Counting # of texts (WhatsApp)

[Alejandra]

Hi all,

I recently signed my daughters up for the 50 text/ 50 minutes plan. After a couple of weeks, my daughter got a message that she had used up her 50 texts.  She told me she didn't think she had, so we counted the texts on her profile and it shows that she sent 15 outgoing texts.  One of the moderators mentioned that it could be that WhatsApp messages are counting towards her total. This seems illogical to me, as WhatsApp uses data and requires either a 4G or a wifi connection (and you could send messages without any sort of data or cellphone plan if you only have wifi).  Has anyone else experienced this or have any insight?  It seems illogical to me that using WhatsApp would burn through her SMS messages.  The whole reason we got her set up with the phone was so that she would have a way to communicate with us when she was away from home and a wifi connetion. 

[Anonymous]

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@krazykiwi wrote:

Also, texts are divided into pieces of 160 characters and counted and then sent and then re-constituted at the other end. Maybe she's writing novels 🙂

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This is true and appropiate described by @Anonymous.

If it devides it into 2 messages will it show up in your self serve account as 2 messages or 1?

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 @krazykiwi: I got around to checking this. Yes. It can look like 1 text in your texting program but if you go over the single text character count then it counts it as another text. My standard texting program tells me how many characters I have left to type in each piece and also a count of each piece.

So I typed something >160 but <160 of part 2 characters and the log showed me 2 entries and the counter went up 2.

[will13am]

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@srlawren wrote:

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@will13am wrote:

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I just checked and my google dialer does the same thing. 

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@will13am indeed.  No big deal when one has unlimted texting, but definitely detrimental to $10 plan holders.

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I guess anyone with google dialer and default settings gets this behavior. 

[stonechucker]

Then explain to me how my dad could send an SMS from Facebook messenger that appeared in my SMS app?  He doesn’t have cellular data.

ive seen his outgoing messages, it’s there.

[Alejandra]

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@srlawren wrote:

@Alejandra is this a Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, or Pixel 2 XL, by chace?  I believe 7723 is the Google dialer sending texts back to Google.  Hopefully you revoked SMS priv's from the Phone app.

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It's a Motorola Moto E5 phone.  I think you are right, that the 7723 number is where texts are being sent back. I've turned off SMS for everything except the texting app.  If you don't see these messages show up on your PM usage report, you would have no idea your phone is sending them.  

[srlawren]

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@will13am wrote:

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I just checked and my google dialer does the same thing. 

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@will13am indeed.  No big deal when one has unlimted texting, but definitely detrimental to $10 plan holders.

[will13am]

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@srlawren wrote:

@Alejandra is this a Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, or Pixel 2 XL, by chace?  I believe 7723 is the Google dialer sending texts back to Google.  Hopefully you revoked SMS priv's from the Phone app.

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What you suggest or disable visual voice mail.  It is covered in this thread.  I just checked and my google dialer does the same thing. 

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Phones-Hardware/Pixel-on-Oreo-tries-to-send-Int-l-SMS...

[will13am]

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@stonechucker wrote:

Curious, does WhatsApp have the ability to send messages as SMS (like the iPhone iMessage app)?  If it does, this could be the case.  Also, the FB Messenger app DOES have the SMS ability available - does your daughter use this program?

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There is only one type of SMS.  In order for a message to be a SMS, it needs to be sent with the SMS protocol and use originating phone number and recipient phone number at the sending and receiving end.  Whatsapp uses a phone number to ID the user.  After that, all the messages are sent through their servers and not a SMS aggregator.  All so called text messaging apps do the same.  What these apps should do is remove the word text from the description to perhaps eliminate the confusion.  That said, messenging apps can be permitted to send real SMS even though that may not be the platform for their messenging service. 

[srlawren]

@Alejandra is this a Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, or Pixel 2 XL, by chace?  I believe 7723 is the Google dialer sending texts back to Google.  Hopefully you revoked SMS priv's from the Phone app.

