Finally Send MMS! Flutter.app

[opticalserenity]

Links required.

However, MMS has always been on iPhone, just give people your email address, and you'll get pictures, and then you email it back to them to their email address to their phone. I don't know why the confusion.

 

[crazymexx]

duh everyone knows that.. Actual app just for Mms

 

[flutter]

Answwers to your questions

Hello Folks,

I'm Amir and I head the team that made Flutter. First of all, let me say you guys are great! Because you're the first ones I've seen to talk about the app ... this is exciting, because we didn't even expect Apple to approve the app today. It was meant to happen on Monday ... so we're all caught a bit off guard. Which explains some of the issues you've been having. So please allow me to explain:

If you are outside the US, you must register with international dial code before your number, and the contacts in your phone book must also have international dial codes before their numbers. Sorry about this, but the app isn't supposed to be available outside the US yet! When we do internationalize it, you won't have to change everything into international format!

Check out http://www.flutterpic.com soon which has a FAQ. Not live yet. Will be my Monday. In meantime, you can check out a short FAQ at http://flutterpic.blogspot.com

@scousebarry hello mate (are you a red or a blue? ) ... the reason you didn't get the SMS is because 1) Apple made a mistake and published the app to the WORLDWIDE app store and it's only available for US right now ... and you entered your normal UK number as 07XXX-XXX-XXX in which case it won't work. You need to enter it as 00447 or +447. That should do it. 2) Our system wasn't expecting a rush today ... so we're running around fixing the SMS backlog. Sorry about the delay.

@peanut48 See my reply to scousebarry ... theoretically you shouldn't be able to use it in India. Just sign up with international dial codes and make sure your contacts also have international dial codes saved in their numbers. Good luck!


@tha80sbrat You can't receive MMS in this version. It's theoretically possible using a work around (just as we use a work around to send messages). If there's enough demand, we'll do it. Check out the FAQ at the blog.

@iblastoff It's not true MMS. It's kind of like MMS. The recipient gets a text message with a link. If they have a web-capable phone, they can click the link and view your message in their mobile browser. It's better than nothing right now ... ie. at least you can send a picture to another mobile number (instead of having to use email)

@CKtoph Sorry! http://www.flutterpic.com is not available yet. Check on Monday. Meantime, there's the blog and also http://twitter.com/flutterpic

@sneeks It does work in the UK. I'm in London right now

@peanut48 Hmm, someone else reported this. Can you please email flutter at juicecaster dot com with your operator e.g. Orange, O2 etc. One of my colleagues had this problem. It could be a specific operator is blocking the messages. Would really appreciate your help. Please email.

@jeremy1026 Lol. Yes, our lawyers not happy about that. Went up to early. That was just placeholder copy. Don't worry, you haven't signed up to sell your soul to the devil! Full terms will go up on Monday. Rest assured, we will not sell your details, no hidden costs, we won't spam your contacts. There is no catch right now. See a post about this on the blog.

@jeremy1026 You are a clever man and absolutely correct. It would be outside the sandbox. But there is a work around and 'official' ie. would pass App Store test, way of doing it. Stay tuned.

@jsuared An iPhone

@redgaz26 Sorry ... problem with the SMS queue. Fixing. You'll get it soon.

@vandy1997 Out of interest, what other app does this? Pls PM me. Also, no plans to charge for it yet. May be ads on the message page. Gotta pay the bills somehow!

@jds4300 Sorry you had bad luck with it. What phones did you use it with? It's worked with over 200 phones we've tested with. Please PM me if you get a 'mo. Cheers!

@Daremo It's not official! No idea why Apple don't enable MMS on iPhone. But right now, this is an 'emulation' and closes thing to sending a pic to any mobile number. Key here is mobile number NOT email address. Any app can send a picture to an email address ie. the native email app!

@Rojo you are 1000% correct.

@179202 I'm with you. I want real MMS. But in the meantime, my friends are getting my Flutters ... with my location on Google Maps ... on their phones ... and well, it's more than I can do otherwise, right?

Anyways folks. Sorry for the long post. Hope that's useful to everyone. If you gots questions, drop me a line.

Cheers!

