Difficulty sending attachment with Messages app

SteveS

I emailed myself a small pdf document (277kb) and downloaded it to my phone in the hope of texting it to a friend. When I go into the files app, I see it. When I go the the Messages app and tap on the little paper clip, it's not there. Is it possible to attach a pdf to a text message?

Dumdum

SteveS When I go the the Messages app and tap on the little paper clip, it's not there.

When you attach a file to the message, it retrieves files from the Recents section of the Files app I believe. For whatever reason, only images (and maybe videos) show up there. Assuming you're using the default Messaging app, on the "image" tab of the attachment options click the green box to open Files, then the "hamburger" (three horizontal lines) in the top left next to Recents and navigate to where the file is located and PDFs will show.

However, with that being said, it doesn't seem like you can attach PDFs. At least, I tried and the PDF is greyed out and unable to send.

I can suggest that you use something like Send to transfer the file to your friend with a link in a message.

petef

Dumdum

Files in general can't be attached to a SMS message unless they are photos or as you say maybe videos. You will notice that even full resolution photos will be downsized when sent as a SMS. You may be used to attaching other kinds of files with other messaging services, such as RCS (which is a "standard" that is gradually replacing SMS on Android and now iPhone).

I put "standard" in quotes because, as I understand it, RCS is actually proprietary, meaning that there is no Free/Open Source Software implementation available now or likely for the future. The GrapheneOS messaging app dues not support it, nor do other F/OSS text messaging apps.

So unfortunately, I believe this is a way in which the world of "texting" is leaving those of us who prefer to avoid corporate software behind. Alternatives would be putting the PDF online somewhere and texting a link to it, exporting or screenshotting the PDF into a format like PNG or JPG that can be texted, or sending by email or by a messaging app like Signal. Or, you could install a proprietary texting app like Google Messages or Facebook Messenger on your GrapheneOS phone.