Hi,
Using two 2.0 emulators and the native messaging application -
if I send a text message which exceeds 160 characters in length, the receiving emulator gets the message, but the text is all scrambled. Does anyone else see this? Is this a bug with the emulator, or a real problem with the 2.0 devices as well?
Thanks
Yes, I have seen it too. There is a standard limit on the number of character a SMS message can contain and it is 160 characters(when each character is represented using 7 bits).When the length of the SMS exceeds 160 characters your message is received on the other emulator in parts. The encoding gets affected also, I think and therefore we see garbled characters.
Also, note that when the number of characters in your SMS exceeds 160x3 characters your message is converted to MMS automatically, on the emulator. If you are trying to send it from code, send it as an MMS; MMS can handle longer messages SMS only 160. Alternatively, you can also send data as Multipart SMSes.
Assuming you do not have a physical 2.0 device someone will have to test this for you who does; however, I believe the results may be device and carrier dependent. My Android 1.5 Sprint Hero breaks up the messages into multiple SMS messages. I believe other messaging apps automatically converts to MMS while some carriers simply drop anything over 160. Since many Android phones come with custom messaging apps and are availible with different carriers be carful about generalizing any one test. Welcome to Android!
There's some bug with emulator's sms function, so, if you want to develop some sms app, you need test them in real devices, not only the emulator.