 

[lindsayanng]

wow.. definitely got more excited than i should have been. I thought it was a REAL mms I guess its not bad to send pic links to my husband who also has an iphone.. but my sisters rzr and my moms 998 phone probably NOT going to like it.

just another HUGE disappointment.. plus, theres STILL no push, which means you have to remember to check

 

[Jeremy1026]

just another HUGE disappointment.. plus, theres STILL no push, which means you have to remember to check

You can check all you want, but since the app cant receive messages, there won't be anything there when you check.

 

[Daremo]

Hey Flutter,

A couple questions for you. My wife sent me an image from her iPhone with Flutter. I got the SMS 3 times (EDIT: Make that 5. I got 2 more just now ) telling me the link. Is this just opening day bugs?

Also, when you view any image that gets sent, is squeezes the image into a square, and distorts the image, also makes it low res, so saving it is sort of pointless when she could email it to me. Will this be fixed, or was it all intentional?

Thanks for a solution to ViewMyShittyMMS (dot) com that AT&T gives us

 

[lindsayanng]

well that makes things even WORSE..

i just found teh photo share app which is AWESOME considering the person i share MOST of my pics with is my husband, so as i take a pic, i can just add it to his photo album. SWEET.

 

[DreamPod]

Links required.

However, MMS has always been on iPhone, just give people your email address, and you'll get pictures, and then you email it back to them to their email address to their phone. I don't know why the confusion.

Uh, that's not MMS, that's email. Which only a small portion of cell phone owners have, nor is it instant, nor is it as simple to do.

 

[flutter]

@lindsayanng We could enable true MMS sending. ie. you upload your photo using Flutter, we then forward the photo as a real MMS. Obviously, this would cost us a lot more than sending an SMS with a link inside it. Genuine question: How much would you pay for the app ('cuz it definitely wouldn't be free then), would you pay p/msg or would it be OK for the MMS to contain an ad?

@Daremo That really, really makes me You should only get ONE SMS. It's our silly SMS provider again (won't name names ... yet ... but they're one of the biggest providers in the world!). When they get a backlog, they just spurt out multiple copies of the same message. We'll look into it on Monday. So yes, let's put it down to opening day bugs. As for the image size, what phone do you have? We try to optimize the image depending on phone screen resolution (it could be our phone database is not recognizing your phone when you view the page). Let me know. And thank you for your encouragement! We think of it as a 'better than nothing solution' and it's free, right?

 

[Luap]

Interesting.. Looks good. Except I dont see it on the UK app store yet.

 

[Pennine]

Interesting.. Looks good. Except I dont see it on the UK app store yet.

yeah its in
anyone had trouble registering ?

 

[lindsayanng]

well, depends what type of add, but it would be ok if it was a small text only ad. Or just have a rotating add on the splash screen that you create, that way we arent sending out friends messages with ads attacked to them

What would be better is to charge a one time fee for downloading the app. i do NOT want a deal with another monthly bill. just not worth it for me. I know that you pay for every MMS you send on most carriers, but you also dont pay for the software. I feel like if you were to create a TRUE MMS where you can send AND receive MMS - TRUE MMS, then i would pay up to $25 for it.. Maybe more, because when its all said and done, a high one time fee could still be cheaper than some plans with MMS..

 

[Pennine]

i sent my normal UK number off and i havnt got a text back what should i do?

 

[lindsayanng]

i sent my normal UK number off and i havnt got a text back what should i do?

the answer is RIGHT in front of your face.. just look up a little, and READ

 

[Pennine]

the answer is RIGHT in front of your face.. just look up a little, and READ

read it before but you cant redo it
it wants a new e mail address

 

[flutter]

@lindsayanng You make very good points. Thanks for the feedback. Some food for thought. Personally, I hate ads in services so as much as possible, I want to keep them out of the app. Last thing I'd want to do is make my friends think I'm spamming them. May be a paid for version with real MMS is the way forward. If we get more feedback like yours, we'll do it.

@pennine Unfortunately, since the system isn't set up to distinguish between North American numbers (yet), unless they have int. dial code, it means your 07 first attempt is in the system, along with the email address you used the first time. So even though you're trying with the proper format the second time, the email is already 'taken'. Can you please try using another email address? Will be a lot quicker than waiting for Monday until we can remove the first account you registered with (so as to release your email address). I hope that made sense.

 

[crazymexx]

yeah its in
anyone had trouble registering ?

there's a delay

 

[Pennine]

@lindsayanng You make very good points. Thanks for the feedback. Some food for thought. Personally, I hate ads in services so as much as possible, I want to keep them out of the app. Last thing I'd want to do is make my friends think I'm spamming them. May be a paid for version with real MMS is the way forward. If we get more feedback like yours, we'll do it.

