A particular formatting bug is causing issues with text strings between iPhone and Android users, and no one seems quite sure who is to blame.
Several reports in several threads on Reddit and elsewhere complain that the number of people using Android or Google Voice is displayed on iPhones with an additional + sign at the beginning. This leads the iPhone to become confused and think it must be an international number: if the first two digits of the area code were 44, for example, it would become the international code +44 for the United Kingdom when the iPhone applies its automatic number. layout.
This misidentification can lead to various troublesome issues. Chat threads can break because the phone thinks new messages are from someone else. If you’re texting someone for the first time, they may be discouraged from reading the message because the odd number makes them assume it’s a scammer.
Some reviewers have speculated that the issue is related to iOS 16 somehow, and it’s true that the issue seems to coincide with Apple’s iOS 16.5 update. But curiously, an almost identical problem was reported several years ago, with one of the afflicted noting his use of iOS 13.1.2. It might be a coincidence that issues with 13.1.2 and 16.5 showed up in the same bug, but it’s hard to imagine that Apple would have fixed the original bug just to allow it to return all those years later.
At the time, Apple would “confirm to me that they don’t modify/provide/etc any incoming phone data. They said it’s all from the carrier. But if the carrier is the culprit, it’s strange that T-Mobile has been the center of anger before, whereas now, according to MacRumors coverage, the most complaints are coming from AT&T users.
For now, this is all a mystery. However, while various solutions have been offered – text yourself, do a hard reset, reset network settings – the most reliable is probably to make sure the contacts are entered with the correct international code included. For US contacts, this means you must include the +1 at the beginning.
