Can't See Texting Profile Picture: S4 --> iPhone

[jensigner]

Why can't an iPhone user see my Profile picture icon when I text from my S4?

 

[Reformed IOS User]

do they have a picture for you on their iphone and is it associated with the correct number?

 

[LoganK]

do they have a picture for you on their iphone and is it associated with the correct number?

As implied, texting does not have a "profile" associated with it, just a number. So your iOS friend is simply seeing your contact information as they've set it up on their phone. I'm not completely familiar with what iOS is capable of these days, but I imagine it could sync your Facebook or Twitter profile photo, or they could set it themselves.

iMessaging is different because it's not texting. It's more like use AOL Instant Messenger, and there are lots of options if you want to go that route, too, but the problem has always been getting users to install the application. Apple just includes iMessage with every phone so they sidestep the issue, but I don't believe Apple allows third parties to interact with the iMessage network so they also make the problem worse. I'm pretty sure that there are cross-platform solutions similar in functionality to iMessage, but I don't personally use any of them.

 

[jensigner]

When I imported and synch'd my contacts (originally in Outlook Express WinXP), some of the imported contacts had "Contact Photos" as part of the contact (I didn't add that). I realize that you can add any contact photo you want to a contact you have. On the S4, if you open a contact, a menu choice is "Share namecard via" which i tried sending to my S3 partner and they receive an attached .vcf contact attachment which imports nicely into their contact list.
The other part of my question was during a texting session, the person on the S3 doesn't see and small Contact photo icons beside the text but I see them on the S4. Is that a different functionality included in the S4?