Texting Between IPhone And Android Users Currently Broken Due To This Bizarre Bug
A strange bug has been discovered affecting text messages between iPhone and Android users. According to a series of posts on Reddit, text messages sent by an Android user to an iPhone user mistakenly add extra digits to their phone number. The issue primarily affects Android users with AT&T phones.
The problem is that text messages are sent from an Android user to an iPhone user, but the iPhone puts the phone number with a "+" sign. This tricks the messaging app or operator into thinking the message was sent from an international phone number by using the first digits as the international code.
In the Messages app, this Android user's message is posted to their message thread. When an iPhone user tries to reply to this link, the message cannot be sent. You can normally reply in the main thread, but when the person replies, a new message is posted in the same thread with the wrong international phone number.
In most cases, the carrier's automated system will send a message to the iPhone user to "resend message using a valid 10 digit mobile phone number".
As one Reddit user explains:
I texted my best friend this morning and the message went through our regular text messages. For context, he's an Android user. Answer: A new thread is launched with its own number and a plus sign at the beginning. I am getting an invalid number error when replying, but it still accepts text. If you write to him in our regular thread, he will find it too. But all answers are from a non-working number.
Another Reddit user:
I've had the phone for a year now and have never had a problem with Android messages. Yesterday I wrote to one of my friends and everything was fine. When I emailed him today, I got a response from a number that had a number, but it was set in a weird way (the last digit of the area code was set with the rest of the number). Whenever I send text in the chat window, I immediately get an invalid number error, but in our first chat, the text gets through. Basically, the texts I send to him and the texts he sends to me are displayed in two separate chat windows.
It is not clear where exactly in the pipeline this error occurred. Given that these messages are sent via SMS, it looks like the operator has some kind of network problem. We have seen several reports of this issue affecting AT&T customers. It is not clear if other carriers are affected by this issue.
The problem mostly occurs when an iPhone user sends a text message to an Android user on AT&T, regardless of their carrier. It looks like the issue is unrelated to today's release of iOS 16.5.
Reddit thread about this:
We'll update this story if Apple, AT&T, or another carrier acknowledges the problem. Having trouble sending text messages from iPhone to Android users? Write to us in the comments.
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