Regarding #1, one can reply to an existing group text message but cannot start a new group text message.
To save MMS image, you have to click on the photo to open it and then you will have a button to download the image 
Thank you, @sinnari! I overlooked that download icon. I updated my post accordingly.
I would love to have “delivery receipts” in the SMS app. It’s one of the few smart features of GSM and we shouldn’t miss it 
Can you screenshot on the Mudita Kompakt
Not being able to start a text message to a group of contacts will cause me to return my Kompakt for a refund. Tomorrow will mark seven days since I received mine, which will give me another week in my 14-day trial.
I had to put my SIM temporarily in my flip phone to send a group text message yesterday. Doing this every time that I want to start a new group-text-message thread is unsustainable.
Mudita graciously refunded my purchase price a few years ago for the Mudita Pure (before shipping it to me) after I learned that it could not perform group text-messaging. I am becoming attached to the Kompakt, but I am steeling myself to return it, should Mudita be unable to resolve this problem within the coming seven days.
Mudita has said they will add support for group messages. I haven’t tested it yet, but wouldnt it be possible to sideload a messaging app that supports group messaging until they add it to their native app?
I appreciate that we can side load to plug small gaps here and there while the OS develops. However for absolute basic functions like this (and a keyboard with decent performance, directions in the maps app, viewing music albums in the music app, etc.) - it really shouldn’t require 3rd party apps.
First, it begins to chip away at the minimalism and design of the phone since 3rd party apps also are not optimized for e-ink. Second, my battery life is performing poorly, and it’s always suggested that side loading is the cause of that. I can see open processes running from apps like the keyboard I needed to install for example, and I have to choose between having basic functions present, and achieving the battery life as advertised (which was a big selling point for me).
I think this is a case where the OS needs to be urgently updated rather than fixed with another app from 3rd parties.
Have you tried Fossify Messages from F-Droid as an alternative until they update their SMS app?
I don’t use sms, but I was ale select more than one contact to send an SMS to. So technically i think it does what you need.
The good thing is you can set it as a default SMS app and you still get the home-screen notification.
@hurron Power button + Volume Down for Screenshot
I didn’t realize this was possible with any “replacement” app. Thanks for sharing that info.
I was surprised as well, I used to use this app on my old phone
@gezimos: Thank you for the suggestion. I installed Fossify Messages, and it seems to work for MMS. But, as @brendxn wrote, “I think this is a case where the OS needs to be urgently updated rather than fixed with another app from 3rd parties.”
Absolutely I agree, I only mentioned it because u said you’re becoming attached to the Kompakt.
I feel similar, the issues are plenty but I somehow feel I’m sleeping better because of the Eink display so I’m trying to find alternatives until they fix their default apps.
Even though I don’t use sms at all, I understand that group texts are a fundamental feature and it should have been from the start.
I guess group sms is a not european thing? Cause here i never heard about it. I guess that is a reason why many us people haven’t really a need for additional messanger apps like whats app.
Group SMS is not a WorldWide thing actually, not just an European thing. Because in a lot of countries, a lot of carriers have limits for nr of SMS or they cost money. With Signal and Whatsapp we can communicate internationally without having to pay other fees.
SMS hasn’t been a secure mode of communication since long time ago. You don’t have to use Whatsapp, you can use Signal, Matrix clients.
+ Session is a great fork of Signal for those who need to not even have to register with a phone number (and messages go through a dynamically shifting blockchain from what I understand, which makes it less traceable but slower as well; phone calls expose IP to the recipient and to Oxen who’s the blockchain carrier).
@tobi & @gezimos I wrote about it here:
When I started to dig into it- I found out some very interesting things.
@urszula: Does this mean that Mudita is not going to prioritize addressing this missing feature in the SMS app?
Cellular carriers have made unlimited talk & text a standard in the USA, and this includes MMS features including photos and group texting. U.S. cellular customers love to share photos and have group conversations by text messaging.
As a recipient of the Global-optimized version of the Kompakt in the USA, maybe I am the first one here to care about it, but I truly hope that Mudita is going to solve this problem … and soon.
If the SMS app is not going to support these basics very soon, then I must, out of practicality, return my Kompakt for a refund:
If the SMS app cannot support these basics, then Mudita should expect many refund requests from buyers of the North America-optimized version.
Yes, I have sideloaded the workaround app, but it is NOT optimized for E Ink and it makes tapping the SMS app’s icon on the home screen a waste of time, as nothing happens other than causing the Kompakt to display an error message that the SMS app has stopped working. I then have to tap [Close app], then [Apps], then [Messages] to see my text messages in a tiny font – vs. what should be single-tap access to them in an easy-to-read format.
Sideloading workarounds to missing basics makes we want to give my Kompakt the “C&D” nickname, for Chicken-wire & Duct-tape.
Is the MMS issue just for the global optimized or is it for the NA version as well?
It must be for both, given that the difference between the two versions is the 4G/LTE bands that each one supports.