There’s always a chance of texting the wrong person no matter how skilled you are with your phone’s touchscreen. However, thanks to a glitch in iOS 12, this fear is becoming even more real, as many users are complaining about iMessages being sent to the wrong people.
Why are iMessages being sent to the wrong people?
The problem with iMessages being sent to the wrong people is not actually a bug; rather, it’s part of a new feature introduced with iOS 12. Apple’s new feature is mainly an attempt to improve the messaging service across all iOS devices. The new iOS feature aims to merge chats for iOS users with multiple phone numbers and email addresses.
For example, a friend or family member with more than one number and/or device will find all their messages in a single thread. However, the feature is wrongly merging the phone numbers and email addresses of multiple people into a single thread, and this is causing all the confusion with iMessages being sent to the wrong people.
Thus, it appears the new iOS 12 feature is treating users with different email addresses and phone numbers as a single contact. As a result, the affected user can only text the last person in the message thread. It has also become hard to identify the user who sent the message.
For instance, one can easily send a single message to multiple contacts, like their spouse and child. However, return messages from either the spouse or the child are also grouped under a single contact thread.
“Our text messages are all screwed up. My son’s are coming through as my husband and vice versa,” one affected user tweeted. “My mom texts me and it goes to my husband or son’s phone. Also, we see each other’s phone call history. WTH is going on?”
@AppleSupport I am experiencing problems on ios 12 where two iMessage conversations I am having are combined into one thread. When I try and text one separately, they all end up back in the same thread under the name of the person that texted me last. Do you have a solution?
— Tyler (@livlikeverdeyen) September 25, 2018
New iOS feature to blame
As of now, it is not clear how widespread this issue of iMessages being sent to the wrong people is. However, several social forums, including Apple Support Communities, are flooded with complaints from users.
Though it is not clear what is causing the issue, some users pointed out that one common trait among those experiencing the issue is that it is affecting immediate family members or those sharing an Apple ID. It might suggest Apple is merging the threads based on Apple IDs but is ignoring names, email addresses and phone numbers.
According to PiunikaWeb, Apple reportedly confirmed to one affected user that the feature is working as intended. Even if this is the case, many users who don’t even share an Apple ID have also reported that their iMessages are being sent to the wrong people.
We may never know exactly what is causing the issue, unless Apple comes forward with an explanation. For now, there is no workaround, but Apple may be aware of the issue and is hopefully working to fix it.
Apple’s iMessage is a big reason many users are loyal to iOS. However, if the issue with iMessages being sent to the wrong people persists, there won’t be much reason to stick with Apple. Thus, it is imperative for Apple to fix the issue as soon as possible.
Charging issues with iOS 12 fixed
One other major issue many iOS 12 users are facing is that the iPhone XS and XS Max are not charging properly. The issue, which is affecting other iOS devices as well, is keeping them from being charged properly over a Lightning connection when the screen is not activated. Waking the phone up will resume charging, but if the screen remains off, there is no surety that the device is actually charging.
“If i haven’t interacted with the phone for some time, it becomes unresponsive to a charger being plugged in,” one user said on the Apple forums. “But if I unplug then lift it and start using it, it will recognize the charger.”
Reports suggest Apple has patched the charging issue in iOS 12.1 Beta 2. Though the update came out with no official release notes, iMore’s Rene Ritchie claims it does address the charging issue.
“Today’s iOS 12.1 beta includes a fix for the charging issue some people were experiencing with iPhone and iPad,” Ritchie tweeted.
This beta update will arrive on all iPhones and iPads sometime later this fall.
