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FBI investigates fake texts sent to House Republicans
Law enforcement is looking into one of the stranger digital attacks against US politicians in recent memory. The Wall Street Journal has learned that the FBI is investigating fake text messages sent to "several" Republicans in the House of Representatives, including Illinois' Adam Kinzinger. The currently mysterious perpetrator posed as VP Mike Pence's press secretary, Alyssa Farah, and asked representatives for both their availability for meetings and the whereabouts of other politicians.
FCC will allow carriers to block spam text messages
The FCC has rubber-stamped wireless carriers' ongoing efforts to block spam text messages. The regulator voted in favor of a ruling that labels SMS and MMS as information services under the Communications Act, giving telecoms permission to block unwanted messages. It simultaneously rejected bids from "mass-texting companies" and others to label text messaging as telecommunications services that would be subject to common carrier rules and potentially harder to block. On the surface, it's ideal -- carriers can continue to block spam texts en masse and fight spoofing attempts.
Verizon to introduce next-generation RCS texting in 2019
RCS support has been slow to roll out, but another major US carrier will soon jump on board. Verizon announced at an event that the company would support the messaging system in "early 2019," joining Sprint, US Cellular and the limited support currently offered by T-Mobile. While Verizon wouldn't confirm to The Verge that it planned to support Universal Profile 1.0, GSMA told the publication that Verizon's RCS would, and if it does, that will be a significant step towards making RCS the SMS replacement it promises to be. Among its benefits, once adopted by carriers, are read receipts, better group chat support and improved media sending.
Google is working on a fix for Pixel 3's disappearing texts bug
The Pixel 3's early teething troubles aren't over yet. Users are reporting that some of their text messages are disappearing, It's not clear whether it's an Android-level bug or specific to the Messages app, but some owners believe the issue might have begun after installing the November 5th security update. Needless to say, that's more than a little worrying if you haven't backed up your texts and you'd really like to remember a conversation with a loved one.
Alexa can send SMS messages using your voice
To date, messaging with Alexa has meant sending screeds using Amazon's in-house system, which doesn't do you much good if your recipient doesn't have an Echo speaker. You won't have to be quite so selective from now on, however, as Amazon has added support for SMS messaging through Alexa-capable devices connected to Android phones (there's no word on iOS). You can explicitly tell the voice assistant to "send an SMS," but it will also pick SMS automatically if you message a contact that doesn't have an Echo.
The first text message was sent 25 years ago
Be prepared to feel ancient -- the first text message is 25 years old. Engineer Neil Papworth sent the first SMS on December 3rd, 1992, when he wrote "merry Christmas" on a computer and sent it to the cellphone of Vodafone director Richard Jarvis. It was a modest start, but it ultimately changed technology and even social norms.
Unsent text message accepted as valid will by Australian court
An unsent text has been accepted as an official will by a court in Queensland, Australia. The message, found in the drafts folder of a deceased man's phone, indicated he wanted all his possessions to go to his brother and nephew, instead of his wife and son. The 55-year-old composed the text before taking his own life in October 2016, reports ABC News.
India shut off the internet in an attempt to maintain order
Last week, local governments in the northern Indian states of Punjab and Haryana shut down citizens' internet access and text messaging services just before a verdict was to be released on a high-profile rape case. The case involved a cult leader with a large following who was accused of raping two women in his group. A statement from the Additional Chief Secretary of Haryana said the order was "issued to prevent any disturbance of peace and public order" in the region. Around 50 million people lost internet access for five days.
Google Voice is having trouble delivering text messages
If you're a Google Voice user, there's a chance you're not receiving text messages this morning. As spotted by Android Police, a thread in the Google Voice support forums indicates that a number of users are having problems receiving messages. They're able to send out messages, but replies are another story altogether. It doesn't matter if you're using your phone or the Google Voice web interface -- replies are currently lost in the ether.
Sprint and Rogers connect for iMessage-like RCS texting
Nearly every major tech company has come up with their own messaging services with enhanced features and SMS is starting to look long in the tooth. But there's hope for text messaging. A newish standard (it was released in 2012) RCS (Rich Communication Services (RCS) with its improved media sending and improved group chat support is making its way onto Android phones and being support by carriers and according to Google's VP of communications products, Nick Fox. It looks like Sprint and Rogers are letting customers send RCS messages between their services.
Google might kill Hangouts' text messaging feature (update: confirmed)
Google might soon begin implementing some big changes to Hangouts, now that the service's purpose has been redefined. According to an email reportedly sent to GSuite admins, you'll stop being able to send and receive text messages through the app on May 22nd, unless you're a Google Voice user. The email says the big G will prepare you for it by notifying everyone who's been using their apps to text on March 27th with details on what will happen going forward.
