Text Multiple Recipients without creating a Named Group

[Fisher99]

Google Pixel 2 XL running Android 9/Pie and using stock Android Messages app for texting. I used to be able to add multiple people to a text without problem. Now, however, it always wants me to create a Group name for the multiple recipients. Even if there are just a couple of recipients. Here's what I am doing.

I click "Start Chat". I then type the first recipient into the "To" line. I then click the icon of multiple people with a plus sign in front of it to add another recipient. I then click the blue check-mark at the bottom of the screen to indicate that I am finished adding recipients and I am immediately taken to a "Name this MMS group" screen.

I don't want to create a named group. I just want to send the text to multiple recipients. Where am I going wrong?

 

[VidJunky]

Have you tried not clicking the multiple people icon...?

Where are you initiating the message from? If you are initiating it from your contacts app it may be your contacts that thinks this should be an easily accessible group that you may want to save. Try initiating the message from the SMS app.

It sounds like the multiple people icon is intended to create a group and that sounds like a contacts app thing more than an SMS app thing. If you are initiating the message from the SMS app what happens if you just keep adding people without that step... If you are creating a new chat thread it should automatically open your contacts, with the cursor in the "To:" field. You then just scroll and tap or start typing and add people to the message.

I guess I should have asked, have you always done it the way you describe, but now it acts differently?

My default app doesn't offer that option, which is why I'm wondering if it is the contacts app, but of the apps I have none of them require a group name.

 

[Fisher99]

Maybe I'm over-reacting. In the stock Android Messages app I click "Start Chat". That takes me to a screen with the cursor in the "To:" field. I start typing the name of the first recipient and it brings up a list of people from my contacts who match what I am typing. I click on the desired name and it shows up in the "To:" box. I can then either tap right next to that name, or tap on the multiple-people icon, and either way, I can add more names to the "To:" list. When I click the blue check-mark at the bottom to indicate that I am finished adding recipients, I am immediately taken to a screen titled "Name this MMS group". The cursor is sitting in a box titled "Gropu name (optional)". I didn't see the "optional" before. It appears that if I just tap the blue check-mark again, it takes me back to where I can type the message and send it to the selected recipients without actually giving the group a name.

So, I guess this was a false alarm. It's just a confusing thing about Android Messages that makes you think you are being required to name the group.

 

[VidJunky]

It's all good. Must be a Pixel thing though cause I've never been asked to name the group. Actually there was a question not long ago about making groups cause they wanted a way to do this to keep their messages straight. I could have told them to get a Pixel. Lol