How big does an SMS have to be before it transitions from SMS to MMS?

[k-hand]

Number of characters before the transition from SMS to MMS

It is a constantly pester my sms message goes over to MMS message, often using multiple smileys and such signs. Is there a setting somewhere on mobile where can I change? How big an sms can be before it goes to mms?

Hope some wiseacres have answers

This is also a Samsung galaxy s5

 

[gdbusby]

Re: Number of characters before the transition from SMS to MMS

Simple answer is SMS is 120 characters. Anything higher turns into a MMS . Some text apps have a character count that will count down how many you have left.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[anon8380037]

Re: Number of characters before the transition from SMS to MMS

On my Samsung, you can set it to warn you when it will convert to MMS as you type, and so go back a few characters.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Rukbat]

Re: Number of characters before the transition from SMS to MMS

It depends on how you set the app. If you tell it to break long messages (or don't tell it to not break themn, depending on the app), it won't ever send text as MMS.

It will either break the message into multiple messages (and then, depending on the app, will display as a single message or as multiple messages) or convert to an MMS text file after 160 characters (in our alphabet - the limit is actually 140 octets - 8-bit groups. Since a text character is 7 bits, that's 160 characters. In Unicode it's 80 characters.)

@gdbusby, I don't know where you got that 120 figure. The protocol says 140 octets and has since long before there were cellphones. (SMS is the old pocket pager protocol - and "no one has to send a message longer than 140 octets" ... oops, someone invented cellphones and texting and that's no longer true, is it? But it still uses the same protocol.)