Single text reply split into 4 "messages".

Nothing you can do on your end.

Note that the messages contain things other than the message text. In particular, they contain addressing information. I doubt that the information in a reply TO the iR would be sizable. Messages FROM the inReach can carry substantial baggage when the recipient(s) are not contacts. In this situation, the "message" includes the full text of all recipient addresses. That should not apply in this case.

The soft reset was not aimed at obtaining new f/w. It was probably aimed at putting the device back into a known base state.

Was the message sent from an android or iOS smartphone in a non English language/with non English characters? Sometimes messages sent in a non English language/ non English characters have a different limited of characters ...Maybe that depends somehow on something like this.

Thank you both for replying. Regarding twolpert's point... yes, both me and wife are listed as contacts with our individual phone numbers, so not sure if that additional baggage was indeed an issue. Re Volker's point- The phones are both iPhone 6's running latest IOS in English. I used the Earthmate app to type my messages (texts) to her, and she replied to those texts using her iPhone. So it obviously wasn't a firmware issue as the Garmin tech thought it might be.

I guess this is just the way it is, without knowing how many characters are being added to messages by inReach backend... there's no real way of "controlling" message count by the user.

Thanks for your insight!

It's also possible that this was not entirely a Garmin issue. In order to reach your inReach device, your wife's reply goes from her phone via the local cellular network, then to an SMS gateway with whom Garmin contracts, then to the Garmin server, then to the Iridium network, then to your iR. The message count for billing purposes is going to happen at the point where the message(s) hit(s) the Garmin server.

(In the case of something generated from the web site, such a message sent from MapShare, it IS all on Garmin. But not in this case.)

Certainly in the case of an iPhone, the phone makes it look like a message that exceeds the SMS maximum length is a single message, and will be sent that way. But it really isn't. It's sent in SMS-or-smaller bites. Unless you ask to have the message length displayed, you have no idea when you've gone over 160. Once you do that, the phone is going to break up the message. You'd think it would try to minimize the number of SMS messages, but I don't know what it actually does.

Similarly, the SMS gateway might rearrange long messages. That's a complete unknown.

The only point here is that somebody - but not necessarily Garmin - is breaking up the long message.

I started to ask what the message looked like on Garmin's website, inreach.garmin.com, but I'm not sure if it matters. I'm going to try that though and see what I get.

So my message broke up into 3 messages, about 154 chars a piece. Spaces also count as a character. In sits on InReach's site the same way. 3 messages. So this is not a device issue at all, but something in the gateway I would guess. Just like old network TXT messages used to get broken up.

And I did confirm that if I respond to an InReach SMS from my phone, it hits the site long before it gets down to the device itself.

For a message to an inReach device, there are lots of variables as to when the message is actually received at the device. You absolutely need a clear sky view. The biggest issue is how the iR "notices" that there is a message waiting.

The iR will do an active check periodically (about once an hour, depending on the device and f/w revision), whenever it has something to send (such as a sent track point or an outbound message), and whenever you manually ask it to check for messages. It also does active checks more frequently for a short time after you send a message. That is supposed to improve the conversational nature of the exchange if there is a reply. An active check involves proactively "asking" the Iridium network if there are messages pending. The result is reliable in the sense that the unit will either get the pending messages or it will get a definite response that there are none waiting.

Otherwise, message reception depends on periodic passive "listens". During a listen, the iR turns on the Iridium radio briefly to see if it hears anything directed to it. If it hears something, it will initiate an active check. When the Garmin servers have a message to send, they periodically transmit a "ring" directed to the device for which the messages are intended. This signal is relayed via the Iridium network. If the device happens to be listening at the time the ring arrives, then the it will ask for message(s). If it doesn't happen to be listening, or has a poor sky view, or whatever, nothing happens. The Garmin servers will repeat the ring periodically for some time after the message arrives at the server - but not indefinitely. And the ring interval may vary based on the amount of traffic and the elapsed time since the message arrived. The bottom line here is that receiving messages via passive listen is a matter of pure luck.

The point of my response was that Garmin's request for maak to reset his device, or that it was on old firmware, was not a valid response to his request. It would appear, in my testing of this, that the message was segmented on inreach.garmin.com, making that issue independent of the device. In fact, I just responded to yesterday's InReach SMS, and it segmented. My device is off. So telling him he has old firmware, or that he needs to reset the device was misleading.

IMO and experience, Garmin has a habit of throwing out random, unsubstantiated reasons for issues, and sending users chasing imaginary solutions. That's probably the biggest gripe I have with them, and why they will never achieve the success some of the bigger tech companies have reached.

Appreciate all the feedback! Thing is, the 4 split messages from wife that arrived- (and show up on my inbox at explore.garmin.com the same exact way) are no more than 60 characters (including spaces, punctuation.... everything....-- each. So no where near 160 characters. That's what is frustrating. I understand the nature of back end character requirements... but that's an awful lot of coding going on for SMS architecture. It is the way it is... but boy... at 50 cents per message over the plan allowance, her one text would cost two bucks! So if you're having a serious messaging back and forth, it'll be pricey... or you need to move to the unlimited plan-- which is pricey too ;)

Appreciate all the feedback! Thing is, the 4 split messages from wife that arrived- (and show up on my inbox at explore.garmin.com the same exact way) are no more than 60 characters (including spaces, punctuation.... everything....-- each. So no where near 160 characters. That's what is frustrating. I understand the nature of back end character requirements... but that's an awful lot of coding going on for SMS architecture. It is the way it is... but boy... at 50 cents per message over the plan allowance, her one text would cost two bucks! So if you're having a serious messaging back and forth, it'll be pricey... or you need to move to the unlimited plan-- which is pricey too ;)

Not knowing the exact size of your message, compared to mine, but I'm thinking that the gateway looks at the full message, and just splits it. And maybe if that is again, over some limit, then it splits again. On mine, My first segment was 154 chars, but yours was only 60. And my second was 90, and third was 26.

It sounds wacky, and expensive on the base plans.