iOS 12 has received mostly rave reviews from everyone since it arrived a few weeks ago. However, a strange problem has emerged for a certain number of users who are heavily dependent on iMessage for their communications.
Past versions of iOS had a problem where a chat with a single person would get split up into different threads because they had multiple numbers or devices, used their email ID and phone number for iMessage, or switched to a new SIM. iOS 12 tried to address this issue with a unified thread feature that would merge all these messages into one tidy thread.
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However, various iPhone and iPad users are complaining that Apple’s implementation of this solution has just made things worse since it combines threads with separate contacts. There seems to be some strange mixing and matching of contacts going on within iMessage because folks can’t send texts to their intended recipient.
As picked up by PiunikaWeb, one person on Apple’s Support forum talks about how she has a message thread with her daughter and her husband. When she sends a text on this thread, it only goes to the last person she talked to on the thread. She then created a new message for the other contact.
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This missive joins the combined message thread once it gets sent. She tried to restart her iPhone 6+ at this point, but the action didn’t help. Some say they can see other people’s phone call history and texts to one person are getting sent to another.
One person even shared a screenshot where they searched for “mum” in iMessage, only for their iPhone to only show the Dad chat window in the search results. Twitter and Apple Support are teeming with such complaints. It’s possible that Apple ID may have something to do with this mess.
Many of the affected users share an Apple ID since they’re all members of the same family. There’s a chance iOS 12 has merged everyone based on their Apple ID and not their names or numbers. One user found success deleting all email addresses associated with his Apple ID and using them for new Apple IDs for his wife and kids.
There are voices of dissent against this theory though. Some folks have pointed out that they don’t share a common Apple ID and are still facing the problem. The company hasn’t said anything about the matter yet. It seems like a pretty glaring mistake to make, so it’ll hopefully sort everything out in a future iOS update.