Important Notes
Group Texting
If you have problems with group texting then you have to turn OFF iMessage, MMS and Group Messaging. This problem is caused by the new Apple settings and it affects all apps that send group texts (including ContactsTap). We have already contacted Apple engineers and informed them about this issue.
Using iMessage, you can send texts to other iOS users that are registered to the service using the data network instead of the cellular network and they are also free and unlimited. If you send an iMessage to more than one recipient, when one replies, everyone will receive it.
ContactsTap does different things accordingly to the various options that can be changed in the device Settings into the Messages section.
These are our suggestions on how to use the various settings:
If you want to send a text to a group and you don’t want that replies go to everyone, you have to turn iMessage OFF and use traditional SMS; If the device has an option called “Group Messaging” (not available in all countries), this option has to be also OFF.
Additionally, with the current version of the iOS operating system, some users reported that there is a problem: if the MMS option is turned ON, the text to a group will fail. We are talked with Apple engineers about this problem.
To recap, to send a group text and you don’t want replies to go to everyone, you have to turn OFF all these: iMessage, Group Messaging, MMS.
Note that you can’t use email addresses as recipients in this case.
If instead it’s ok if the replies go to everyone, you can leave iMessage ON but in this case all recipients should be valid iMessage accounts, either numbers or emails.
This is also the only supported option when the app is used on the iPod or the iPad.
Known Limitations
No support for custom ringtones
Setting and editing custom ringtones for contacts is not supported.
iPhone SDK does not allow any third party applications to assign custom ringtones to contacts or groups.
Important Issues
Syncing with Outlook
On Windows, it is iTunes that ‘communicates’ with Outlook.
iTunes will sync all groups from your iPhone as Outlook folders, not categories.
Similarly, your Outlook categories will not be synced as groups on your iPhone. Use folders instead.
Also, even if your contact was part of several groups on the iPhone, Outlook can only assign it to a single group.
These are all Outlook issues and ContactsTap (or any other iPhone app) have no control over this.
Groups with Exchange account
ContactsTap supports groups for Exchange contacts. When you start ContactsTap and navigate to the Groups screen, you will be able to create groups for Exchange contacts and organize them in groups in the same way as you would organise groups from other accounts. However, those groups will not be synced with Exchange (because Exchange does not support iPhone groups).
Third party apps
ContactsTap is compatible with all third party applications that use native storage space.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the app have limits on the number of recipients when using Group text
The app has no limit but your device may have. While the iPhone is great, it’s still a mobile device with limited memory and processing capability.
For example we found that an iPhone 3G is capable of sending to groups of 100 recipients but may fail to send to larger groups.
We tested the iPhone 4/5 with up a little more than 350 recipients. Some user reported they are successfully sending to groups of 400 with an iPhone 4/5.
I’m experiencing issues sending to more than 10 recipients
If you’re experiencing issues sending to large groups, check the setting of “Group Messaging” on the iPhone settings. If the option is available, set it to OFF (yes OFF) to be able to send to large groups. If it’s on, the iPhone will try to send MMS instead of SMS and will fail to send to large groups.
Can I send a photo to a group?
Yes, you can use copy-paste. Open the photos app (or the app where the photo is stored), copy one ore more photos. Create the new email in ContactsTap and when the new mail screen appear, paste the photos.
My groups does not sync with outlook. My contacts disappear from outlook when I sync.
Please note that it’s the iPhone firmware together with iTunes that does the sync and the apps can’t affect how it works. That said, the iPhone syncs the native contact groups with Outlook FOLDERS not categories. So you should find your contacts inside folders. Outlook has also a limitation: every contact can be assigned to one and only one folder. So, even if the iPhone allows a contact to be assigned to more than one native group, in Outlook the contacts will end up in one folder only.
ContactsTap shows the default ringtone for contacts that has a custom ringtone.
This is a problem of the current iPhone firmware. The screen where you see and can change the ringtone is provided by the firmware so we can’t change it. Moreover custom ringtones (and ringtones in general) can’t be modified by an application.