SwiftSMS - Simply sending Beautiful Webtexts

Fluffy88 · 29-01-2014 10:08am

Okay, so this is how I see it.
SwiftSMS has a problem, it doesn't record/store messages that are sent on non-phone devices.

This is what I am currently thinking over in my head as a proposed solution.

All sent messages temporarily stored to a web server somewhere (hopefully we can use a Google service for storing the messages).
All sent messages get sync'd down to all connected devices.
Each device then is responsible for recording the sent message.

What this means is when you send a message using SwiftSMS on your tablet, it will be saved to your phone and displayed along side all your other text messages.

I think this is a neat and tidy solution because it will keep your messages in one place. On your phone, where all your other messages are. As was said before "One Client to Rule them All...".

My reasoning for this is simple. Currently if you send a normal text message from your phone, it's not displayed on your tablet.
I don't want to see just a list of sent messages on my tablet, it's not much use. I would rather have a single place I can go to see all my messages. That place is and will remain as your phone.
How does that sound?

madmoe · 29-01-2014 10:30am

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Okay, so this is how I see it.
SwiftSMS has a problem, it doesn't record/store messages that are sent on non-phone devices.

This is what I am currently thinking over in my head as a proposed solution.
All sent messages temporarily stored to a web server somewhere (hopefully we can use a Google service for storing the messages).

All sent messages get sync'd down to all connected devices.

Each device then is responsible for recording the sent message.

What this means is when you send a message using SwiftSMS on your tablet, it will be saved to your phone and displayed along side all your other text messages.

I think this is a neat and tidy solution because it will keep your messages in one place. On your phone, where all your other messages are. As was said before "One Client to Rule them All...".

My reasoning for this is simple. Currently if you send a normal text message from your phone, it's not displayed on your tablet.
I don't want to see just a list of sent messages on my tablet, it's not much use. I would rather have a single place I can go to see all my messages. That place is and will remain as your phone.
How does that sound?

Excellent mate!!

jgbyr · 29-01-2014 10:47am

Sounds good to me also.

The Corinthian · 29-01-2014 11:27am

Why don't you store outgoing messages in a simple SQLite database, or even an XML file, as this would allow you to display them if you wanted? You'd be surprised how often you do want to see what you just sent?

This would also make it easier to include an export option, to a local file on the external SD card, as not everyone wants to start registering online accounts.

Fluffy88 · 30-01-2014 9:54am

Anything is possible :-)

As I mentioned before, if we do cross device sync I would hope to use a Google service so there would be no need to sign-up for online accounts.

jgbyr · 01-02-2014 1:12am

Hi, was using the app a while ago (Vodafone) & after entering the captcha I received a text from Vodafone with the following
Your My Vodafone webtext verification code is ******. Please continue the webtext process now on our website.

Tried to send a few texts but they all failed. Any ideas?

Fluffy88 · 01-02-2014 10:08am

jgbyr wrote: »

Hi, was using the app a while ago (Vodafone) & after entering the captcha I received a text from Vodafone with the following
Your My Vodafone webtext verification code is ******. Please continue the webtext process now on our website.

Tried to send a few texts but they all failed. Any ideas?

Sounds like you have to register to send webtexts with Vodafone. I'd say if you go to their website and try it from there you should be able to get it sorted.

I didn't realise Vodafone had such a system in place. We will have to address this in a new release. But for now you will have to login to their website the first time before you can send webtexts to compete the registration.

jgbyr · 01-02-2014 10:23am

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Sounds like you have to register to send webtexts with Vodafone. I'd say if you go to their website and try it from there you should be able to get it sorted.

I didn't realise Vodafone had such a system in place. We will have to address this in a new release. But for now you will have to login to their website the first time before you can send webtexts to compete the registration.

Thanks, I didn't know that myself as I've been sending webtexts for a few years now with vodafone.

jgbyr · 01-02-2014 11:10am

Very strange, I can send to Irish numbers, it's for the international number that I'm getting the text from Vodafone to go to the website to complete the process. I've gone to the website but can't see any additional login requirement.

