Mass text messages

[onekatietwo]

Somewhat recently (maybe within the last 6 to 12 months) I have noticed that I sometimes receive responses to mass text messages that somebody sends to me. I'll receive something like "merry Christmas!" from a friend. The message will just look like a normal message from that friend with no indication that it is a mass text (other than the content, of course) and then shortly afterwards I'll start receiving messages like "Hey, you too, Bobby!" from numbers that aren't in my contacts. These messages will show up as standalone messages with no indication that they are in reply to the mass text I received, again other than the content, of course. What is this? How and why has it started happening and how do I make it stop? I really don't want to get a bunch of responses from every stupid mass text I get and I ESPECIALLY don't want to unknowingly send a response to all the recipients of the mass text when I don't even know who they are or if it was a mass text message. My roommate told me it was an iPhone thing, but its happened from messages that I know where sent from Android devices.

 

[anon(847090)]

update your Gnexus to 4.2.1. it now support group message and will make sense after you get your next message.

 

[onekatietwo]

Oh, ok. Thanks for the response.

I didn't even known there was a 4.2.1 already. (Totally believed the Verizon sales guy when he said that I'd be the first to get updates from Google with this phone. Whoops.) I guess I'll just impatiently wait for Verizon to provide me with this update.

In the meantime, can I rest assured that my replies to mass text messages/group messages won't be sent to all the other recipients? And I guess this is a similar question, but when people send replies that go to all the other recipients do they seriously KNOW they are doing that? Seems kind of rude/obnoxious.

The whole thing kind of seems like a privacy issue - I don't really want all my friends' friends having access to my number. But like you said, maybe it'll all make more sense when I actually have it on my phone.