@pennine Unfortunately, since the system isn't set up to distinguish between North American numbers (yet), unless they have int. dial code, it means your 07 first attempt is in the system, along with the email address you used the first time. So even though you're trying with the proper format the second time, the email is already 'taken'. Can you please try using another email address? Will be a lot quicker than waiting for Monday until we can remove the first account you registered with (so as to release your email address). I hope that made sense.

@pennine thanks for that sorry i cant use another e mail address
i will wait til mon

 

[flutter]

@pennine thanks for that sorry i cant use another e mail address
i will wait til mon

Why? http://www.gmail.com is your best friend.

On Mon pls email support at juicecaster dot com with your mob number, email address and ask for your account to be removed. We'll take care of it. Thanks for your patience!

 

[Eric.]

Amir, is there anything that would prevent an "MMS" application from simply doing the email workaround for us? If it could just automate the process of attaching an image to an email and placing the correct carrier's email address (@vzwpix.com etc) to the end of a contacts number, that would be excellent. That way the recipient would receive what appeared to be a standard MMS message instead of a text message with a link. I'm sure Flutter works great for those with internet access, but I know very, very few people who also have a data plan on a phone.

I'd be more than happy to help test such an application and I bet a ton of users here would pay a couple bucks for one that worked well (and was stable). PM me if you think any of that would be possible.

 

[lindsayanng]

peronally, i think that if you make a poll, you will get LOADS of people that agree with me (MAYBE not on the price).

Look at ALL of the threads in here. Disappointment on the fact that you
1.) only actually send a link - most of which will not be able to be opened by a friend without an iphone
2.) can not receive MMS

I really really think that if MOST people think about it (not the kids who post TOO EXPENSIVE on all reviews for apps more than .99) they will realize that a one time fee is a lot cheaper than the MMS in general anyways.

if you were a trustworth developer that i knew would update teh app when the phone's OS and firmware changes, the app can be updated as well.

In my mind, that is the MOST important thing when i buy an app. i want to know that the dev. will keep up. Take for instance PageOnce. AWFUL!! they were a free app, but still.. their app is insanely useless (even though it COULD be awesome) and they get requests for a certain feature from all users and havent dont ANYTHING in ways up upgrades.

 

[flutter]

Amir, is there anything that would prevent an "MMS" application from simply doing the email workaround for us? If it could just automate the process of attaching an image to an email and placing the correct carrier's email address (@vzwpix.com etc) to the end of a contacts number, that would be excellent. That way the recipient would receive what appeared to be a standard MMS message instead of a text message with a link. I'm sure Flutter works great for those with internet access, but I know very, very few people who also have a data plan on a phone.

I'd be more than happy to help test such an application and I bet a ton of users here would pay a couple bucks for one that worked well (and was stable). PM me if you think any of that would be possible.

This is an interesting idea and something we've looked at before. There are a couple of problems with it (if you see problems in my logic, feel free to comment!):

1) If you know the recipient's carrier, then you can easily create an email entry in your contact book in the (mobile number)@mms.carrierxyz.net and then use the native email client to send the message to aformentioned address. No need for a third party app, right?

2) Let's say you didn't know each contact's carrier. So you used a third-party app to send messages. The third-party service can look up against a database to determine what carrier the number belongs to, and append the correct @mms.carrierxyz.net address - and route the message correctly. Trick is, such databases are unreliable. Also, people increasinly 'port numbers' so even though they have a number belonging to carrier Z, they in fact ported their number to carrier Y - but the database doesn't know this. So message never gets routed. This is less of a problem in North America than it is in the EU (e.g. I've ported my UK number 3 times already).

In general, the lack of dataplans would limit the usage of Flutter (from the recipient's perspective). The real alternative is to go with option 1) for people you know you'll frequently send MMS to, or use something like Flutter for people you know with data/internet access.

In the meantime, we've not discounted sending true MMS in a future release ...

 

[flutter]

peronally, i think that if you make a poll, you will get LOADS of people that agree with me (MAYBE not on the price).