The Corinthian · 01-02-2014 11:30am

jgbyr wrote: »

Very strange, I can send to Irish numbers, it's for the international number that I'm getting the text from Vodafone to go to the website to complete the process. I've gone to the website but can't see any additional login requirement.

Probably because it's only doing this in the case of unusual behaviour; access from mobile network IP's, unrecognised clients, lack of referrer or other HTTP headers, and so on.

Or they may have been monitoring this thread and have updated their system to specifically block SwiftSMS. That happens too in the endless cat and mouse game which is screen scraping.

Fluffy88 · 01-02-2014 11:52am

jgbyr wrote: »

Very strange, I can send to Irish numbers, it's for the international number that I'm getting the text from Vodafone to go to the website to complete the process. I've gone to the website but can't see any additional login requirement.

Hmm strange, I'm getting the same thing. To be honest I didn't test the international texts very thoroughly, I didn't want to be annoying my only northern friend too much :-P
I'll look into it as soon as I can, thanks for the testing, much appriciated :-)

Fluffy88 · 03-02-2014 12:41am

Thanks Jgbyr for the heads up.
I've been off duty for the weekend so only got to look into this tonight.

Seems Vodafone require you to enter a 'security' code when you sent international webtexts, haven't had the chance to test it too thoroughly yet so I'm not sure is it for every text or a once off thing but from looking at the information on their website it looks to be a per message code.

SwiftSMS will have to be updated to accommodate for this 'security' feature, hopefully within the next few days :-)
I'll let you know here once I know more.

Fluffy88 · 04-02-2014 9:50am

A new version went live last night.

1.2.2
- Vodafone Added support for international verification codes.
- Force account verification before being adding.
- Fixed bug when using certain prefixes.
- Fixed bug with message persistence.

And one I forgot to mention on the play store is a new confirmation notification when you send a message but have exited the app before it's sent. I call it a "rolling" notification.

I keep forgetting to make the remaining SMS count easier to see, next time, I hope

EDIT: Thanks to jgbyr for pointing out the issue with Vodafone int'l webtexts.

jgbyr · 04-02-2014 12:23pm

Fluffy88 wrote: »

A new version went live last night.

1.2.2
- Vodafone Added support for international verification codes.
- Force account verification before being adding.
- Fixed bug when using certain prefixes.
- Fixed bug with message persistence.

And one I forgot to mention on the play store is a new confirmation notification when you send a message but have exited the app before it's sent. I call it a "rolling" notification.

I keep forgetting to make the remaining SMS count easier to see, next time, I hope

EDIT: Thanks to jgbyr for pointing out the issue with Vodafone int'l webtexts.

Appreciate the quick response to this.
I just tried to send a text to a UK number & it failed.
I entered the captcha & then got a verification text from Vodafone. I entered the number in the app & then got another captcha followed by the verification again. Then I got a sending failed message.

Fluffy88 · 04-02-2014 12:56pm

hmmmmmmm ... interesting.
I've tested it out just now again and it sent for me.

Could you login on the Vodafone website and see if things are still working there?

jgbyr · 04-02-2014 1:07pm

Fluffy88 wrote: »

hmmmmmmm ... interesting.
I've tested it out just now again and it sent for me.

Could you login on the Vodafone website and see if things are still working there?

Will do shortly. Would it make any difference that the number is stored as +44 as opposed to 0044.

Fluffy88 · 04-02-2014 1:10pm

Both +44 and 0044 work for me, so it shouldn't.

I'm not sure what's going on, I've tried the int'l webtexts from two separate Vodafone accounts and it's worked on both. I'm hoping I haven't missed something :-(

jgbyr · 04-02-2014 1:26pm

Just tried it there though the website & it sent after entering the captcha & verification code.
Still won't send through the app.
Strange as it's working for you. I haven't received a confirmation from the UK number yet though that they got my message.
**edit. The message was received when sent from the website.
I rebooted the phone & tried again using the app but no joy.

