Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Text message character limit

I see when sending a text message it says the limit is 160 characters. What happens if I go over that? Is the message still sent?


If I insert an emoji I notice the limit drops to 70 characters. Why?


Messages on the Mac doesn't show how many characters are in the message. How do I make sure it's not too long?

iPhone 6s Plus, iOS 9.0.2

Posted on Mar 22, 2017 11:03 AM

Reply
Question marked as Best reply

Posted on Mar 22, 2017 11:39 AM

iMessage, which is Apple's own internet messaging service, can send fairly long messages (several or more thousand characters at least, but I don't know what the upper limit is - may be file size and not character limited). I'd be surprised if there was not some hard upper limit though, as at some point, Apple would want people to use email, and not an instant messaging service intended for short rapid communications.


SMS texts originally were strictly limited to a 160 character limit. Beyond that, the only way to send longer texts over SMS is to break the message up into multiple messages, send each one, and re-combine them on the receivers handset. That's because the bandwidth used by SMS is a small, unused fraction of the cellular voice channel and it is only so big.

2 replies
Question marked as Best reply

Mar 22, 2017 11:39 AM in response to Bradford Bosley

iMessage, which is Apple's own internet messaging service, can send fairly long messages (several or more thousand characters at least, but I don't know what the upper limit is - may be file size and not character limited). I'd be surprised if there was not some hard upper limit though, as at some point, Apple would want people to use email, and not an instant messaging service intended for short rapid communications.


SMS texts originally were strictly limited to a 160 character limit. Beyond that, the only way to send longer texts over SMS is to break the message up into multiple messages, send each one, and re-combine them on the receivers handset. That's because the bandwidth used by SMS is a small, unused fraction of the cellular voice channel and it is only so big.

Text message character limit

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple ID.