iPhone texts and calls can go to the wrong number | Hacker News Reader

iPhone texts and calls can go to the wrong number

wp.josh.com

38 pointsluu16 comments

I really think it is related to shared Apple IDs. I know the author states that they do not share one, but every time I've seen this happen, it has either been due to a currently shared Apple ID or one that has been shared in the past and logged into in just one place while the rest of the phone has been switched over to the new Apple ID.

Managing Apple devices is a royal PITA. Trying to change from 2-step to 2-factor authentication was not simple because I had a legacy 3gs device. I thought managing devices attached to my account via appleid.apple.com was enough. Nope. After much investigation, I learned there was also something buried via iTunes software. I am not sure where in the back-end the iTunes device list was being stored, but there was no connection between the iTunes device list and what was listed via the website.

The appleid.apple.com and iTunes device lists are also segregated from the Apple support website that has its own device list. Which appears to randomly delete stuff from my profile. With the recent revamping of their support website I checked it out, and they now only show 1 current Apple device. Not the previously listed 5 I actually have.

I don't know if I've actually found all the possible editable locations Apple device information could be stored with Apple.

Hundreds of millions of iPhones in use, and both of the examples cited in the blog post are people who know each other or are related. That seems... odd.

That was my take - with ~17B messages a day[1], you'd think this would be happening fairly frequently if it's a global problem (rather than shared IDs, etc.)

[1] http://www.cultofmac.com/412432/apple-users-send-200000-imes...

If the bug causes it to go to a different contact, then it's always going to go to a contact.

Iphone-to-iphone texts are sent over IP, using some apple database mapping. Regular texts use phone company SMS. There is a widely known bug that if you switch from iphone to non-apple-phone you can fail to receive texts, as apple still tries to use the IP routing. I guess some bug or misconfiguration there could result in texts to the wrong recipient.

As far as I know, there is no analagous VOIP routing for iphone calls: all go through the regular network. So misrouting there would be a much bigger surprise!

You can answer a call from a different device with the iPhone, right? It seems like there may be some similar routing that can theoretically happen.

Ive have also had texts end up on the wrong thread. I had a group thread (with my girlfriend, and sister) and a friend texted a different group thread (with my girlfriend, and the friend), but according to my phone my friend added herself to the thread with my sister and girlfriend. I have screen shots to back it up. It happened again recently to my girlfriend.

I'm pretty sure I experienced the same thing with 2 overlapping group chats.

I can confirm that this has happened to me. Just the other day I got a call from friend, who I haven't spoken to in months, stating that he had missed a call from me. It was great catching up with him but I apologized and stated that I might've accidentally butt dialed the number. After hanging up and checking my call log, it showed that I never dialed the number to begin with. I simply brushed off this incident as a Verizon network problem. I can see this issue having some serious consequences for people in different situations!

The photo would suggest these are imessages, not texts.

I think most people who use apple imessages call them texts, whether or not that is correct.

Because Apple makes very little effort to avoid that confusion. Both activities take place inside the same app, and will automatically (yeah, right) route across the relevant delivery system based on the status of the recipient(s).

I'm not sure why you say (yeah, right.) Is this something you've had an issue with? I've never not had a message go through whether via iMessage or SMS, assuming I'm actually online/on cellular.

Article says nothing about calls, contra the title here.

Actually searching for the word call(s) made me find that they found that calls go to the right number and texts sometimes don't. So the article directly contradicts the title.

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