Fluffy88 · 05-02-2014 10:11am

Firstly I have to thank jgbyr for helping resolve the Vodafone int'l issue.

Last night a new update was released with a fix for the problem jgbyr was encountering.
Vodafone int'l webtexts should now be working for everyone :-)

Happy texting!

jgbyr · 05-02-2014 10:13am

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Firstly I have to thank jgbyr for helping resolve the Vodafone int'l issue.

Last night a new update was released with a fix for the problem jgbyr was encountering.
Vodafone int'l webtexts should now be working for everyone :-)

Happy texting!

Thanks for the speedy resolution to the issue I encountered. Appreciate it.

Fluffy88 · 09-02-2014 9:12pm

Another release out tonight.

1.3
- Added support for O2
- Reduced frequency of Vodafone Captcha

Extended changelog
- Made the Remaining SMS count more visible
- Added new Notification icons
- Performance improvement (Reduced HTTP requests)

Some work has been done with the new MyMeteor site, but it needs a little more testing before it's ready.

dubecho · 09-02-2014 9:46pm

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Another release out tonight.

1.3
- Added support for O2

Nice one, will test soon as it is up

dubecho · 09-02-2014 10:34pm

Installed and tested on o2, working as designed. Good work.
No doubt I'll have a few suggestions in time

For now though, I would like to see an option to change to a dark theme, black, should be easy enough implemented?

Thanks though, can never have enough apps to use these free online texts!

Fluffy88 · 12-02-2014 9:53am

Pushed another release last night.
I hope we aren't releasing too often that it gets annoying.

1.3.1
- Added support for new MyMeteor site https://my.meteor.ie/
- Fixed bug where switching accounts fails

Not much else to add to the changelog this time.

@dubecho
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not sure how simple switching themes will be, but we'll have a think about it and see.
Do let us know if you have any ideas for it :-)

madmoe · 12-02-2014 11:20am

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Pushed another release last night.
I hope we aren't releasing too often that it gets annoying.

1.3.1
- Added support for new MyMeteor site https://my.meteor.ie/
- Fixed bug where switching accounts fails

Not much else to add to the changelog this time.

@dubecho
Thanks for the suggestion! I'm not sure how simple switching themes will be, but we'll have a think about it and see.
Do let us know if you have any ideas for it :-)

Keep up the good work guys! The quick updates are just fine for me! On a side note does anyone think that Google Hangouts can be dog slow at times!? I'm on a Nexus 5 and now and again it just seems to take an age to load!?

Thanks,
M

Fluffy88 · 12-02-2014 11:27am

When I open Hangouts the first time it takes ages to load on my Nexus 4. But once it's running in the background it's fairly instant to open.
I do find it very unreliable at times, some days it just doesn't want to deliver messages to my phone, but I can get them from the chat window in Gmail.

madmoe · 12-02-2014 11:31am

Fluffy88 wrote: »

When I open Hangouts the first time it takes ages to load on my Nexus 4. But once it's running in the background it's fairly instant to open.
I do find it very unreliable at times, some days it just doesn't want to deliver messages to my phone, but I can get them from the chat window in Gmail.

Exact same here! And when you read a message sometimes and don't reply when you go back to the Inbox it is still there in bold font as unread!!? Time to give Evolve or Hello SMS a look me thinks!!

jgbyr · 12-02-2014 11:32am

Fluffy88 wrote: »

Pushed another release last night.
I hope we aren't releasing too often that it gets annoying.

Improvements are always welcome :-)

ongarite · 20-02-2014 12:54am

If I had one suggestion for your excellent app is that the app icon doesn't appear to fall within current Android guidelines or practice.
Its rectangular in shape rather than the square icon 48dpx48dp, same with your store icon which should be 512x512.

Fluffy88 · 20-02-2014 9:43am

Thanks for the suggestion!
Neither of us are much of an artist so we kind of just threw the icon together. I didn't even think to look for design guidelines, so thanks for the heads up.

We will have to read the icon guidelines and see can we fix it up to fit in a little better.

Kavrocks · 01-03-2014 1:39pm

Just to let you know Three webtexting is broken.

