When I go to messaging and try to compose a new message I'm not getting my contacts when I type in the "To" box. A couple of contacts show up but it is difinately not working right.

At first I thought it was looking at my facebook account as a default but that's not it.

I can compose from my contacts list but the messaging function would be easier...

Help...

just type the 1st two letters of the contacts name and a drop down list will appear with all ur contacts that name starts with the st letter

Texting

I know that is what it is supposed to do... but my phone isn't doing that. It won't show the contacts when I do that. If I type BA the last name of one of my contacts shows up but not the other contacts that start with BA....

how did u get the contacts in the phone?

Not sure about the last name, but it works when I type the first name. Maybe you don't have the contacts info entered correctly?

I highly suggest installing a free app called Handcent SMS. It will allow you to pull a list of contacts up, rather than having to type or search for them. It also lets you select groups of contacts like family/co-workers with a few clicks. Among other things this app does, it is a HUGE improvement over the stock program that manages your messages.

Highly recommend this app because it makes text/pic/video messaging on the droid 500% easier. Trust me, it improves the experience by far. Best of all, its free. So give it a try.

They were transferred from by BB. It's just my regular phone numbers etc... not gmail contacts or FB.

I'm not sure unless the transfer has somehow entered the names etc in the wrong field.

Try manually entering a few contacts making sure to put thefirst/last names in the right box etc and see if they show up as expected. I'm not sure what to tell you if that doesn't work. You could try a reset or exchanging the phone if it still doesnt work.

Wow... here's the lowdown. If the default number for a contact's phone number is set to anything other than mobile... it will not come up as a contact you can send and SMS to.

I downloaded the Handcent SMS and it works well.

Thanks for the help!

Don't forget to disable the phone's message notifications. Otherwise, you will get double notifications for each message (one from phone, one from handcent sms).

If you like, there is an option in the settings to make the layout look almost exactly the same as the phone's messaing program (without all those bubbles and pretty colors). The Handcent skin looks nice but I turned those extra effects off because it made reading the messages more difficult.

hmm. I guess that makes sense, except that a lot of people have a work mobile phone and setting it to "work" makes sense but I'd still like to SMS them.

Might have to go through and change that...but it seems like it would make more sense to fix the functionality.

Well, it would make more sense to give us an option to pull up our contact list also, but no, you have to type each person's number or name just to write a message to them, rather than quickling selecting them from the contact list.

And there is no telling when and if improvement on that will ever be added, and so thats why I made the switch to the Handcent SMS app. But honestly, once I got use to it and set everything up like I wanted, I'm never looking back. This app is amazing.

i was using SMS Popup, but I just installed Handcent - we'll see how it goes once i start getting more texts from ESPN updating me on NFL stuff today =p

There is a setting to enable/disable popup messages on handcent sms. With all of the settings in the app...should work fine if not better. Tweak it till you get it personalized.

I like how I can make a custom vibrating pattern and edit the blinking LEDs on notifications. Pretty neat.

yea - i went through all the settings, and I must say this app is sick. The only bad thing I can see about it is the low-res icon it has =p

The only thing I didn't like was how it forces you to use a skin. I would have been fine if it looked just like the native messaging app. The theme stuff seemed like extra bloat that didn't really help the usability of the app. It does look pretty though =]

You can make it look like the normal app. I changed the backgrounds to be black and white text, and I set the conversation theme to "Android" and it worked nicely. But then I changed the colors to be darker because I'm like that

can you tell me how to disable the phone's text feature so I won't get 2 text each time?

you're getting one text, just two notifications.

my personal preference was to go into the Messages app, hit the menu button, go to the settings, and disable notifications completely. That allowed the Handcent app to handle all notifications. It's working great.

Disable the phone's text notifications, and let Handcent do the text notifications.

Wow, you people are the best, thanks so much...PS more questions to come..lol