If your friend is sending you an "SMS" from their Tmo phone, that would mean he/she is sending a "text-message" to your sprint mobile. If you refer to the post regarding inter-carrier SMS in NA, it will explain it more clearly. Your friend would have to send a SMS to yournumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com. i500SMS would automatically retrieve the message and display in in popup window...

OK, here is where I have to disagree. When users on carriers with real SMS send SMS's, they don't send them to e-mail addresses, they send them to phone numbers. My TMobile friend sends an SMS to myphonenumber, no @domain.com. Sprint's SMS gateway unfortunately turns this into a shortmail not a 1-way text message.

And therein lies the problem.

-Alvin

Okay, let's see if I can make this clearer... If you friend sends a SMS from his Tmo phone (just the number without a domain), Sprint treats it like shortmail and you have to log onto vision to retrieve the message. If you friend sends a SMS to yournumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com, then the message arrives like a Text message and your mobile does not have to log onto vision to retrieve the message. Trust me, that's how it works...

Furthermore as I explained the (lengthy) post above, i500SMS (once released) would automatically download your shortmail via vision and present is as a text message in a popup window! That's the whole beauty of it. It allows you to receive your shortmail just like a text message. This works b/c with unlimited vision, it doesn't matter if you're logged on 24/7. And as I and lyoung pointed out before, you can still receive calls while connected to vision, but not while on active connections. (I've had diff experiences on my treo).

That's the whole shebang!! I hope you understand. If not well...

OK, we're getting there!

Agreed. What's worse, you can't access this shortmail from an I500 using Sprint's WAP pages. That makes the whole process very slow and tedious.
That's not an SMS, that's an e-mail. And that appears to be our only disagreement. If I send an SMS to my friend on TMobile, and he replies to it via SMS, what comes back is a shortmail, not a text message.
That's great! I'm really looking forward to it.

I don't have unlimited vision (500 minutes + add-a-phone, $60/month, typical a la carte Vision charges < $1/month, can I do as well with an unlimited Vision plan?). I'm hoping that I don't need to be connected to receive messages with I500SMS, but I could easily be wrong about that.

Conceded, thrice. But let's not forget to give credit to diomark too.

Quote:

That's the whole shebang!! I hope you understand. If not well...

I do, and I hope that you do, too. Our only disagreement appears to be that you think that e-mail is SMS (understandable, given that we are Sprint subscribers) and I don't. I'm willing to leave it at that, okay?

-Alvin

SMS meggaging should NEVER rely on email (pop) servers. The pull system will be too slow.

That said, the I5 (sprint) doesn't have SMS, so it sounds like what's being done is as close as we can get. Anything is better than nothing for someone who want's it.

gfunkmagic... thanks for the excellent explaination of the differences between SMS, text messages and short mail and how they pertain to Sprint. Now, maybe you can do a presentation to all Sprint support people who apparently have not clue the various message types their network supports and the differences between them. You explaination was right on.

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Carl

Here's an experiment for you: Go to any email client or web based email service like hotmail, yahoo, etc and try to send a SMS to any mobile phone. How would you do it without using a domain??? Answer...YOU CAN'T!!! You have to use one of the various domains I posted earlier. SMS is essentially a MOBILE email address plain and simple. You don't think of it as email b/c of the seamless nature of how it works on mobile phones. That is a good thing b/c that how it was meant to be...simple. The problem is, Sprint apparently doesn't believe in simple and thus we have this shortmail/text messaging confusion.

In any case, once i500SMS comes out, you won't have to worry about th differences b/c both shortmail and text messaging will be treated like SMS on your SPH-i500...Thank GAWD!

Yep! Come on...PDA Apps!! Hopefully it won't be long...I can't imagine the code being that much different than i330SMS...

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I just *love* my i5!

No, it's not. SMS is a protocol for sending short messages between GSM phones. To add value to this service, carriers provide e-mail gateways that relay e-mail messages to phones. Sprint provides a gateway that relays SMS messages to shortmail, unfortunately.

Here's a page that should help you understand SMS better: http://www.gsm-technology.com/gsm.ph...id,smsfaq.html
I couldn't agree more.

-Alvin

I have the SPH-i500 from Sprint. The phone works on their "PCS Vision" network.

While Sprint advertises that the phone has 2-way SMS, it has no software for it. I wrote to Sprint tech support to inquire and, in their infinite wisdom they replied back by stating the obvious ("the phone has it but does not ship with software for it") (gosh thanks guys... isn't that what I stated when I asked the question? [sigh])

So... does anyone here know of an SMS client for this phone that works on the Sprint PCS Vision network?

Thanks!
Tim

there are a few threads on this subject here. please doa search.

pdaapps has a great app for sms for the i5. you can also look on the first page of this forum section to read up on their app.

welcome to the board!

quick question. Most people inquire about sms ability. But how much is it really used? Most of my friends are on sprint and no one has sms capability. My family is all on at&T and they can receive but can't send (unless they want to pay per message). So why such a demand? Do many people do it?

i've got a few friends on t-mobile (i think) who do it, but thats about it...

sprint to sprint sucks because most people have to access it through vision and don't go through the hassle.

I use it a great deal now since I got I500SMS from pdaApps... i text sprint to sprint, and to verizon and send/receive replies... plus I really like the sms to email address... that is soo convenient...

so, here is one user who loves I500sms

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old devices: I300, I330, I500
current: I730

i love the ability of it and i think pdaapps is great, but i find myself not having a need for it. No one i know seems to text message, and i'm wondering what providers utilize it the most etc..

the younger crowd sms's daily.

when i was using the i330, i used the pdaapps' sms app to message my friends on the 7135 and to people in chicago... its fun and not something i really need.. but its cool... kinda like doing PTT.. just a novelty imo...

I just wished my friends had it!

all you need is ther mobile # and the protocool for the network they are on and you should be able to sms them...

I am not a heavy user but I probably average 5 messages sent a day. I send to AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, Nextel and T-Mobile. I don't know anybody with Cingular here in Dallas.

I find it extremely convenient just to say Hi, Happy Birthday or Lunch? without a long conversation.

agreed.. short and to the point, it cuts out alot of 'filler' conversation i text to the east coast, seattle, and around dallas daily...

marc is right, sms is HUGE for the younger kids... one reason schools have starting making rules on cell use... of course you can't make a call during class, but the teacher won't know if you silently type in a sms to your buddy in the next classroom

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old devices: I300, I330, I500
current: I730

I've never seen sprint advertise that the I500 or any other phone has 2-way SMS. Where is this? Of course if I can find where they advertise it and show that it doesn't have it I will request a service credit! But I've never seen it advertised as having it.