Alright, switched my number to an iPhone, but flipped off RCS and iMessage.
My “test subject” who has an iPhone still isn’t receiving other people’s messages on time when I am a part of the group chat. I haven’t polled all of my test subjects, but for me, this is still a clue…
This isn’t a Kompakt-specific problem, or a 3G problem. It’s a general, non-RCS problem. IDK if it’s iPhones in general, or perhaps iPhones on a specific carrier, that cannot reliably receive messages when a non-RCS phone in the group chat. So bewildering!
@calmfruit: I prompted the Brave browser with “Do iPhones have trouble receiving messages when a non-RCS cellphone is in a group chat?” and got this AI-generated answer:
Note : Apple has acknowledged the issue, but a full fix remains pending. For reliable group messaging with mixed devices, using SMS/MMS or third-party apps like Telegram or Signal is often more stable.
This is definitely an odd situation & the first of its kind that I heard of- that others are affected by PROXY just because a Mudita Kompakt phone number is part of a group chat. I’ve asked our team to look into this.
Hi! Thank you for the thoughtful response! Here is what Bartosz said back to my support ticket:
When iPhones (using iMessage) and modern Androids (using RCS) are in a group chat, their messaging apps try to force the conversation into an advanced data protocol. When Person B (who may or may not have an iPhone) sends a message to the group, their phone attempts to send it via iMessage or RCS. It takes their phone (or the carrier’s routing server) a moment to realize that your number (the Kompakt) only accepts standard cellular MMS. This causes a “fallback delay.” Sometimes the fallback takes a few minutes, resulting in late texts. Other times, the network simply times out and drops the message entirely before Person A ever receives it. [calmfruit note: I posit that it is Person A’s iPhone’s fault. Apple’s ecosystem is known to be difficult.]
Because smartphones remember the “type” of group chat they are in, the absolute best way to fix this is to force their phones to recognize the group as a standard MMS thread from scratch. Ask all members of the group chat to completely delete the existing group thread from their phones.
Sadly, I did reactivate my iPhone yesterday as a temporary workaround for this issue. I already miss my Kompakt! If/when I reactivate the Kompakt, I will try this hack. It’s a little cumbersome to ask everyone to delete the group chat from their phones, and then somehow coordinate with all of them to reinstate the group chat only once the mass deletion has been accomplished.
I have another question : as my phone calls are not in VoLTE mode, could it be that I have a Northa America device instead of a Europe one ? It shouldn’t as I did order the Europe one, but how can I check this ? (I suspect it’s rather due to Orange filtering out the Kompakt)
It’s always helpful because if there are some issues that we have not heard of before, our support team can address it directly with you, rather than waiting for me to try to gather all the info. So yes, in many cases like that it works out better.
You can always come back & share the info they have provided.
Thanks for looking into it! To AI, I would say, the non-RCS phone is working like a charm. I replied to Urszula above…it’s some weirdness with how iPhones receive non-RCS messages. I no longer think it’s carrier-specific, and I think the iPhones also, sometimes, struggle to receive my messages in a group chat. But the context is typically a group chat.
Theoretically, I once read a post, probably on the mudita blog, that the fewer photos we take, the better we remember the present moment. But are there any plans to add a self-timer to the Camera app? Such a feature would certainly be useful when traveling.
Hi Thurakanda, we don’t have any new updates on version 1.5.0, but our team is working hard to deliver it as soon as possible while making sure everything works flawlessly. Although the update has been delayed and we still can’t give you a specific release date yet, it is getting closer every day.
It now seems that Mudita will release MuditaOS K Version 1.5.0 well into Q2 2026.
Given that we now are almost half-way through Q2 2026 and that Mudita has long-ago-published plans for Q2 2026, I look forward to seeing what 1.5.0 actually contains!
But are there any plans to add a self-timer to the Camera app? Such a feature would certainly be useful when traveling.