New phone advice. Note 5 - messaging

[StarryNight7]

I currently own a HTC One on T-Mobile. T-Mobile has been good enough around the "city", but struggles in the more rural areas (2G or none). I am looking to switch to Verizon as I will be spending more time in the rural areas starting soon. I will need to get a new phone in doing so.

The majority of my family, friends and co-workers use an iPhone on Verizon. Since using the HTC One on T-Mobile, I have often struggled messaging them. I have used the stock messaging app, Textra and currently Chomp. All with limited success. Simple texts to single people almost always work. However, once images/, videos or group messages come into play, it is not uncommon for things to go wrong. I almost never receive these types of messages while at home on the WiFi. Only when I connect onto a cellular network. Even though I have both "Use MMS for Group Messages" and "T-Mobile WiFi Calling Fix" (suppose to temporarily deactivate WiFi when sending or receiving an MMS) checked. On cellular I can receive group messages, but when I reply they almost always reply to each person as a single message, outside the group chat.

Note 5 vs iPhone 6s Plus
I have been doing a fair amount of research. Both are great phones, but I have been falling in love with the Note 5. I just got back from Bestbuy and after holding a Note 5 in my hands I was blown away!! The Edge was pretty sweet also!

I really want to go with the Note 5....but I am a little concerned with the messaging aspect. First and foremost, I must be able to communicate with my family, friends and co-workers. That means group messages, pictures and videos at times. Again, most are using iPhones on Verizon. I think that going the iPhone route would be the easy solution. However, if I could get it to work on the Note 5....I really want it!!

I am not sure if my current problem is an iOS/Android issue, a T-Mobile/Verizon issue or maybe I have been just doing something wrong?

So I guess that I am looking for advice from Note 5 owners who communicate with iPhone friends. Will I need to go the "safe" iPhone route, or will I be able to get the Note 5?

Thank you in advance!!

 

[Eddster]

I currently own a HTC One on T-Mobile. T-Mobile has been good enough around the "city", but struggles in the more rural areas (2G or none). I am looking to switch to Verizon as I will be spending more time in the rural areas starting soon. I will need to get a new phone in doing so.

The majority of my family, friends and co-workers use an iPhone on Verizon. Since using the HTC One on T-Mobile, I have often struggled messaging them. I have used the stock messaging app, Textra and currently Chomp. All with limited success. Simple texts to single people almost always work. However, once images/, videos or group messages come into play, it is not uncommon for things to go wrong. I almost never receive these types of messages while at home on the WiFi. Only when I connect onto a cellular network. Even though I have both "Use MMS for Group Messages" and "T-Mobile WiFi Calling Fix" (suppose to temporarily deactivate WiFi when sending or receiving an MMS) checked. On cellular I can receive group messages, but when I reply they almost always reply to each person as a single message, outside the group chat.

Note 5 vs iPhone 6s Plus
I have been doing a fair amount of research. Both are great phones, but I have been falling in love with the Note 5. I just got back from Bestbuy and after holding a Note 5 in my hands I was blown away!! The Edge was pretty sweet also!

I really want to go with the Note 5....but I am a little concerned with the messaging aspect. First and foremost, I must be able to communicate with my family, friends and co-workers. That means group messages, pictures and videos at times. Again, most are using iPhones on Verizon. I think that going the iPhone route would be the easy solution. However, if I could get it to work on the Note 5....I really want it!!

I am not sure if my current problem is an iOS/Android issue, a T-Mobile/Verizon issue or maybe I have been just doing something wrong?

So I guess that I am looking for advice from Note 5 owners who communicate with iPhone friends. Will I need to go the "safe" iPhone route, or will I be able to get the Note 5?

Thank you in advance!!

I can tell you that group messaging works well on Verizon Note phones. I've had no problem with group messaging when I've switched to Android. Where I HAVE run into issues when switching to Android is with SMS (regular text message) file size restrictions. When using regular texts (on a non-iPhone) messages are limited to carrier imposed size limits with respect to pics/gifs and videos. In other words, you cannot send certain high resolution pics, larger gifs, or videos via regular SMS text message. Your Note phone will compress higher resolution pics, thus affecting image quality, and completely de-animate certain gifs if the file size is "too large" for regular SMS. Videos are even worse. In my opinion THIS is where iMessage really shines. Not only will you have no problems group messaging, but you can send all the high resolution pics, large fully animated gifs, AND large video files you want to other iMessage users. This is because iMessages bypass the carrier SMS limits and are sent via Apple's servers. So, if being able to send a lot of pics and videos to family members is really important to you, then go with the iPhone 6s Plus. You will have a better messaging experience IMHO. If you want to just be able to successfully group message, with out the need for sending high resolution pics and/or video, the the Verizon Note 5 will work for you. I will say that iMessage is a major factor in why I continue to use iPhones for this very reason. And if you own other Apple devices, that makes it all the more enticing due to the completely seamless and flawless integration between devices since it's baked in at the operating system level and you won't have to ask friends and family to install and use any 3rd party apps.

 

[dkunzman]

Here's a caveat for messaging.
I use a Note 5 and iPhone 6S+. My wife uses an HTC One. My son a Note 4. My daughters Galaxy S5, iPhone 5, Galaxy 6.
My coworkers (we are spread regionally) use a variety of Android and iPhone. We use AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile

In most cases we have messaging issues for the following reasons (in this group):
1 - the iMessage switch from iPhone to Android issue
2 - the messaging app being used has reached a limit and not sending
3 - the sender is on T-Mobile

Take it for what it's worth.

 

[Harlemknight]

I have the Verizon Note 5, and I am using the Verizon messaging app. It works over cellular and WiFi networks and works pretty good for text, pictures, video and voice. Not sure about groups tho. I was using Hangouts, but sometimes my text would disappear and not send or send later. Didn't want to use Verizon " app but it works everytime, even over WiFi.

Sent from my Note 5 that I said I wouldn't get but now that I have it I love it.