Recently my wife got a smart phone basically to make it easier for her to send & receive texts. She got a somewhat limited smartphone (LG Optimus Dynamic) that runs Android 2.3 (gingerbread, i think). It works fine for her purposes, but there are a few features that do not seem to be available, so I thought I would check here.
She would like to be able to send prewritten texts (like “Come and get me” or “I am at the restaurant”). There does not seem to be a way to do this. While there are messaging apps available (and I haven’t actually found one that offers this feature), they all appear to bypass SMS in favor of using the web. I can get her a data plan if necessary, but since this is all she would likely use it for, it seems like overkill.
This should be a simple problem, and I thought it could be solved by a custom Android keyboard that supports macros. But after checking the most likely prospects from a Google search none look promising.
Beyond that I would just suggest shortening what she types. SMS messages don’t have to use proper words or grammar. So instead of typing “I am at the restaurant” just type “here”. The S in SMS stands for “short” after all.
Also, smartphone virtual keyboard typing becomes easier with practice.
I don’t have a smartphone, but isn’t there a “Quick Text” feature on the phone? Or a “Save as Quick Text” option that she could save the prewritten texts and send them as needed?
If it saves messages sent, she should be able to resend that message any time. Just open the text and hit “Send” …?
The iPhone has the option to enter shortcuts, such as you can enter ‘iaatr’ or even ‘rrr’ and it will put in “I am at the restaurant” instead. It is in the options menu, you have to enter they shortcut and what it means, and will work on every app on the iPhone, not just SMS. I assume Andriod would have something like that
I don’t know this model of phone, but the Quick Text has been on every phone that I can remember having, except maybe the first one, back to the stone age when color wasn’t invented. I never used it.
It’s inside the phone app. Open the phone app like you’re going to make a phone call, then tap the menu button, then settings. The Quick Responses are there. You can only make 4, and they only seem to appear when you receive a phone call that you reject.
On mine, samsung galaxy s3, when you respond to a text you can click menu , add text, and select text templates. there 's a few boilerplate texts in there. I don’t know how to change them, and it likely wouldn’t be the same on her phone. But if she has swype typing, I suggest she enable it. It’s a lot faster than hunt and peck. She may not miss the quicktext feature once she gets used to that.
Chomp SMS allows you to define what they term ‘templates’ - basically pre-written messages or parts of messages you can include in the same way as smilies etc. Uses standard SMS and is compatible with Android 2.2 and up.
Settings - Applications - Messages - Quick Responses - Edit and add whatever prepared texts you want.
When inside Messages, preparing to type a text, the Menu/More/Options (either at the top right of the touch screen, or the bottom left menu button next to the home button depending on the phone) at that point should include the Quick Responses option.
Check your carrier’s website for device-specific instructional forums, there may be lots of features to explore, and these forums (in my experience) have replaced user manuals. It’s a useful resource to be aware of, anyway.
