A peculiar formatting bug is causing problem with text chains between iPhone and Android user , and no one seems quite certain who is to blame .
Multiple reports inmultiplethreadson Reddit and elsewhere kvetch that the numbers of people using Android or Google Voice are showing up on iPhones with an additional + signboard at the beginning . This leads to the iPhone becoming confused and think it must be an outside number : if the first two digits of the area code were 44 , for example , it would turn into the +44 international code for the U.K. when the iPhone put on its automatic number formatting .
This misidentification can lead to various vexing problems . Chat thread may demote because the phone call back New message are coming from a unlike soul . If you ’re messaging someone for the first time , meanwhile , they may be put off reading the content because the unusual numeral makes them seize it ’s a scammer .
Some commenters have speculated that the problem is refer toiOS 16 in some way , and it ’s on-key that the government issue does appear to coincide with Apple’siOS 16.5 update . But oddly a near - identical problem was reportedseveral year ago , with one of the afflicted mark their manipulation of iOS 13.1.2 . Perhaps it ’s a coincidence that problems with 13.1.2 and 16.5 just happened to demonstrate in the same germ , but it ’s hard to imagine that Apple would have determine the original microbe only to allow it back all these years later .
At the time , Apple reportedly “ confirmed to me that they in no style change / provide / etc any of the incoming phone data . They said that is all from the postman . ” But if the carrier is the culprit , it ’s left that T - Mobile was the direction of ira antecedently , whereas now , perMacRumors ’ insurance coverage , the most numerous complaint come from AT&T user .
For now the whole thing is a mystery . However , while various solutions have been put forward – get off yourself a text , do a hard reset , reset networking setting – the most reliable is plausibly to make indisputable liaison are enter with the right international codification included . For U.S. contacts , that entail you ask to include the +1 at the beginning .