[stonechucker]

Curious, does WhatsApp have the ability to send messages as SMS (like the iPhone iMessage app)?  If it does, this could be the case.  Also, the FB Messenger app DOES have the SMS ability available - does your daughter use this program?

[daredogg]

I think that's a good course of action. Various apps make use of "short codes," to send messages. The problem, it's like searching for a needle in a hay stack to find out who the various codes belong to. If you search 7723 short code you won't find it immediately and need to do a lot of digging. I found one website that lists Canadian short codes, but I don't see 7723 listed... http://www.txt.ca/en/current-short-code-programs/

[Alejandra]

Ok, I've done a bit more research and it seems like a few others were having this issue.  It seems like it's an issue with the phone itself where other apps (not necessarily WhatsApp), were sending international text messages to the "7723" number.  I've disabled all of the SMS permissions for every app except Messages, so hopefully that fixes the issue.  This isn't a problem if you have unlimited texts (and wouldn't even pay attention to these messages the phone is sending in the background).

[daredogg]

According to the WhatsApp FAQs...

"WhatsApp uses your phone's Internet connection (4G/3G/2G/EDGE or Wi-Fi, as available) to send and receive messages to your friends and family. You do not have to pay for every message. As long as you have not exceeded your data limit or you are connected to a free Wi-Fi network, your carrier should not charge you extra for messaging over WhatsApp."

Shouldn't count as a SMS message unless your daughter was on cellular data and her data limit has been exceeded. If that's the case, PM would identify that as a regular message. Hope this helps... 

[krazykiwi]

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@Alejandra wrote:

Ok, just a few clarification points:

- She has an Android phone, not an iPhone

- We have checked the consumption in self-serve and it shows 15 outgoing SMS texts sent, but also show that she has consumed all 50 of her alloted text messages.  In the "call type" collumn in the usage section, it shows "outgoing texts" (not SMS) to the number "7723" (not a complete phone number, as the other SMS messages are).  In the "usage type" column, these messages are listed as "minutes", but show 0 minutes used.  The regular SMS texts to actual phone numbers are listed in the "usage type" collumn as "SMS".  

- Her texts messages have all been short, maybe 4-5 words max.

This all sounds confusing, but  I think it just means that WhatsApp messages are indeed counting towards her SMS text consumption, which to me seems incorrect and I'm not sure how to correct it. 

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Thanks for that information. 

As mentioned earlier Whatsapp messages are not, "should not" be counting towards your allotment.

When you contacted the MODs did you include a screen shot of you usage? This does not seem right to me.

[Alejandra]

Ok, just a few clarification points:

- She has an Android phone, not an iPhone

- We have checked the consumption in self-serve and it shows 15 outgoing SMS texts sent, but also show that she has consumed all 50 of her alloted text messages.  In the "call type" collumn in the usage section, it shows "outgoing texts" (not SMS) to the number "7723" (not a complete phone number, as the other SMS messages are).  In the "usage type" column, these messages are listed as "minutes", but show 0 minutes used.  The regular SMS texts to actual phone numbers are listed in the "usage type" collumn as "SMS".  

- Her texts messages have all been short, maybe 4-5 words max.

This all sounds confusing, but  I think it just means that WhatsApp messages are indeed counting towards her SMS text consumption, which to me seems incorrect and I'm not sure how to correct it. 

[Anonymous]

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@krazykiwi wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Alejandra wrote:

Hi all,

I recently signed my daughters up for the 50 text/ 50 minutes plan. After a couple of weeks, my daughter got a message that she had used up her 50 texts.  She told me she didn't think she had, so we counted the texts on her profile and it shows that she sent 15 outgoing texts.  One of the moderators mentioned that it could be that WhatsApp messages are counting towards her total. This seems illogical to me, as WhatsApp uses data and requires either a 4G or a wifi connection (and you could send messages without any sort of data or cellphone plan if you only have wifi).  Has anyone else experienced this or have any insight?  It seems illogical to me that using WhatsApp would burn through her SMS messages.  The whole reason we got her set up with the phone was so that she would have a way to communicate with us when she was away from home and a wifi connetion. 

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If she's using an iphone there may be some imessage jiggery pokery going on.

