[alpha rays max]

Is there any way to have the iPhone display the sender's email address instead of the fake number that shows up by default? Each time someone sends me an SMS from an email account (i.e., to my [email protected]), it comes in as a separate sender as a number like 1 (010) 100-001. Small thing, but really annoying.

[zanyterp]

I don't think so. I think it is a problem with the AT&T network and how it handles emails; but I'm not sure. I know on my phone (currently not yet an iPhone), it shows the random number rather than the actual email address.

[tomjennings83]

no there is no way

[alpha rays max]

Even if AT&T's SMS email gateway is that bad, it would be easy for the iPhone's software to automatically take the sender's email address (it's right there in the message) and use that instead of the fake number. A shame, but the iPhone is pretty weak about SMS in general.

[Reaperducer]

Originally Posted by alpha rays max 

Even if AT&T's SMS email gateway is that bad, it would be easy for the iPhone's software to automatically take the sender's email address (it's right there in the message) and use that instead of the fake number. A shame, but the iPhone is pretty weak about SMS in general.

What exactly do you mean by "the iPhone is pretty weak about SMS in general?" Of the dozen or so mobile phones I've owned since the 80's it does the best job with SMS, especially compared with the latest offerings from SonyEricsson.

The SMS specification was not designed to interface with e-mail. SMS pre-dates widespread e-mail access so no thought was put into making the two technologies work together. The fact that you can send e-mails to an SMS device is a kludge worked out by the phone companies at the demand of the customers.

An SMS message only consists of two parts -- the sending phone number, and the message, itself. E-mail addresses are not phone numbers, so the carriers assign arbitrary or random numbers to this part of the message.

The e-mail address that you see in SMS isn't a header, it part of the actual message. It would be dumb for the iPhone to compare all of your incoming SMS messages to e-mail addresses in your phone book. In fact, it would allow someone to pretend to be someone else by simply putting the other person's e-mail address in the message. The last thing we need is a bunch of people forging SMS messages.

AT&T sending SMSes from 010/100-001 is no different than T-Mobile sending them from 768. They're throwaway numbers that are only needed to actually deliver the message.

Again, this isn't the fault of AT&T or the iPhone. It's the way SMS works. If you want to send an e-mail message, use the e-mail application. That's what its for.

[alpha rays max]

Originally Posted by Reaperducer 

What exactly do you mean by "the iPhone is pretty weak about SMS in general?"

I mean the whole experience: can't send messages to multiple contacts, can't send or receive MMS messages, no option to change the user interface in the SMS app (the iChat-style bubbles are too cutesy for me - which is why I turned them off in iChat, but that's not an option on the iPhone). It's all been covered before and I knew all of this before I bought the iPhone, but that doesn't mean I like the current implementation.

The e-mail address that you see in SMS isn't a header, it part of the actual message. It would be dumb for the iPhone to compare all of your incoming SMS messages to e-mail addresses in your phone book. In fact, it would allow someone to pretend to be someone else by simply putting the other person's e-mail address in the message. The last thing we need is a bunch of people forging SMS messages.

I'm not asking for it to do that, necessarily. I simply want it to display the email address from which the message came, just as it does once you actually open the message. I don't know about other carriers, but Verizon's email-to-SMS gateway doesn't display any throwaway numbers; the phone just shows the email address. It's much nicer from a user perspective.

Showing the throwaway numbers to the user presents two problems:

1. The iPhone can't group messages sent by email from the same address into a conversation thread as it does with normal text messages. The primary problem, as far as I'm concerned, is that this creates clutter.
2. The throwaway numbers mean nothing to the user. You can't see who the message is from until you open the message.

Again, this isn't the fault of AT&T or the iPhone. It's the way SMS works. If you want to send an e-mail message, use the e-mail application. That's what its for.

I'm not talking about sending emails, I'm talking about receiving a text message through the AT&T-provided email address. If it's not the "fault" of AT&T or the iPhone, then I'm not sure how Verizon is able to do it...