iMessage - identify whether message was sent to my phone number or email address?

[bmac89]

Hello,

Is it possible to determine which id (mobile number or email address) an incoming iMessage was sent to?

For example, I have my mobile number and 3 email addresses set up in iMessage & I am receiving some junk messages but want to confirm whether they were sent to my mobile number or email address/& which one, so I can cut them off?

In the mail app it is possible to see sender and recipient email addresses in the header and hence determine if the email was forwarded from one of your alias accounts. However it seems this is not possible in iMessage and you can only see the senders number or email address in an incoming iMessage.

Any help would be appreciated - thanks.

 

[0128672]

I don't believe there's a way to tell and agree it would be useful to know. In general I think most businesses text to your phone number. Most of the spam messages I get are to my phone number, and I only know that because it started after switching providers and changing my number.

I'm sure you've considered this, but you could test by disabling the email addresses temporarily.

 

[BigBlur]

It can be done by using tools like SQLite to look at the messages database contained in an iPhone backup (or directly from the messages database if you're using Messages on a Mac).

Analyzing iMessage with SQL

You can use SQL to search your old iMessage data - and learn some surprising facts about the people you text along the way.

arctype.com

 

[Azathoth123]

In general I think most businesses text to your phone number.

I almost never give businesses my correct phone number. My financial institutions, medical institutions, and government services, etc have it but not businesses that I buy stuff from. Vendors don’t need my phone number for any legitimate use, and in many years, me giving them a false phone number has never caused a single problem. For me anyway!