Some time ago, I purchased a Teracube 2e as I thought it would be a vast improvement over the iPhone I had.
Alas, turns out I was wrong about that, in many respects, only one of which I will ask about here:
Is it somehow not possible to send a text message directly to an e-mail address?
When I try to do this, I can manually type an e-mail address into the “Type a name or number” field, but after doing so I am not presented with any way to continue the process; I can click on the check-mark button at the lower right-hand corner of the keyboard, but nothing happens. So I am never presented with an opportunity to write content, let alone to send it.
Similarly, if I try to “Share” a “Note”, nowhere can I select an option to send to an external e-mail address. If I try to do it as a “Message”, I get the same result as above.
Overall, by reading through the Forum topics it seems as if people can use the /e/ OS to accomplish some pretty complex tasks, and more power to them. Yet the phone seems shockingly weak at completing the simplest of functions. (Don’t get me started on using Notes, Recorder, and especially the camera and Gallery functions.) And before anyone questions my tech chops, sure, I’m not at the level of a lot of folks here, but I did port my laptop (from the final Windows OS I ever cared to endure, over to Ubuntu) without a hitch, so I’m not exactly a remnant from the Stone Age.
No it is not possible. Text messages (in Android) are SMS messsages which can only be sent using the mobile phone network to another mobile phone. As I understand it, the iPhone messaging app will send messages using different mechanisms:
if the recipient also has iMessage (i.e. has an iOS ID), then the the message is sent as an iMessage using Apple’s own protocols (about which I know nothing )
if the recipient is not on iMessage, but has an email address, then the message may be sent as an email
if the recipient is not on iMessage, but has a mobile phone number, then the message may be sent as an email address
In Android
if you want to send a text message to a recipient’s mobile phone number, you send an SMS, an MMS if there is an attachment (like a photo, contact, or sound clip), or maybe use WhatsApp
if you want to send to a recipient’s email address, you send an email
Email and SMS are both open standards, which are used and implemented by many different apps, devices and operating systems .
Apple’s protocols are (as far as I am aware) not open, and can only be used by Apple devices and Operating Systems.
You may see that as a weakness compared to iOS, but it’s just the way Android works. Nothing to do with /e/OS. If you want to do things the iOS / Apple way, then use an Apple device or OS, but accept that other users prefer interoperability and open standards.
I purposely never utilized any of the iOS “iMessage” functionality, so that part of the equation did not play a role, but your explanation of the results (because of the difference in how iOS and Android each treat texts) makes sense. And I suppose I have to say that it “sadly” makes sense, because dashing off a simple text (or note) to an e-mail address was something that I did with relative frequency. Oh, well!
I have little iPhone experience - that’s pretty neat of iOS / Messages then, thanks for telling. For outsiders, here some screenshots how the identity is setup to receive via Email too.
FOSS Apps especially try to shine in their own way, not by overall platform integration, so this is hard to reach if native Android itself doesn’t bring that already along.
in an individual notes upper right three-dot menu, it will show Email for me when selecting - and finally a to: Field I can insert arbitrary recipients in.
For fun - some trivia on iMessage Android porting: a 10 year old exchange on this with Tim Cook
Craig Federighi: In the absence of a strategy to become the primary messaging service for to bulk of cell phone users, I am concerned the iMessage on Android would simply serve to remove and obstacle to iPhone families giving their kids Android phones.
Eddy Cue: If we think this way then we shouldn’t do anything on Android. Android is huge and here to stay. I think we need to get Android customers using and dependent on Apple products. That is the best way to get them to consider our products in the future.
Philip Schiller: iMessage was created as a feature of IOS that brings value to our iPhone users. It makes no revenue and is funded by our product margins. The idea that we should now get into the messaging business (what little there is of it) to fund an crds platform messaging apps out of our product revenues to defend against a Google/WhatsApp product is 180 degrees a different strategy. I don’t understand the end game there.
One, if trying to share a “Note”, I am not presented with the option to select an E-mail address to share with.
Two, and this is not related to /e/, but my work phone, fully Android, actually can send a text message directly to an e-mail address – because it is on Verizon, and the “vtext” function still works (although one reads that it will eventually no longer be supported by VZ).
It seems you might want to check it out, as it wraps email in a simple Chat UI. Your contacts don’t need to have it for you to use it (same as with any other generic email client) … https://delta.chat/en/
)