As well as all the features of the built-in Messaging app, biteSMS has some great extra features:
Imagine you're browsing the Internet and an SMS comes in. With Quick Reply there's no need to quit Safari, just reply straight away and keep browsing!
Works in any app, not just Safari. The color of the Send button shows you how you'll be sending it: pink via biteSMS and blue via Carrier. You can switch by holding down the Send button for a few seconds.
Browsing the Internet and suddenly remember you need to send an SMS? Send one with Quick Compose without quiting the browser press Volume Up, then tap in the middle. Easy!
Same as Quick Reply, works in any app, not just Safari. The color of the Send button shows you how you'll be sending it: pink via biteSMS and blue via Carrier. You can switch by holding down the Send button for a few seconds.
NEW: Quick Compose can also be used in lock-screen mode!
Tip: you can use Quick Compose to quickly call someone without quitting the app you're in. First go to Quick Compose, pick a recipient (or type a number), and then, instead of typing a message, tap "Call". Neat.
Quick Call is also available in Quick Reply.
Protect your privacy from prying eyes using a dedicated SMS passcode. The passcode protects both biteSMS and the built-in Messaging application.
Cool! Contact pictures!
You can enter smileys and contacts easily: just double tap/long hold in the text box to bring up the menu:
Smileys are rendered beautifully:
Also works in Quick Compose and Quick Reply:
You can set up a signature that automatically is appended to every message:
The privacy settings let you hide the sender identity and/or text of an incoming SMS, so people can't see them at a glance.
You can customise to only hide the text if you wish, or, for full privacy, hide the preview window altogether!
This feature converts these special characters into their closest equivalent non-special character. For example, when turned on, the special character á is replaced by regular a.
This lets you send more text without paying more!
The character and credit counter makes it very clear how many credits will be used and how many characters remain for the text being entered.
Typically each SMS message (and biteSMS credit) allows you to send 160 characters, unless you type a special character, switching the character set to Unicode, in which case you'll only get 70 characters.
So let's look at how the counter works. The counter appears once you're on the second line of text:
Quick Reply and Quick Compose also have a character counter. It only kicks in when you've almost filled up a messsage:
To see the exact time a message was sent or received, simply long-hold or double tap the bubble:
To forward or delete a message, just double tap/long hold on a conversation bubble to bring up the menu:
Note: Currently the Delete feature is not implemented, but it’s coming soon…
A number of applications, for example TZones Proxy Hack (from Cydia), install mobile carrier specific proxy settings on your iPhone so you can surf the web, check emails, etc. These proxy settings are honored by biteSMS, so you can also send SMS texts via a proxy!
The built-in auto correction doesn't work very well in some languages, for example in Swiss German, but it works great in other languages. So, on the biteSMS settings page you can turn auto correction on or off for each keyboard independently.
Here it's on for English, but off for German and Swedish.
When typing text in an SMS message you can tap in the bubble area and the keyboard will slide away, letting you read the conversation more easily.
As well as all the great features above, there are some additional features to help save you money by using the biteSMS network to send messages (for example for texting to overseas).
Once you have bought credits, simply choose biteSMS as the SMS Network in the Settings page:
Also on the Settings page are options to automatically switch to and from the biteSMS network. This is convenient if you are on a plan that for example includes 100 SMS messages per month: