Google pinpoints bugs that send texts to wrong people Google has acknowledged a pair of Android bugs that end up sending texts to the wrong recipients, saying it plans to deploy fixes for each. On Thursday, in a post to the Android support forums, the company said that user complaints over misdirected texts stem from not one but two bugs. The complaints date back to at least June …
"We've found in testing this issue, it is more likely to occur if you tap on a message before the Messaging app is fully loaded, so we recommend waiting for all the elements to load before clicking on the message you want to display."
Shades of Windows, you log on, it shows you the desktop but then you have to wait 2 minutes while it does everything in the background.
Ever heard of a 'Please Wait' dialogue?
Which would certainly be /nice/ (if it was true), but in the end, how many of us have lives that are genuinely so valuable that waiting a few seconds to send a text will be such a loss? (I can think of a few situations when enforcing a few seconds thinking time before you can hit send would work out for the better!)
It is a bit like all these people roaring home madly on the roads with little heed for other road uses as if they are going to do anything more when they get home than slob in front of the TV watching churn.
Waiting a second or two for the app to fully open up is a work around for the current buggy software. Displaying "Please wait" is not a workaround because it requires a software change.
Now that the problem has been identified it can be/has been fixed properly.
If you worked on any projects I do you'd have been fired long ago!
...to keep my bottom of the range, 5 year old moto (cost £10 then)
It makes calls extremely well, it sends texts perefectly well, has good battery life (still 2 weeks standby after all these years), has decent alarm clock that not only can cope with year changes, but even leap years.
Well, don't you love "advances" in technology.
Whoever designed my bottom of the range nokia decided it would be a good idea to combine 'Send' and 'Spell' (for predictive text) on the same button and hot-swap them as you cycle through possible words. Which means you either end up sending a half-written message ending in gibberish, or accidentally end up sending a message to the first person in your address book. Which as sods law dictates, is always someone you really don't want seeing said message.
We seem to be missing a trick here.
What is the mildly derogatory epithet that can be used to describe an ancient phone that does phonecallsandtextsperfectlywellthankyouverymuch? We have the well known Jesus phone, Crackberry, Googlephone and others, I'm sure, but nothing to describe the perfectly functional Nokia 6110 of yesteryear.
While we're about it, maybe a name for the fans of said fones would be useful.
I seem to have jangled a nerve slightly.
It just doesn't seem right to me that a significant population of comentards who pop up to jeer (in a possibly troll-like manner) whenever a smartphone 'feature' is exposed don't have a label whereas others (and I include myself in the mactard/fanboi/ifan/jesusphone category) do.
That is all.
Its when your adding to a new conversation, I'm not quite sure how people are missing the fact a different conversation loads tho! First few times I thought it was because I tapped the conversation below by mistake have since realised its loading conversations that were off the screen so no error of mine. But still open your eyes people.
So Google have found a couple of bugs. Presuming Google actually fix those bugs, how long before the update rolls out to each and every Android phone / slab out there? Tomorrow? Next week? Next month?
Android's biggest problem is that such an update won't make it to the majority of users because the manufacturers and network operators won't / can't / don't want to push updates out. They'd far rather you bought another phone. Sounds like a rip off to me.
That's why I bought a Nexus One. Yet here I am, waiting for a "delayed" 2.3 update. By delayed, I mean waiting for the exclusivity agreement Google no doubt have with Samsung for the Nexus S to end.
My Magic would still be on 1.6 if it weren't for community ROMs. Android is an awesome OS, but the operators/manufacturers are ruining it with delayed updates.
As for the N1, the official developer phone not getting 2.3 yet, I think it's a disgrace. I think dev's should set the max SDK version to 2.2 until their N1's are updated. Google's new phone won't look so pretty if all the apps disappeared until the N1 is updated.
If Google are delaying releases now too, there's no hope for the operators/manufacturers to stop. I really hope Cyanogen releases a 2.3 ROM before the official OTA, that would be embarrassing for Google. Delayed indeed.
I'm off to the pub, rant over. :-)
Many people have been complaining about these bugs for more than half a year and Google have only now acknowledged that it even exists and prioritised a fix. Given the number of Google employees who must own Android phones, surely they must have known about it? It intermittently affects my Hero, ended up sending a (thankfully innocuous) text to my ex instead of the wife. Serious bug!
And saying that you should check the recipient before sending is fine, but when you select 'send text' from someone's contact details you really should expect that it goes to them. Now we have to see if the fractured Android eco-system will really be a handicap, e.g. I now have to wait for HTC to issue a fix for the Hero on 2.1, how likely is that?
After two different (lower end) android phones in 6 months I've become used to waiting a bit before trying to use any feature.
My favourite is when the phone comes out of being locked you shouldn't check the clock for a few seconds because it will still be showing the time the phone was locked.
Roll on july when I can upgrade to a basic Nokia again!
Theres a similar bug when flicking through the HTC message widget, if you just click on the message when the widget loads, then it often loads an older message instead. If you dont look at who you are sending too, it may be the wrong person.
However, If you click new message it doesnt cause an issue. Bit of a faff but if your sending messages with content only for your significant other, you'd be a bit dense not to check its them its going too..
its all well and good they have found and fixed the bug. The Android developer has confirmed it has been replicated and now fixed and they will deploy the patch as soon as possible.
Great! but how?
Google are currently unable to release updates to users (except Nexus 1/S owners) without manufacturers and network carriers getting in the way.
Google release the patch... the device manufacturer get it, play with it, tweak it, change it, customise it, sit on it, 6 months later release it... Network carriers then get it, sit on it, customise it, fill it with pointless apps and demos, sit on it, release it... by this time 12 months later I have bought a new phone.
This is a serious issue that really needs resolving, There is a discussion going on on the VillainRom forum about this (see http://bit.ly/fDGHPV)
You would have to be pretty stupid if the whole time you are writing a message that you don't realise a different message has loaded. Its annoying but not once have I sent the message to the wrong person, I'm not sure how people are missing it. Is gonna happen to me tonight I can tell. The message just sending to the wrong person is a bit more of a worry!
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