I have a text group with my immediate family and we have some people with iPhones, and a couple of people with androids. Why are we limited to naming the text group ONLY when everyone has an iPhone?
iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 16
Because the network engineers who designed SMS didn’t provide a way to name an SMS or mixed group containing SMS. There are also other limitations if the group contains SMS users; for example, you cannot delete or add users, and you can’t remove yourself from the group. That’s why a lot of people in mixed groups don’t use SMS; there are many other options: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal, Skype...
Because the network engineers who designed SMS didn’t provide a way to name an SMS or mixed group containing SMS. There are also other limitations if the group contains SMS users; for example, you cannot delete or add users, and you can’t remove yourself from the group. That’s why a lot of people in mixed groups don’t use SMS; there are many other options: WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram, Signal, Skype...
In addition to Lawrence's excellent explanation, I'd add that SMS is, by today's standards, primitive. It can no more do the sorts of things iMessages, Facebook Messenger or Whatsapp can do than a fax machine could send a video.
That doesn't explain it. When I had an Android phone, I could name my MMS groups with no problem whatsoever.
It doesn't need to be part of the protocol to be a thing you can do.
Why is naming a text group just limited to groups with only iMessage? Why can't we add a name to a mixed text group?
