Apple Messages And Long SMS Messages

Why Can’t Messages Combine Long SMS Messages That Are Sent Split Up?

The Problem

Even in the second half of the second decade of the 21st century, not everyone sends text messages using Apple’s Messages app on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and some people even use pre-smartphone devices. Some text messages even come to me split up at 140-character boundaries with a progress count at the start, sometimes making it difficult to read:

(1/3) Hi Gary, I have the dates and two of them are already filled in,  so the first meeting will be January 23rd. And that is the one we need to schedule it at
(2/3)  your place, please, the other two is February 6, February 20 
Those will be in Martinique region. Ok 
Cortana Esprit is the person who schedule at her cl
(3/3) ubhouse. 
Thank you for your help.

The Solution

Since Apple’s Messages app allows a user to select multiple messages at once (the option is a little confusing and even hard to use on iOS devices with some messages, especially ones with events in them), one of the options Apple could include with the Trash icon, Delete All, and the Share icon, when noticing these messages have a numeric order indicator at the start, would be Combine. Then, when chosen, the three text messages would become one message:

Hi Gary, I have the dates and two of them are already filled in,  so the first meeting will be January 23rd. And that is the one we need to schedule it at your place, please, the other two is February 6, February 20 
Those will be in Martinique region. Ok 
Cortana Esprit is the person who schedule at her clubhouse. 
Thank you for your help.

Alternatively, the use of Apple’s Data Detectors framework could be extended to recognize progress list indicators and automatically suggest this combining option — a suggestion, rather than just doing it, prevents a false positive. Alternatively, an extra bubble could surround these three text messages that adds an affordance for the user to visually combine them without actually combining them.

However, the response I got from an Apple employee on November 13, 2015, was that this is the responsibility of the carrier (e.g., AT&T, Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile). I guess the Apple employee responding hasn’t used the Messages app or realized it was developed by his or her colleagues.