SMS-Accidentally sending out web links

[MrSmith77]

Sometimes when I am typing my fat fingers hit the period button instead of the space bar, and it makes something like this: text.example
When I do this it inserts a weblink at the end of the text message and if i don't catch it, it gets sent out to whoever I'm talking to. It's totally random and the link has absolutely nothing to do with what i'm talking about. Depending on the language I'm using it can send really embarrassing links that make it look like I'm browsing around the internet looking at messed up stuff.
And the crazy thing is it doesn't do it all the time. I just tried to do it on purpose to another phone and it wouldn't do it.
Please help. This is almost a deal breaker for my beloved Galaxy. I love my phone, but I'm seriously thinking of joining the iphone herd because of the awesomeness of imessage, and these horrible random web links that are unacceptable.
Thanks in advance for any help.

 

[SpookDroid]

It's up to each app whether or not it displays things like that as links and/or if they display the web snippet. You're not actually sending that, you're just sending the text string as usual. Problem is that your app is displaying that text as a link (I think you can disable that for YOUR app, however), but even if you don't see it, if you still type like that, whomever gets the text might still see that as a link depending on their app configuration. And yes, iPhones will do that, too.

Some keyboard apps allow auto-spacing after a period is inserted, so that might help with your typos and avoid sending these 'links'. For the Samsung keyboard you might get away with creating a 'shortcut' so that the keyboard automatically inserts a period and a space whenever you insert just a period (kinda like doing 'talk to you later' when you assing a shortcut to TTYL).

 

[MrSmith77]

Yeah i tried sending a "link" to an iphone and they saw the same thing i'm seeing. i also sent the same text string back from the iphone to my galaxy and it sent the same link, so yeah iphones do it too. Just the way the Samsung keyboard is configured, placing that period right next to the keyboard just sets up a situation where this would happen. I'm actually surprised there aren't many more threads about this happening.
It really sucks because it doesn't show the "link" it creates instantly. Sometimes it doesn't show until couple seconds after I've already hit the send button. It's like my phone is playing a really sucky prank on me when it happens. A little too much "smartphone" in this case.
I will try and make a quick key change like you suggested. That might just do the trick. I'll try that and report back.
Thanks again for the help.

 

[SpookDroid]

Again, what you're seeing is the preview and that can be turned on/off from the settings (and again, just because you turned it off, doesn't mean that if you still send a string that can be recognized as a link, the receiving end will not see a preview snippet on their end depending on how their messaging app is configured). I don't see the problem with the placement of the keys, but if you don't like that, you have a plethora of keyboard options to choose from! I recommend SwiftKey or even GBoard. Also, if that's an issue for you, disable the 'double tap' option for the spacebar to insert a period automatically.

 

[MrSmith77]

I get the preview part. I've turned that option off, but that's not the problem. The problem is that it sends a link at all. I would like it if it had an option to turn off link sharing, or had one more step asking if I was sure I wanted to send that link, but alas.
It sounds like I probably don't text as much as you do, and again, I have big fingers so i hit that "period" key all the time when I'm trying to hit the space bar. Everyone is different, so if you like the layout then great, but that one area of the board gives me problems all the time.
I can't find a way to change that key into anything else either. Can't make a text shortcut with that key (it is grayed out), can't make a custom symbol with that key (grayed out again), and there's no layout with Samsung keyboard that removes that key, so looks like I'll be searching for a new keyboard. I think I've checked out GBoard before and I liked it. I'll try both the ones you suggested.
Thanks again for the help!

 

[SpookDroid]

But you're not sending a link, you're sending text that LOOKS like a link. And as stated before, it's up to each specific app whether it just displays the plain text you sent or if it interprets that as a link and displays it as such. Same thing when you write numbers: some apps will automatically parse that and interpret as a phone number and others won't do squat with that.

In this case the only way to 'stop' that is to find a better keyboard that suits your typing needs.

 

[treetopsranch]

Can't you test that issue by sending the text link to yourself to see if it is a hot link?

 

[SpookDroid]

Can't you test that issue by sending the text link to yourself to see if it is a hot link?

That wouldn't work because you're seeing it in the same app. Again, SMS just sends plain text. There's no link, no embedded snippet, nada. Just text. If you send text that has two or more words sandwiched in between periods with no spaces, the receiving APP might construe that plain text as a link and display it as such, but the original material is NOT a link, it's just text. If the app is set up to recognize links, then no matter what you do, if you send something that looks like a link, the app will display it as a link. The only 'solution' is to insert a space after a period (which most keyboards app can do automatically) so that apps don't think your text contains a link.