Fluffy88 · 01-03-2014 1:47pm

Thanks very much for letting us know.
We will look into it asap!

deiseliving · 01-03-2014 7:31pm

Hi. I'm on 3. On Swift it shows the amount of messages I have left but won't send an sms? Why is this? I am using d right password etc. Seeing as it verifies properly it should work! Is there a problem with 3? Ok. Just saw the above post that 3 webtexting is broken!? When will it be fixed?

Fluffy88 · 02-03-2014 10:47am

It will be fixed ASAP, just need to dig into what is causing the issue. Should be an update of SwiftSMS in the coming days that will fix it :-)

moxin · 03-03-2014 8:11pm

I can't find your app in the Google Play store on my Android phone, when I search for SwiftSMS it returns 3 results
1 - SwiftSMS - Proof of Concept
2 - Swift SMSBlast
3 - Swift SMSBlast Pro

None of them are yours, am I doing something stupid?

Your link on the PC works fine and search works fine on Google Play on the PC but the opposite occurs when searching from the phone?

Fluffy88 · 03-03-2014 8:21pm

I'd say the problem is SwiftSMS requires Android 3.0 or higher. What version of Android are you using?

From the play store website try install the app to your phone, it should tell you if it's compatible.

moxin · 03-03-2014 8:32pm

Android version 2.3.5

I see it now on the PC - "This app is incompatible with your device". Explains it alright.

Fluffy88 · 03-03-2014 8:35pm

:-(
I'm sorry about that.
A lot of the nice UI elements that we use were only added in Android 3.0 so we couldn't support devices pre 3.0

deiseliving · 04-03-2014 1:14am

Any news of when the update is due to allow 3 users to use their webtexts on SwiftSMS?

Fluffy88 · 04-03-2014 12:16pm

We had a bit of an issue with the Three account we used originally, so we had to get access to another Three account to fix this issue. We now have access and know what is causing SwiftSMS to fail to send texts from Three so it should be very soon :-)

We will let you know as soon as it's out.

robtec · 04-03-2014 6:17pm

Hi Guys

We just released the Three fix there in v1.3.3

Hopefully it's a smooth rollout

Happy texting!

Rob

deiseliving · 04-03-2014 7:08pm

Thanks. Working now :-)

blobbie · 04-03-2014 7:11pm

robtec wrote: »

Hi Guys

We just released the Three fix there in v1.3.3
Hopefully it's a smooth rollout

Happy texting!

Rob

Hi Rob,

Downloaded & working fine.

Had to restart phone, Nexus 4, after install for it to work.

Thanks.

Fluffy88 · 04-03-2014 7:15pm

Good to hear it's working for everyone.
Not sure why a restart is needed though, we might have to look into that.

Thanks for the feedback everyone :-)

deiseliving · 05-03-2014 11:32pm

3 webtexts not working on SwiftSMS again. Anyone else having this problem?

deiseliving · 05-03-2014 11:33pm

3 webtexts not working on SwiftSMS again. Problem is back again!

robtec · 05-03-2014 11:39pm

deiseliving wrote: »

3 webtexts not working on SwiftSMS again. Anyone else having this problem?

Hi deiseliving,

Thanks for getting in touch, I've checked and the app is still working our end.

Have you any more information on where it's failing?

Rob

deiseliving · 05-03-2014 11:43pm

It says message failed to send. It was working all evening but not now. I inputted my details again and it's verified so should work

robtec · 05-03-2014 11:47pm

deiseliving wrote: »

It says message failed to send. It was working all evening but not now. I inputted my details again and it's verified so should work

Verified does mean a successful login, Three sometimes add a page after login to agree to new terms of service. This does hamper us from time to time with a work around of browser login and accepting the conditions.

Could you try login through the website and let me know what you see?

Thanks
Rob

deiseliving · 06-03-2014 12:13am

Tried logging on to 3 website and works. But same thing yesterday evening and SwiftSMS wasn't working until your update went through

SwiftSMS - Simply sending Beautiful Webtexts

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