Texting Limits
"Capped: The Hidden Limits of Your Texts, Pics, and Messages—and Why They Exist"
By Candace Goodman | The Good Blog
Opening Shot:
Imagine you’re pouring your heart out—an 8-page text confession to an ex, complete with emojis, tearful metaphors, and a photo from prom. You hit “send,” but half of it never makes it. No error message, no warning—just digital silence.
Welcome to the invisible world of texting limits, where every emoji, every word, and every selfie faces a gatekeeper. You’ve been texting under surveillance, bound by a hidden web of restrictions—and you likely never even knew.
Let’s unravel the tight-lipped truth about message caps, character limits, MMS boundaries, and why, in 2025, we still can’t send a digital love letter without bumping into Big Telecom’s invisible ceiling.
The 160-Character Rule: A Tale from the 1980s
Most people don’t know that the 160-character SMS limit dates back to 1985. Friedhelm Hillebrand, a German engineer, was typing random sentences to see how long a typical thought would be. He discovered that most messages were under 160 characters—and that became the global standard.
But here's the kicker: That limit was designed before smartphones, emojis, or even texting as we know it existed. So why are we still handcuffed to it?
Enter the Emoji Problem (and Unicode’s Revenge)
When you send a smiley face, your message gets re-encoded from GSM-7 (the basic alphabet) to Unicode, slashing your message cap from 160 characters to just 70. That cute wink you added? It just stole 90 characters from your message.
In the world of telecom, every byte counts. Literally. And every emoji is a byte-hungry emoji bandit.
MMS: Not So “Multi” After All
Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) was supposed to be the liberator—allowing pictures, videos, and long messages. But each carrier has its own rules. Here’s what they don’t advertise:
- Verizon: 1.7 MB | No resizing. Oversized? It’s trashed.
- AT&T: 1 MB (3 MB max) | Larger files get resized, if you're lucky.
- T-Mobile: 1 MB sending / 3 MB receiving | Files over 3 MB? Dead on arrival.
Most MMS messages cap out around 1.5 MB, barely enough for a short video or a high-res image. If you thought you could send a cinematic masterpiece via MMS, think again. You’re better off mailing a DVD.
Group Texts: Why You Can’t Message Your Whole Cousin Crew
Every major U.S. carrier limits group texts to 10-20 recipients. Why? Carriers say it’s to prevent spam. But some insiders whisper it’s more about network strain and control. After all, if you can text 100 people for free, why use a paid app or premium service?
Why the Caps Still Exist (and the Billion-Dollar Question)
Let’s ask the obvious: Why do limits still exist in a world of 5G, terabyte plans, and unlimited data?
Experts suggest three main reasons:
1. Legacy Infrastructure – Much of our SMS system still runs on tech from the early 2000s.
2. Carrier Profit Models – Limits mean more segmenting, which means more charges behind the scenes.
3. Control & Monitoring – Shorter messages are easier to track, filter, and analyze. (Yes, that’s a conspiracy theory—and possibly a fact.)
It’s why apps like WhatsApp, Signal, and Telegram exist—to escape the capped, surveilled, and splintered world of native messaging.
Could We Eliminate the Limits Entirely?
Technically, yes.
Using protocols like RCS (Rich Communication Services), we could:
- Send files up to 100 MB
- Hold group chats with 100+ people
- Include read receipts, typing indicators, and yes—8-page letters
But there’s a catch: RCS is not universally adopted, and many carriers have been slow to push it. Why? Because open, borderless messaging threatens the walled gardens** telecom giants have carefully built.
Final Thoughts:
So the next time your heartfelt message gets cut off, your video gets downgraded to potato quality, or your group chat won’t add cousin Tasha—you’re not crazy. You’re experiencing a system engineered to be limited.
We live in an age where we can livestream a protest from space, but still can’t send a selfie over 2 MB.
The good news? You have options—messaging apps, RCS-supported devices, and soon, perhaps a world where communication isn’t confined by invisible fences.
Until then, keep it short. Keep it clever. And remember: your words matter—but so do your bytes.