Teen texting can be just as compulsive as gambling
There's no question that modern teens are more comfortable with cellphones than earlier generations, but there's now evidence to suggest that some of them are a little too comfortable. A recent study shows that some teen texters exhibit the same compulsive behavior you see from gamblers, including the inability to cut back, sleep loss and lying to cover up habits. For the girls in the study, this frequently translated to poorer grades at school (though they still fared better overall than the boys). The quantity of texts didn't affect the teens so much as their inability to pull away from their devices. Sending just a few messages doesn't matter if your eyes remain glued to the screen, after all.
Breaking up is painful, so is this vertical music video
If it's been a while since you've had your heart broken, and you forgot the feelings it can provoke, watching the vertical video for Harrison's song "How Can It Be (feat. Maddee)" will bring up that distinct combination of disbelief, loss, regret and nausea all over again.
The 'father of SMS,' Matti Makkonen, dies at 63
It's a sad day in the cellphone world. Matti Makkonen, widely considered the "father of SMS," has died from illness at the age of 63. The Finnish creator pitched the concept of text messaging over cellular networks in 1984 and helped get the ball rolling on the technology in its earliest days. He was quick to downplay his involvement and saw SMS as a "joint effort" between many people (Friedham Hillebrand developed the 160-character format in 1985, for example), but much of the initial credit belongs to him.
Google Calendar won't send you text alerts after June 27th
We hope you didn't lean too heavily on Google Calendar's text message alerts in order to keep your life organized. Google is warning that Calendar's SMS notifications will vanish for regular users (education, government and work are safe) after June 27th. The search firm argues that they're no longer needed in an era when smartphones give you a "richer, more reliable" heads-up. It's true that modern mobile devices render SMS a bit redundant. With that in mind, this isn't good news if you can't justify a smartphone on your budget, or prefer to keep most notifications off -- you may remain blissfully unaware of an event change until you reach a computer. [Thanks, Kristy]
Carriers have to let you text 911 by the end of the year
You've had the option of texting 911 in a handful of US cities for a couple of months, thanks in part to voluntary efforts from bigger cellphone carriers. However, the FCC doesn't want you to be left out solely because you're on a smaller network. The agency has just adopted rules requiring that all American wireless providers have the capability for text-to-911 by the end of the year. You won't necessarily get emergency messaging by that point, but carriers will have six months to implement it in a given region if a local call center makes a request.
CyanogenMod to encrypt text messages by default with latest update
Android users worried that the government is spying on their smartphone now have a new privacy option: CyanogenMod. Starting with today's nightly 10.2 build, the custom firmware will encrypt SMS and MMS messages sent to any device using the TextSecure protocol, including fellow Cyanogen users. Users won't have to do a thing; the cryptography runs automatically in the background, regardless of the text messaging app. The encryption won't reach CyanogenMod 11 or other releases until the company is confident that everything is running smoothly, but it shouldn't be long before many Android users can chat with a greater level of secrecy.
Text message exploit can force your Nexus phone to reboot (updated)
Watch out if someone sends a flood of text messages to your Nexus phone -- they may be trying to break in or otherwise cause havoc. IT administrator Bogdan Alecu has discovered an Android bug that triggers exploitable behavior in the Galaxy Nexus, Nexus 4 and Nexus 5 whenever they're hit by a large volume of Class 0 SMS messages, or texts that aren't automatically stored on the phone. The denial of service attack usually forces the handset to reboot, but it can also disable the network connection (if temporarily) or crash the messaging app. Non-Nexus hardware appears to be safe, although Alecu notes that he hasn't had a chance to test a wide variety of gadgets. Regardless of the problem's scale, affected users will have to be cautious for a while; Google tells PCWorld that it's looking into the exploit, but there's no word on just when we can expect a patch. Update: There's already a firewall app in Google Play that protects against the exploit. Thanks, Chipsy4!
US carriers no longer let premium text message services bill customers
Among the many surprise costs that annoy cellphone owners, unwanted text message service fees can be the worst; they're hard to stop, and not always worth the effort. Those fees may not irk many US subscribers after today, though -- AT&T, Sprint and T-Mobile now stop "problematic" premium SMS services from billing their customers. Donations and those all-important talent show votes will still go through. Verizon isn't part of today's announcements, although the company's General Counsel William Petersen tells us that Big Red is already "winding down" premium SMS services. There's a good chance that these shady messagers will simply change tactics, but they'll at least have a tougher time scamming phone owners.
iOS 7: See the timestamp on every Messages bubble
With iOS 7 officially out of the bag, there is no shortage of tips coming in highlighting many of the new tweaks users can expect to see in Apple's new mobile OS. One particularly welcome addition to iOS 7 is the ability to view timestamps for individual text messages. To do so, simply swipe to the left while in a conversation view and timestamps appear on the right-hand side of the screen. As an example, here's what a typical iMessage conversation might look like. With a quick swipe to the left, I can now see at which time each individual message was sent. This is a great new feature seeing as how previous versions of iOS would often group together messages, sent many minutes apart, under the same timestamp. Note that this feature works for iMessages and texts sent via SMS as well. As a comical aside as we head into the weekend, does anyone recognize the "Venus de milo gummy bear" reference from above?
