanted (spam) messages. Spam Filter is the master control—that is, it must be On to modify any of the spam options.
• Tap Add to Spam Numbers to manually add numbers of people and companies whose messages you want automatically blocked.
Add a Spam Number Without Typing
When you receive a spam message, press and hold its entry in the conversations list, tap the Add to Spam Numbers toolbar icon, and confirm by tapping OK.
• Similar to creating a junk mail rule in an email program, you can specify a key phrase or words (such as Viagra, credit, or mortgage) that are frequently found in received spam messages. Tap Add to Spam Phrases and enter phrases that—if found in an incoming message—will result in blocking the delivery of future messages that contain these phrases.
• Enable Block Unknown Senders to block messages from people and companies who have no record in Contacts.
If you want to review messages that have been marked as spam, go to the Messages main screen, tap the menu icon, and choose Spam Messages.
15. Delay Message Sending. If you regularly message the wrong people, your messages occasionally contain embarrassing typos, or you tend to tap Send before you think, enable Delay Message Sending and pick a delay interval (3–30 seconds). When you send a new message, it is shown onscreen but isn’t actually sent until the delay interval has elapsed. If you see a mistake in a message, you can quickly tap its message balloon and edit the message.
16. Safe Mode. Tap Safe Mode to review Messages security options. When Allow Access to All Links is disabled, an additional dialog box appears that warns of the danger of following links in messages. When Potential Threat Alerts is enabled, a notification appears if you install any app that has the ability to send and receive messages.
17. When you finish reviewing and changing settings, press the Back key. Changes take effect immediately.
Restore the Default Settings
When examining these settings, you can revert to the defaults by tapping the menu icon and choosing Restore Default Settings.
>>>Go Further: Other Messaging Apps and Alternatives
• Install a dedicated app for each chat program and hop among them as you attempt to find friends who are online and available to chat. Most of the major chat services, such as Yahoo! Messenger, AIM, and ICQ, have a free Android app that you can download from Google Play.
• Convince your friends to switch to a specific chat service to chat with you. For example, previous Galaxy S phones shipped with ChatON, a Samsung chat app/service. Note, however, that not all chat services are platform-independent or device-independent.
• Search Google Play for an app that can aggregate your chats and chat buddies from multiple services.
