Text Messaging experience on Windows Phone 7, iPhone and Android compared

December 19, 2010 | By Surur

Zollotech have published this video comparing the text messaging experience on the iPhone , Windows Phone 7 and two Android handsets.

As expected there is not much to chose between the various operating systems, but am I the only one who find the iPhone’s texting UI a bit cartoony?

Via Zollotech.com

About Surur

Site Admin and Windows Phone enthusiast, he has been using Windows Mobile devices since before they were called PocketPC’s. He is currently sporting a HTC 7 Trophy.

Tagged android, iphone, text messaging, video, windows phone 7

dropqube

The iPhone UI is looking so freakin outdated/ugly to me. All corners rounded like a cartoon for little kids. Bubbles everywhere. The Disney World of smartphones.

Dan

Its not Disney its Fisher-Price

bch

While my initial impressions of WP7 was that it was too plain, after seeing this comparison, I think the others are too busy. If they added the ability to send a video and made the text bubbles different shades or colors, then it would be nearly perfect. Contact photos in the message list would be a nice touch, too.

danny

Yeah I do wish the other person's text stream was just a slightly lighter shade of the main theme color you are using. 10-20% is all it would take I think.

http://twitter.com/PrivateJoker @PrivateJoker

Don't like the boring UI of the iOS – that's why I changed from iPhone to Windows Phone.
http://www.facebook.com/doministry Dominik Strycharski

WP7 looks great.
trinitifx

Good overview.. But he showed more options for the iPhone than any other phone (delete message or whole thread), when the other phones do that as well (or I assume Android phones do)…
http://www.facebook.com/inteller Joseph Heath Wallis

now I know why I like WP7 messaging. It is simple and not overloaded with all of these useless options that defeat the goal of sending a quick text.
Dave Evans

Nice overview, but he missed one of the most important and coolest features for texting….. Android has the ability to do voice to text. I almost never bother to type a text any more. I simply hit the mic key on the keyboard and say what I want. It works very well, and is so quick and easy.

Dave

http://twitter.com/chmun77 @chmun77

Is a nice to have feature. But unless you are driving, I do not see the use of saying the message instead of typing. I will not want others people around to know what I'm sending.

Bob

Of course, you shouldn't even be thinking about sending a text message while driving, even if you can do it by voice.

Brianna

LG WP7 can do that.

Dave Evans

That's very cool. I didn't know that. My Surround doesn't.
BigSemy

Yes I have the LG Optimus 7 ,too ! Thats really cool !

I live my Windows Phone !

http://twitter.com/jessiethe3rd @jessiethe3rd

It does it, however, it's not integrated. It's an app.

Dave Evans

Oh! So how does it work? What app is it?

MarkusJ

Question: Does WP7 do delivery reports?

Xplorer7

Yes, it does. In the Messaging Hub just go to options an there you can enable it. Works how it should.

Verkunder

So I've decided I'd like to use delivery confirmation for my text messages, but when I go to the Messaging settings, all it shows me is my SMS center number. Is it because I'm on a Focus?

BlackMind_XP

yea it does its on new conversation in the message screen, so basicly u get a SMS back

http://twitter.com/chmun77 @chmun77

He did not demo the long tab options available in each thread. For example, you can delete any conversation in a thread by tap & hold on each message balloon.

Bob

Did you mean "delete and message in a conversation"?

chmun77

Yup. And also the capability of forwarding if you tap & hold on any of the messages in a conversation thread.

luella

He also didnt show that if you tap hold in your current txt you bring up a text cursor and you can move it to go inbetween each character.

WP7Fan

What I love about WP7 is that it's very elegant.
Plus, because all text-balloons are the same size, it's easier on the eyes: every message starts at the same place, where as it depends on how long the message is on the iP4 (I was surprised at how busy the iP4 screen looked with both short and long messages on it, plus all the rounded corners and stuff).

WP7 puts the focus where it should be – on the content.
Tim

Isn't WP7 just a business like pastiche of the iOS texting experience? As for too many options, why not remove them all from WP7 for absolute simplicity. The iOS UI is "simply" brilliant.

http://www.facebook.com/chris.hollander Chris Hollander

Tim, either you missed this, or my sarcasm filter is broken this morning. The video demonstrates that the wp7 UI is *simpler* than the iOS texting experience. essentially, all of the same functionality is there, but it's visually simpler in wp7.

Tim

I prefer the iOS implementation of texting.

danny

That's fine but it certainly can't be because the wp7 version is not as simple? As Chris points out there is far less unnecessary visual info in the wp7 implementation. After using wp7 every time I look at my gf's iphone text stream I'm overcome by its garish colors and overdone glossiness. I mean, it puts a distracting glossy bubble around an attached photo! That makes no sense whatsoever. Is it about reflection and curves that stand out like refugees from a bad photoshop tutorial circa 2002 or the picture you are sending?

Tim

WP7 looks like it was designed by a coder in the 80s. I'm not surprised iOS looks garish after using WP7. I have an original Space Invaders machine and I feel the same as you do about iOS when I play Wii Sports after having killed a few aliens. However the effect soon passes. I guess there is a place for both "look and feel" implementations. I do prefer iOS tho'.

http://www.facebook.com/chris.hollander Chris Hollander

it's probably also worth re-iterating… most of the stuff that were pointed out as lacking in wp7, as compared to other platforms, is in fact available- you can tap/hold an individual message in wp7 to delete a single comment (no seperate edit mode required), and you can tap on the person's name at the top of the thread to get the call/email/directions experience.

rruffman

I agee this guy needs to first go back to os school and learn about each os and "ALL" its options before trying to make a video. He's a joke did another video about the music on each and did not know how to use the Zune features as well…

joe05

I find both ios4 and WP7 phones have their advantages. I like the overall look of the iphone4 interface, but find windows phone 7's cleaner look to be very attractive as well.
Tamarai

I like the iPhone UI look, though I'm not surprised the person creating this blog entry doesn't, I've yet to read something positive said about an iOS device, he obviously hates them.

I liked the WP7 functionality as well, especially the spell check.

I did notice the OS version on the iOS device isn't the current one (the camera had no HDR option), that puts it about 2 updates back — must be a jailbroken device.
jesse

everything about the iphone seems to be cartoony now i had to move on to wp7
Tairan

The thing I find most useful about WP7 is the fact that it'll actually let you know when you're about to hit the 160 char limit of a text message!

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