Group Msg works fine on Lumia 928

[AR2186]

that's awesome. now to ask a few friends and family of mine who have att wp8s (820 and 920) to let me wipe their phones lmao. now that we know this I wonder if there is a way to exploit this little trick without needing an extra person/device, like if there is another way to access the cloud backup or extract some kind of file of a bare bones 920 backup.

You could do it, but it would come down to letting someone you know/trust log into their freshly reset non-VZW WP8 with your Microsoft Account.

On a seperate note, is anyone here good at developing programs? It's clearly a registry type setting, and while I know WP8 is restrictive with permissions, VZW has also hidden the ability to edit APN's, but you can still do it with Nokia's access point software. I doubt regular developers have access to the API's that Nokia does, but it's worth looking into. Maybe someone can create a program that triggers it?

Okay - so maybe any non-Verizon Lumia wp8. A 5/6/7xx variant maybe?

My 8x had a number of problems, and to be fair, it was also a Verizon 8x (so the mms settings were tampered with by VZW). The only problems I've had are picture messaging related.

 

[tvolpe86]

correct me if im wrong, but the same way you can access the hidden Bing Maps on a Nokia WP with a simple app download, could accessing a hidden setting like group mms be done the same way? maybe reverse engineering how the backup works as the backup clearly has access to change that hidden setting? and then whatever is learned from that can be made into app form? just brainstorming here as i don't know how to program.

 

[Robert Carpenter]

correct me if im wrong, but the same way you can access the hidden Bing Maps on a Nokia WP with a simple app download, could accessing a hidden setting like group mms be done the same way? maybe reverse engineering how the backup works as thr backup clearly has access to change that hidden setting and whatever is learned from that can be made into app form? just brainstorming here as i don't know how to program.

Unfortunately not =/

 

[Booston]

I have done a restore from my HTC 8x to my 928 and it worked fine. That said, group messaging wasn't working already on the 8x, so obviously that would not work for me

 

[AR2186]

Unfortunately not =/

Rob, any insight into developing for Windows Phone and what might/might not be allowed with settings?

 

[Robert Carpenter]

Rob, any insight into developing for Windows Phone and what might/might not be allowed with settings?

Unfortunately, it's not possible. That level of functionality will only be possible by hacking methods. The system does not give any sort of access to settings whatsoever =(

However, it's for very good reasons. You do not want a rogue app disabling your wifi, for example, and then have the user confused and wondering why it was disabled. Security is why this type of stuff isn't allowed.

The only hope is to somehow intercept the settings as they are being downloaded from the backup and the modify the group messaging setting before the phone receives it. Since this is all most likely encrypted, it will probably not be possible to do.

I think there are two choices:
-Wait for an official fix from Verizon
-Go to a T-Mobile/AT&T store and kindly ask to use a phone.

10 minutes at the T-Mobile/AT&T store will be worth it to most users who are desperately waiting for group messaging.

 

[AR2186]

Has anyone played around with Nokia Care Suite / Roms? I wonder if there is a default configuration file (XML or something similar) that we can modify and then re-flash. Likely won't work because of digital signatures, but you never know

Or another idea would be, can you use the developers tools to create a virtual phone and log into it? I'd assume it would have all settings, etc. Likely doesn't get backed up anywhere, but worth a try

 

[Robert Carpenter]

Has anyone played around with Nokia Care Suite / Roms? I wonder if there is a default configuration file (XML or something similar) that we can modify and then re-flash. Likely won't work because of digital signatures, but you never know

Or another idea would be, can you use the developers tools to create a virtual phone and log into it? I'd assume it would have all settings, etc. Likely doesn't get backed up anywhere, but worth a try

The rom flash won't work because of the signatures. You're right about that.

I believe the development emulator does not support that type of functionality, but that's one thing I'm not 100% sure about. I think that by the time someone figured out a convenient way to take advantage of this trick/method, an official fix from Verizon will be out.

At least, that's what I'm hoping... lol

 

[AR2186]

The rom flash won't work because of the signatures. You're right about that.

I believe the development emulator does not support that type of functionality, but that's one thing I'm not 100% sure about. I think that by the time someone figured out a convenient way to take advantage of this trick/method, an official fix from Verizon will be out.

At least, that's what I'm hoping... lol

You're probably right since they are releasing it this month with GDR2, but my curiosity gets the best of me and I want to figure it out.

 

[tvolpe86]

You're probably right since they are releasing it this month with GDR2, but my curiosity gets the best of me and I want to figure it out.

it was confirmed that GDR2 will reimplement group mms?

 

[AR2186]

it was confirmed that GDR2 will reimplement group mms?

there is a long thread about this in the windows phone 8 forum, but long story short, I contacted our high level enterprise support team and they did some research for me in March. At the time they targeted end of June (in conjunction with a software update) and a few weeks into June called me to tell me it was going to happen towards the end of July.

I know thats not "official", but that's what I'm hearing and my contact has spoken with the devs a number of times

 

[tvolpe86]

thanks for the info! something to hopefully look forward to as I just got my 928 (yet to be activated) so thankfully (and hopefully) wouldn't have gone too long without it.

 

[despertador]

Never tried group messaging on my Lumia 822, but that seems pretty interesting how a backup may potentially restore your locked settings...

 

[dangocek]

Has anyone tried using a phone in an AT&T store as suggested above? That seems like an easy enough solution if it works.