Also, texts are divided into pieces of 160 characters and counted and then sent and then re-constituted at the other end. Maybe she's writing novels 🙂

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This is true and appropiate described by @Anonymous.

If it devides it into 2 messages will it show up in your self serve account as 2 messages or 1?

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That's a good question to experiment with. I'll try that out some time later.

[krazykiwi]

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@popping wrote:

@Alejandra

If she is using iPhone, iPhone uses lots of text message right after switching carrier/SIM card.

It will stop after iPhone finishes it's setup.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/New-10-mo-5050-plan-How-do-i-stop-iph...

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Yes it sends the messages to set up the messaging app to send imessages. 

[krazykiwi]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@Alejandra wrote:

Hi all,

I recently signed my daughters up for the 50 text/ 50 minutes plan. After a couple of weeks, my daughter got a message that she had used up her 50 texts.  She told me she didn't think she had, so we counted the texts on her profile and it shows that she sent 15 outgoing texts.  One of the moderators mentioned that it could be that WhatsApp messages are counting towards her total. This seems illogical to me, as WhatsApp uses data and requires either a 4G or a wifi connection (and you could send messages without any sort of data or cellphone plan if you only have wifi).  Has anyone else experienced this or have any insight?  It seems illogical to me that using WhatsApp would burn through her SMS messages.  The whole reason we got her set up with the phone was so that she would have a way to communicate with us when she was away from home and a wifi connetion. 

---

If she's using an iphone there may be some imessage jiggery pokery going on.

Also, texts are divided into pieces of 160 characters and counted and then sent and then re-constituted at the other end. Maybe she's writing novels 🙂

---

This is true and appropiate described by @Anonymous.

If it devides it into 2 messages will it show up in your self serve account as 2 messages or 1?

[popping]

@Alejandra

If she is using iPhone, iPhone uses lots of text message right after switching carrier/SIM card.

It will stop after iPhone finishes it's setup.

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Getting-Started/New-10-mo-5050-plan-How-do-i-stop-iph...

[Anonymous]

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@Alejandra wrote:

Hi all,

I recently signed my daughters up for the 50 text/ 50 minutes plan. After a couple of weeks, my daughter got a message that she had used up her 50 texts.  She told me she didn't think she had, so we counted the texts on her profile and it shows that she sent 15 outgoing texts.  One of the moderators mentioned that it could be that WhatsApp messages are counting towards her total. This seems illogical to me, as WhatsApp uses data and requires either a 4G or a wifi connection (and you could send messages without any sort of data or cellphone plan if you only have wifi).  Has anyone else experienced this or have any insight?  It seems illogical to me that using WhatsApp would burn through her SMS messages.  The whole reason we got her set up with the phone was so that she would have a way to communicate with us when she was away from home and a wifi connetion. 

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If she's using an iphone there may be some imessage jiggery pokery going on.

Also, texts are divided into pieces of 160 characters and counted and then sent and then re-constituted at the other end. Maybe she's writing novels 🙂

[will13am]

@Alejandra, WhatsApp uses data for communications, not SMS.  That said, iPhones sometimes sends ito SMS for verification purposes. Could this be the explanation? 

[austinhuang]

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@Alejandra wrote:

Hi all,

I recently signed my daughters up for the 50 text/ 50 minutes plan. After a couple of weeks, my daughter got a message that she had used up her 50 texts.  She told me she didn't think she had, so we counted the texts on her profile and it shows that she sent 15 outgoing texts.  One of the moderators mentioned that it could be that WhatsApp messages are counting towards her total. This seems illogical to me, as WhatsApp uses data and requires either a 4G or a wifi connection (and you could send messages without any sort of data or cellphone plan if you only have wifi).  Has anyone else experienced this or have any insight?  It seems illogical to me that using WhatsApp would burn through her SMS messages.  The whole reason we got her set up with the phone was so that she would have a way to communicate with us when she was away from home and a wifi connetion. 

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You can check the Usage History in Self-Serve.

If this solves your question, please select my reply as Solution!