This Bizarre Bug Prevented Texting Between Users of iPhone and Android

Text messages sent and received between users of the iPhone and Android have been broken by a strange issue. 

Several Reddit postings claimed that messages received between Android and iPhone users incorrectly added an extra digit to the phone number.

Android customers with AT&T phones appeared to be most affected by the issue.

Texting between iPhone and Android users was broken due to a bizarre bug

The issue was brought on by text messages sent from an iPhone user to an Android user, but the iPhone added a "+" symbol before the phone number.

Because of this, the Messages app or the carrier interpreted the first four digits of the message as the international calling code and treated it as originating from an overseas phone number.

That incoming message from the Android user was then separated into its own messaging thread in the Messages app. 

The message wasn't sent when the iPhone user tried to reply to that thread. In the original thread, they could reply as usual, but when they replied, the new message was added to the same thread with the wrong foreign phone number.

The carrier would then frequently send an automatic message instructing the iPhone user to "re-send using a valid 10-digit mobile number."

iPhone inserted a “+” sign at the beginning of the phone number

One Reddit user wrote: 

“The message I sent to my best friend this morning in our customary text thread was received. She utilizes an Android device, for context. When she replied, a new thread with her phone number and a plus sign at the start was created. She still receives the SMS even when I reply to it and receive an invalid number error. She gets my texts if I send them on our usual thread. However, she always responds with an invalid number.”

It was uncertain exactly where this error was occurring in the pipeline. 

Yet, given that these messages were being transmitted over SMS, it appeared that the carrier may be experiencing a networking problem. 

Numerous reports on how this issue affected AT&T users had been seen. It was not clear if it affected other carriers as well.

No matter what carrier the iPhone user had, the issue seemed to arise most frequently when an iPhone user texted an Android user on AT&T. 

The issue didn't seem to be connected to the release of iOS 16.5 on May 18, 2023.

Stay tuned for the latest iPhone and Android news at gospeedcheck.com.

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