How many characters wide is a text message?

How many characters wide is a text message?

160 characters
The number of characters that can fit in a standard text message is 160 characters. Text messages or SMS messages that exceed 160 characters will often be split into two separate messages.

Why is there a character limit on text messages?

The Short Messaging Service (SMS) is a standardized communication protocol that enables devices to send and receive brief text messages. It was designed to “fit in between” other signalling protocols, which is why SMS message length is limited to 160 7-bit characters, i.e., 1120 bits, or 140 bytes.

How do I increase the character limit on text messages?

SMS has a character limit of 160 per message–you can’t change that. MMS has no character limit, so if you try to send a large text, it often gets converted to MMS. There may be a setting in your Messaging app about this.

How can I text more than 160 characters?

MMS (or image messaging) provides not only the option to use up to 1,600 characters per text but also the option to include a picture directly in the text, and at no extra cost. If you are U.S. customer, the system will automatically prompt you to send your message as a MMS if you go over the 160 character count.

Why are SMS limited to 160?

In 1985, one character pretty much equated to one byte, so they decided that the character limit for an SMS should be 140. Since then, the GSM technology has improved, and they’ve been able to make each character less than one byte, meaning they could squeeze 160 characters into one SMS.

What does 160 characters mean?

How do I count the characters in a text message?

Select the TOOLS menu and then WORD COUNT. A dialogue box will appear containing the character count. Character counting tools many times will provide additional information, such as the character count with and without spaces. In addition, many of the programs will perform a character count of a selected text.