I seldom text on my phone, but I use the Apple iMessage app, so I can send texts with the iPad just like texting on the phone. Since I have the keyboard for the iPad, and it is like using a laptop, it is much easier for me than using the virtual keyboard on my phone. I actually do most of my communication by texting because it is so handy. I can send the text at my convenience, and the other person can answer at theirs. Plus, I can send pictures ! While I have been out here on vacation, this is how Bobby and I have been communicating. We write back and forth as our schedules allow, and we send each other pictures of what we are doing. (He is working on the bathroom floor, so I get pictures of that project, and I send pictures of the place we are staying and the lake.) We can have actual conversations when we are there at the same time, so then it is almost the same as being together and talking with each other.
I can ''text'' from my desktop as well..and equally, as you say @Yvonne Smith , send pictures or videos much more easily than from my iphone...
I prefer texting to talking to someone on the phone. Actually, I am not at all happy with my cellphone. It's not the equipment or the service really, but my cellphone calls are resembling my email inbox, in that more than 90% of the calls I get are spam and scams, much of it spoofing our local area code so I can't even feel comfortable answering local calls anymore. Unless my phone identifies the number as someone I know and want to talk to, I don't answer it. I have it mostly so that I can make calls if I need to. With texting, at least I can tell who it is, and what it is.
I,too dislike talking on the phone. Much prefer a face to face conversation or text is fine. It is brief and to the point.
When I said texting creates a "partial vacuum", nobody picked up on that.....it means "Texting SUCKS"! Hal
Well everyone is certainly entitled to their opinion. It's easier for me because I don't have to struggle on any phone to hear what's being said.
If you have updated to iOS 13, then they have a new feature that will stop almost ALL of those unwanted/spam calls, @Ken Anderson . We have it turned on with our iPhones and it really works great ! To activate it, go to settings/phone and scroll down to “silence unknown callers”. What it does, is sends any unknown calls straight to voicemail, so if it is something important (but on an unknown number), then they can leave you a voicemail and you can call back if you are interested. When it is a spam caller, they usually do not leave a voicemail, so that you won’t be overrun with extra voicemails, and you still have a record of the calls that came in, even when they go straight to voicemail. I have been using it since it came out, and it has pretty much stopped all of those calls to sell you something, or give you a college loan, etc.
I'm trying it. I had blocked all unknown calls once before, but that lasted only about a week, and they were all back again.
You don't even have to type your message. You can speak what you want to say into the phone and it will type it for you. You can have a whole conversation with someone without having to turn down your music or stop a program on TV. You can also send pictures, jokes or music back and forth just like a forum thread.
Hello, I was never interested in Texting anyone and I'm sure I never will be. It's just that I became curious as to how it was done, after seeing many TV commercials which suggest that you "Text ABCDE to 12345". I'm guessing that you enter ABCDE and then type 12345 and press "send". Is this how it's done? Thanks, Hal
Sort of, @Hal Pollner . You have to have a cell phone to use it for texting, a home phone won’t work. I can also use my ipad to send either text messages or regular iMessages. I have a list of contacts in my phone, so I just choose who I want to send the text message to, then write what i want to say, and press send. Instantly, they have my message. If I wanted to text someone I didn’t have in my contacts, I just type in their phone number, write what I want to say, and press send. I really like this, because I can message my daughter, and if she is busy at work, the text does not disturb her like a phone call does, and it is much simpler than sending an email to her. When we had the 2 weeks with no power after the tornados here, we could send text message even when we could not make a phone call, because it only takes a few seconds to connect and send the message, instead of the several minutes it takes to make a phone call.
I rarely text and if I do, its my wife or daughter. I do not have a smart phone, but an old flip top cell, so my texts are Y, N, and huh!. I did learn a while back what LOL means and I used that a time or two.