 

[tucker7984]

so my wife and I recently switched from AT&T to Verizon. We had 920's on AT&T and decided to get the 928 (obvious choice) on Verizon. It just arrived Wednesday and I set up both phones by transferring settings/etc... which surprisingly worked out quite well.

Anyways I just wanted to confirm along with the other few in this thread that my group messaging settings transferred over just fine. I am able to send and receive group messages while all remaining in a single thread (yes I know what group messaging is...)

So after reading this thread, and a few others related, I just couldn't stop laughing at the politics of the this whole debacle.. clearly the device/OS/carrier support this feature! So it was an INTENTIONAL decision to remove this feature, most likely decided by Verizon (what incentive would MS have to remove said feature?).

Again, my group messaging works as intended, and the phone hasn't blown up on me, so i think its safe to say that it's just stupid politics taking place behind the scenes and has absolutely nothing to do with the device/OS/carrier. I saw some crazy explanations from people talking about the cdma/lte network, and other stupid stuff... which most of you have caught on to as nothing more than excuses... clearly this is just some stupid behind the scenes crap between MS/Verizon... I still wonder what made them specifically remove it??? why in the world would Verizon request that???

My final thoughts are this feature will most likely be included/enabled as part of the GDR2/Amber update coming shortly, which often include carrier specific firmware updates as well. If it's not included in that, then I'm sorry but you're all screwed... cause you know it ain't coming at all if that's the case, lol.

 

[pechio]

so my wife and I recently switched from AT&T to Verizon. We had 920's on AT&T and decided to get the 928 (obvious choice) on Verizon. It just arrived Wednesday and I set up both phones by transferring settings/etc... which surprisingly worked out quite well.

Anyways I just wanted to confirm along with the other few in this thread that my group messaging settings transferred over just fine. I am able to send and receive group messages while all remaining in a single thread (yes I know what group messaging is...)

So after reading this thread, and a few others related, I just couldn't stop laughing at the politics of the this whole debacle.. clearly the device/OS/carrier support this feature! So it was an INTENTIONAL decision to remove this feature, most likely decided by Verizon (what incentive would MS have to remove said feature?).

Again, my group messaging works as intended, and the phone hasn't blown up on me, so i think its safe to say that it's just stupid politics taking place behind the scenes and has absolutely nothing to do with the device/OS/carrier. I saw some crazy explanations from people talking about the cdma/lte network, and other stupid stuff... which most of you have caught on to as nothing more than excuses... clearly this is just some stupid behind the scenes crap between MS/Verizon... I still wonder what made them specifically remove it??? why in the world would Verizon request that???

My final thoughts are this feature will most likely be included/enabled as part of the GDR2/Amber update coming shortly, which often include carrier specific firmware updates as well. If it's not included in that, then I'm sorry but you're all screwed... cause you know it ain't coming at all if that's the case, lol.

I see a class action lawsuit coming against Verizon's unfair practices (limiting services to some customers)

 

[tk-093]

So after reading this thread, and a few others related, I just couldn't stop laughing at the politics of the this whole debacle.. clearly the device/OS/carrier support this feature! So it was an INTENTIONAL decision to remove this feature, most likely decided by Verizon (what incentive would MS have to remove said feature?).

You really don't have any proof Verizon intentionally left out group messaging. They have zero... actually less then zero, reasons to have it left out.

It's just as possible that the 928 contained the proper fixes for group messaging and GDR2 simply contains the "update" that makes the menu option visable. I'd actually find that way more beliveable then some conspiracy to block group messaging on a line of phones with next to nothing marketshare.

 

[tucker7984]

I guess the thing I should have mentioned is my friend has a verizon lumia 822 and loaded his saved settings/backup from a AT&T 8x he briefly had before that. Mind you this was pre-Portico, he had the dang thing working since late December. Why didn't he rush to tell everyone here? Because he assumed it was normal, and had no idea it was disabled on Verizon's WP's. I just talked to him about this the other day and confirmed his worked.

So here's the deal, I have no proof of anything, and I shouldn't be so fast to blame Verizon. With that said, lets look at the facts... this Device (and others on Verizon) clearly supports this feature. The OS clearly supports this feature, and not via an update, but straight out of the box with standard WP8, no GDR1 or GDR2 needed, no firmware update, it has been there since launch FOR Verizon. Finally, the carrier clearly supports this feature, although it is hidden for whatever reason and *may* be updated in the near future (GDR2?).

So basically, somebody, whether MS or Verizon, intentionally chose to block this feature, for whatever reason. Given that we have proven it works as expected and the phone hasn't blown up, I doubt it is related to "performance issues". So as far as I am concerned, somebody Intentionally made the decision to leave this out of Verizon's range of WP's. But as I said before, I shouldn't be so quick to blame Verizon.

also, i never used the word conspiracy... no need to start making me sound like some crazy loon. I was just sounding off on some anonymous message board on a fan friendly WP site about my .02 cents... isn't that what people do on the internet?

 

[AR2186]

One last time: VZW disabled it because it somehow didn't work properly for them at launch. I don't think it's an issue of the phone actually threading the messages, but of it just not playing properly with their network. That said, it would be a simple registry setting (which I can confirm after playing with the registry files) and it will be enabled now that they seemingly fixed it. I got a call from VZW a month and a half ago saying it will be "end of July", but its doubtful GDR2/Amber are released in the next few days, so here is to hoping August

 

[tucker7984]

fair enough, that seems like a plausible and logical reason. I will stop my whining now and carry-on...