Why are my friends text messages out of order?
I have an iPhone and he has a droid, we will be texting and for some reason his messages break up into let's say 5 different messages. After that sometimes they will be out of order. For example, the messages are: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5. But ill get them: 1, 3, 4, 2, 5. How do I fix this? Or must I live with this puzzle until he gets an iPhone?
Slow down on the texting
SMS is limited to 140 (8-bit) characters per message. If you were both on iPhones using iMessage, you would not be using SMS… But iMessage and that limitation goes away.
If the text message is greater than 140 (8-bit) characters, it has to be split into "chunks" that meet the character count limitation. When the really long message is sent, it goes into a buffer in the phone, when there's time available between the phone and the cell service provider's radio, the message chunks are sent. In theory, the chunks should be sent in order. Once they hit the radio, then the base station, then they get to the cell service provider's messaging server, sent to your cell service provider's server (could be the same, but the messages still need to get to your "SMS account"), the cell service provider's infrastructure finds you then send the messages to the base station and radio to be sent to your phone… There are a few places the chunks can get out of order…
SMS is a "store and forward" technology that is supposed to rely on "first in - first out" (FIFO) delivery. A buffer here and there along the way could easily cause the order of the SMS chunks to get out of order. Use shorter messages. Preferably, for SMS, stay below 140 (8 bit) characters per message and the out-of-order problem should go away.
Try going into Settings and tap on Date n Time and make sure that Auto Date n Time and Auto Time Zone are both checked
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