Any idea why my SMS text messages containing links aren't being received by group chat participants?
So this is a weird thing I noticed recently: Whenever I send a group text to my siblings, if the text contains a link, they don't receive the text. But they can get my group texts without links, and they can get messages with links if I send only to one person.
Extra info: I use Android, and they both use iPhone. It's just so weird to me. Why only messages with a url? And why only with group chats?
I've been having the same issue recently. I also have it switching from MMS to "RCS" and I don't even know what that means. There is no setting for this RCS protocol in my messenger app or general phone settings, but whenever it's using it, I don't receive texts and nobody else gets mine.
RCS is Rich Communication Services, it's a newer protocol that is end to end encrypted and adds more features like replying to a specific message, emoji reactions, typing indicators and read receipts if the user has that turned on, and sending more types of files.
Your phone is supposed to check if the other person's phone supports RCS before sending a message using it, and automatically resend via SMS if an RCS message doesn't go through, but it doesn't always work.
In the default Google messages app it is the first option at the top of settings.
I see... Everyone on my contacts probably doesn't have RCS, and that's messing with me. They're all on old-ass hardware and not even able to get the newest Android version.
I get the same problem if I send links with my personal domain to some people, while others receive them just fine.
It's not limited to Apple or Android either, so I'm pretty sure it has to do with some sort of spam filtering at the carrier level.
If that's the case, then I wonder if there's a way fix it.
base64 encode links. https://www.base64encode.org/
That might work, but I think I'll try changing the '.' to "dot" or something like that first.