AT&T Network Limits # Of People For Group Texts...

[Nickerz]

I tried replying to a group text of 11 people (using the Samsung native text messaging app) but here is the popup box that appeared (see pic below)...

AT&T told me this limit is to protect against SPAM texts and there is no way to remove the feature or increase the limit from 10 to 15, etc. I pointed out to them that recent SPAM texts I'm being sent are originating from an email address NOT a phone # so I STILL get SPAM texts! Not to mention, when I try reporting these SPAM texts to AT&T's automated alert by forwarding the text to 7726 ...I get an automated reply from AT&T asking me for a phone number. When I tried forwarding the email address it said it was invalid, so there is no way to report the abusers.

Since this seems to be a network thing, should I assume a 3rd party text messaging app won't work to avoid this, right? Does anyone recommend another good text messaging app that can bypass this issue? Or does anyone have suggestions?

 

[ManiacJoe]

ATT has a limit of 10 recipients to group messages, when ATT chooses to enforce the limit. The limit has been there since the 1990s. ATT knows this is a huge problem for its customers, but they still hide behind the "spam solution" answer. Changing SMS apps will not help with this. Our only hope is when the world switches from SMS to RCS. (Some other carriers have a higher limit of up to 25 members.)

ATT's SMS spam reporting only works with SMS messages. MMS (group texts, long SMS) just confuses the 7726 system. Putting email addresses in the response for a phone number also does not work.

If you are getting SMS spam from a small number of email addresses, you can add those emails to your contact list then block the contact in your SMS app.

 

[Nickerz]

Thanks for the tip about adding the SPAM emails to my contact list and then block the contact! Nice!

So far, to get around the 10 people group text limit, I downloaded Google Messages and used it as default and I was able to reply to the group text of 13 people! So maybe this works b/c it's on my wifi and not sending it out via AT&T carrier??? It's cool b/c if I want to switch back to my native Samsung text messaging app, I simply open it and a window pops up asking if you want to make this your default app, click yes, it works. I like Samsung's native app b/c it lets you swipe left to text, swipe right to call the person and you can schedule text messages for a future day/time, which is really handy when it's too late at night but you don't want to forget to send an important text...

 

[ManiacJoe]

It seems that ATT is not consistent in its enforcement of the 10 member limit. Some apps can randomly skate by at times while other apps don't have that luck. Keep an eye out for any error messages that start showing up.