How long are text messages?
Text messages that are sent phone to phone can be no more than 160 characters long including the sender’s name, subject field and call back number and text body. The messaging page will not deliver the part of a message that exceeds 160 characters. Text messages that are sent phone to e-mail or e-mail to phone can be up to 459 characters. Messages longer than 153 characters are broken into 2 – 3 smaller messages before delivering to the phone. For instance, you can send a message that is 400 characters long, and it will arrive on the phone as two 153 character messages and one 98 character message.
The length of text messages depends on the characteristics of the wireless service provider. In some cases, incoming messages are truncated, an electronic shortening of varying parts of the text message. Since this differs from one provider to the other, we suggest that you check with your carrier. If my message is more than 100 characters, how do I receive the entire message? Depending on your wireless service, wireless text messages could contain from 50 to 2000 characters. This varies from provider to provider.
