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southrncomfortjm
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MMS, StraightTalk, Google Voice and Hangouts

Fri Feb 07, 2014 8:39 am

Hey everyone,

So, my wife and I are currently T-Mobile customers, but its just not working out. The price is okay, but the service is just too spotty. I can sit in the same spot and they signal will cycle between everything for 2G up to LTE, then to no signal. To get better service, I'm thinking of switching to the AT&T side of Straight Talk. Just want to be sure things will work the way I want them to before I make the switch and I'm hoping you all can help. Lots of questions - any help would be greatly appreciated.

I have a Nexus 5 and she has an iPhone 5s - both are in the process of being carrier unlocked.

1) Any issues using GSM unlocked iPhone 5s or Nexus 5 on the AT&T side of Straight Talk?

2) If we switch to Straight Talk, will we be able to MMS without issues? I see stuff from as recent as a few months ago talking about MMS problems so I'm not sure.

3) I see that Straight Talk lets you bring your old number over, but its limited to "local number porting." My number is local, but hers is from another state. Is that actually an issue? Or is there some workaround? She really doesn't want to change her number again.

4) If there is an issue with porting her out of state number to Straight Talk, can she port her number to Google Voice instead and still use MMS? I've seen that MMS doesn't seem to work with Google Voice, so I'm wondering if she can change her default MMS app (maybe to Google Hangouts?) in some settings somewhere. She wants to be able to send MMS messages right from the camera/gallery app rather than having to open another app. I know I can do that on my Nexus, but I don't have her phone in front of me to try it out.


Thanks for any help!

SoCo
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derFunkenstein
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Re: MMS, StraightTalk, Google Voice and Hangouts

Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:14 am

Straight Talk has APN settings on their website that you'll manually have to enter into each phone, but when it comes to iPhones my experience was pretty subpar - MMS would work for a bit and then just get reverted back to the stock ATT settings (which then would no longer work) fairly often. That was back in the iOS5 days, maybe iOS7 is better. On Android it should be fine.

She could probably port her number to GV and just get another number assigned via Straight Talk IF GV supports her area code. I was thinking of doing that at one time, but ended up not because my area code was not supported by GV. And a quick check shows that hasn't changed.

As far as default apps, that's just dependent on the phone. If she's using the iPhone, the default app can't be changed, though I'm sure messaging for the GV number would work in Hangouts. And I have no idea how you'd do the call forwarding that GV requires. Maybe you'd be using a different dialing app.
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southrncomfortjm
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Re: MMS, StraightTalk, Google Voice and Hangouts

Fri Feb 07, 2014 9:29 am

This is why I always go for Android phone - everything is customizable.

I hear you about GV, though from what I've also read, GV and MMS don't work well together. That's why I'm wondering if she can send picture messages through Google Hangouts (or some other messaging app) as easily as she would using the default MMS app on her phone. She just doesn't want to have to take a picture and then open Google Hangouts to send it. Seems like a small inconvenience for way more data at a lower price, but you know how it is.
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: MMS, StraightTalk, Google Voice and Hangouts

Fri Feb 07, 2014 10:13 am

Google Hangouts has the ability to take and send pics from the application. I've been using Hangouts as my default SMS application for a little while now, and I haven't noticed any missing features. Plus, SMS messages are also backed up, and they can be imported from Google's servers on a new phone.
 
southrncomfortjm
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Re: MMS, StraightTalk, Google Voice and Hangouts

Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:26 am

Flatland_Spider wrote:
Google Hangouts has the ability to take and send pics from the application. I've been using Hangouts as my default SMS application for a little while now, and I haven't noticed any missing features. Plus, SMS messages are also backed up, and they can be imported from Google's servers on a new phone.


Ah, I see. So on the iPhone, you can just have Hangouts open, select "capture picture" and send that out directly.

What about if you have a picture already on your phone? Can you go to the gallery and send it via Google Hangouts directly from there?
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DancinJack
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Re: MMS, StraightTalk, Google Voice and Hangouts

Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:31 am

southrncomfortjm wrote:
Flatland_Spider wrote:
Google Hangouts has the ability to take and send pics from the application. I've been using Hangouts as my default SMS application for a little while now, and I haven't noticed any missing features. Plus, SMS messages are also backed up, and they can be imported from Google's servers on a new phone.


Ah, I see. So on the iPhone, you can just have Hangouts open, select "capture picture" and send that out directly.

What about if you have a picture already on your phone? Can you go to the gallery and send it via Google Hangouts directly from there?


I can't comment on the iPhone, but you can do this on an Android phone.
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Flatland_Spider
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Re: MMS, StraightTalk, Google Voice and Hangouts

Fri Feb 07, 2014 11:58 am

Hangouts on the iPhone does have the ability to "Take photo" or "Choose existing", but you'll have to attach the photo from inside of Hangouts.

I should specify I have an Android phone for my personal phone, which I've been using Hangouts on, and an iPhone for work, which I just checked.

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