After iOS update, all text (SMS) messages I type are limited to 70 characters instead of 160! Please help!

Go to Settings > General > Keyboard and turn off "Smart Punctuation". Fixed it for me.

I have the exact same problem. Even after turning of Smart punctuation.

I saw someone's comment here about the commas and full stops so I decided to try removing them from my message and that worked. It went to 160 characters again.

Does this mean I'll have to send messages without punctuation from now on?

chito28 wrote:

I saw someone's comment here about the commas and full stops so I decided to try removing them from my message and that worked. It went to 160 characters again.

I can't imagine how commas and periods would cause this. Ask your carrier why this is happening.

If your system is set to produce "smart/curly" punctuation, " and ' will not be ascii, and will likely be treated like emoji.

kencalrod wrote:

Turning off smart punctuation didn't do a thing for me. Still sending out 70 character blocks and receiving them that way.

Normally this is caused by using characters outside the ascii range -- that's what smart punctuation produces. Perhaps your outgoing messages have others? Could you give an example?

If messages you receive are short, it is presumably because the senders have not turned off smart punctuation or something similar. There is nothing you can do at your end to change other people's settings or content.

I suggest you contact your carrier about it.

i haven't seen other reports of this problem with smart punctuation turned off and other special characters and emoji absent from messages.

PS Let apple know about this problem via

http://www.apple.com/feedback

mtloya wrote:

Before the update, I would be able to type SMS messages up to 160 characters without the phone splitting up the messages. It would only change to 70 characters whenever I used emojis.

Now, after the iOS 11 and 11.0.1 updates, all my SMS messages are limited to 70 characters regardless if I'm using emojis or not, splitting up all of my texts to my non-iPhone contacts.

This is extremely annoying and I'm disappointed with this change. If there is a workaround, please let me know.

Please make sure when you contact your cell phone provider you let them know how annoyed and disappointed your are that they made changes to their feature, as SMS/MMS has nothing to do with Apple, iPhone or IOS 11.

All kinds of messages, even without any special characters, no apostrophe, etc. Had my sister turn off her smart punctuation and she still receives and sends 70 character. Even when I send to myself it defaults to 70.

PS • (bullet, U+2022) isn't ascii in any case.

mtloya wrote:

Is there any way to revert back from this new punctuation style?

Look for a setting somewhere to turn of smart punctuation.

Turning off smart punctuation didn't do a thing for me. Still sending out 70 character blocks and receiving them that way.