Look at ALL of the threads in here. Disappointment on the fact that you
1.) only actually send a link - most of which will not be able to be opened by a friend without an iphone
2.) can not receive MMS

I really really think that if MOST people think about it (not the kids who post TOO EXPENSIVE on all reviews for apps more than .99) they will realize that a one time fee is a lot cheaper than the MMS in general anyways.

if you were a trustworth developer that i knew would update teh app when the phone's OS and firmware changes, the app can be updated as well.

In my mind, that is the MOST important thing when i buy an app. i want to know that the dev. will keep up. Take for instance PageOnce. AWFUL!! they were a free app, but still.. their app is insanely useless (even though it COULD be awesome) and they get requests for a certain feature from all users and havent dont ANYTHING in ways up upgrades.

I agree with you. The number 1 feedback in just a day's release is: doesn't send real MMS. We knew this from the beginning - in fact, the app was going to be called "Virtual MMS" to make this really clear up front. But our marketing folks wanted a less technical name Anyway, we've been talking a lot about this today. May be we should release a paid for version at some point with true MMS. The real problem is determining price point. Even as high as $25, you'll have low volume users and high volume users. Since we pay p/message, the high volume users would kill it. We'd then have to introduce caps p/user and it gets very complicated for everyone concerned. This is why ads are a cleaner solution: we cover our costs regardless of volume. It's an ongoing debate ... I've saved your comments and we'll use them in our meetings.

Re. upgrades, we're already working on 1.1 The adding contacts to the To: will be a lot more intuitive, a few tweaks here and there. And there's lots more interesting features to come.

BTW, you guys don't seem to be talking about the 'add location' to a message feature. That's very interesting. I mainly use Flutter to add my location to a picture, so my friends can see where I am when they view my message. Now that you can't do with MMS ...

 

[Eric.]

This is an interesting idea and something we've looked at before. There are a couple of problems with it (if you see problems in my logic, feel free to comment!):

1) If you know the recipient's carrier, then you can easily create an email entry in your contact book in the (mobile number)@mms.carrierxyz.net and then use the native email client to send the message to aformentioned address. No need for a third party app, right?

2) Let's say you didn't know each contact's carrier. So you used a third-party app to send messages. The third-party service can look up against a database to determine what carrier the number belongs to, and append the correct @mms.carrierxyz.net address - and route the message correctly. Trick is, such databases are unreliable. Also, people increasinly 'port numbers' so even though they have a number belonging to carrier Z, they in fact ported their number to carrier Y - but the database doesn't know this. So message never gets routed. This is less of a problem in North America than it is in the EU (e.g. I've ported my UK number 3 times already).

In general, the lack of dataplans would limit the usage of Flutter (from the recipient's perspective). The real alternative is to go with option 1) for people you know you'll frequently send MMS to, or use something like Flutter for people you know with data/internet access.

In the meantime, we've not discounted sending true MMS in a future release ...

Thanks for the reply.


Good point about adding their email address. I'll probably do that for the people I do send pictures to. Regarding the second option, I know what carrier most of my friends are on. Having the ability to choose that from a list yourself within the app would be a good alternative to using a database (or choose it yourself as a backup after the database auto-detects it?).

I'm not going to get Flutter at the moment since I don't have an issue with using email instead. Like I said, my problem is that others do not have data plans and that makes it useless for me.

I say develop for option 2 with my suggestion.

 

[flutter]

If you're registering outside the US, pls make sure you use international number formats, e.g. 0044 or +33 etc.

Also, contacts you send msgs to need to have their numbers saved in international format too.

Yeah, it's a pain ... but Flutter isn't even supposed to be available outside the US yet!

Thanks for the reply.


Good point about adding their email address. I'll probably do that for the people I do send pictures to. Regarding the second option, I know what carrier most of my friends are on. Having the ability to choose that from a list yourself within the app would be a good alternative to using a database (or choose it yourself as a backup after the database auto-detects it?).

I'm not going to get Flutter at the moment since I don't have an issue with using email instead. Like I said, my problem is that others do not have data plans and that makes it useless for me.

I say develop for option 2 with my suggestion.

We kind of tried the second solution with our other main product, JuiceCaster. Your idea is interesting, though when we look out our userbase, people really don't know what carriers their friends are on. You have a great memory!

As for Flutter, one thing peeps are overlooking is ability to send your location along with your pic, or just the location alone. Your friends click on "View on Map" and see your location on Google Maps - right on their phone. Try it out, it's free - you sound like a knowledgable guy. Would love your feedback.