70 Character SMS Limit When Texting From Macbook

A quick search shows that this has to do with the Smart Quotes feature in OS X.

You can disable it system wide in Settings >> Keyboard >> Text >> and uncheck "Use smart quotes and dashes".

Then open messages and go to Edit >> Substitutions and uncheck "Smart Quote".

Hope this helps.

I'd like to know a fix to this problem, I'm having the same issue.

I have an iPhone 6 and didn't have this issue until I set up the Message app on my Yosemite OS MBP. Now when I send a text from the MBP or my iPhone to a non-iOS phone... My texts are broken up into small chunks. This is even happening when my MBP is turned off and my iPhone 6 is using network data.

I like using the Message app, but if its the root of the problem... I'm disabiling the app.

Here's some screen shots.

What it looks like on the iPhone 6:

What it looks like on the receiving phone:

Two texts from me were broken up into five messages on the other phone.

Hi,

There is no Character counter to display.

You have not missed any settings.

As the SMS messages is sent from your Mac to the iPhone which is then the Sending item to the other end it could be that info in the Mac version of the text balloon is being counted as part of the character count.

The way the Mac version of Messages and the iOS version handle the text display is different.

On the iOS version everything is displayed in the Balloon (speech Bubble) format but it is not sent this way.

The Mac versions sends the info to make the balloons appear as they could previously be coloured and contain different Fonts when you were sending to AIM or Jabber Buddies in iChat and earlier versions of Messages.

9:40 pm Saturday; December 20, 2014

That makes sense when I'm using the MacBooks Message app. But since I've linked my iPhone to the Message app, the same thing is happening when I use just my iPhone, with my Macbook turned off. This didn't happen before I stated using the Message app.

Hi,

I can only think then that the iOS version of Messages has had some changes to accommodate what is being sent from the Mac for the SMS chats that it limits the visible characters. (i.e. the invisible characters have gone up)

Either that or Sprint is doing something as both of you mention that carrier and I have not seen any other posts yet on this subject.

for the Points

10:01 pm Saturday; December 20, 2014

At this moment it might make sense.

However it does not make it right.

At present this Thread only refers to one carrier which might be feature.

The rest is a best guess by me based on 10 years of messing with iChat and Messages and what Apple are most likely to do.

10:05 pm Saturday; December 20, 2014

Double Points. Bonus.

for the Points

10:17 pm Saturday; December 20, 2014

I'm having the same issue, but I discovered something that is very strange. When I send a message from my Mac, in Messages, the message gets split at the 70 character count, just like you have noted. I then opened the Messages app on my iPhone and copied the message I had sent and pasted it in to send it again, to see if the issue was just one my phone. Here is the strange part; when I pasted the message my iPhone was showing 77/70 for the character count. When I deleted the pasted message and typed it I was back to the 160 limit. So apparently there is something in the message that is telling it to limit it to 70 characters. It's clearly something in Messages on the Mac that is causing this because if I send messages from my phone they don't get split at 70.

I've had this bug for awhile too and can duplicate everything you've just described. My messages tend to go out garbled and unreadable though.

Here's something interesting though....

If I copy and paste the text back in to the composition window on my iPhone, but delete/re-type all of the ' (apostrophe) characters (as used in I'll, we'll, you've, etc.) before sending it, the text limit goes back up to 160 characters.

For some reason, the Mac has a different variation of the apostrophe (slightly angled) whereas the apostrophe on the iPhone is perfectly vertical with no angle to it.

Not sure how to fix it on the Mac as I just noticed this, but thought I'd share my findings. See for yourself.