why are iPhones so thick when it comes to texts from people with two phones?

[madeirabhoy]

this really annoys me. its 2021.

my wife has a work android phone and a personal iPhone.

as apple allows, I have her as a contact, with both phones listed separately. this isnt voodoo. its pretty normal.

when she phones me, it lists which phone its coming from. if I miss a call, I can return the call to the phone she used.


when she texts me though, it comes through to the same thread no matter what phone. that I dont mind, its neater.

but, the default is to text to her iPhone. so if her iPhone is dead, and she texts me from her android phone, and I hit reply, it goes to her dead iPhone. which is really stupid. just imho.


ideally it would keep the same thread but text back to the last text I received or in an ideal world it would be able to ping to see if the default phone is connected.

 

[Jessica Lares]

Yeah, you'd think that it would at least send the text to the last number it got one from if it's in the same thread.

Can't do the other thing with just SMS, that's why we have all the other messaging apps now.

 

[CTHarrryH]

Thought about creating 2 different contacts and have each number with its own?

 

[bilibug]

Thought about creating 2 different contacts and have each number with its own?

You shouldn’t have to. I get frustrated when messaging through the share sheet tries (and fails) to send to a landline number set as a favorite for an individual.

 

[mrochester]

You shouldn’t have to. I get frustrated when messaging through the share sheet tries (and fails) to send to a landline number set as a favorite for an individual.

Possible silly question but if the phone numbers are attached to the same contact, how would the phone know which number to reply to? If your phone has received texts from two different numbers for the same person then it has to pick one to reply to. It sounds like it is picking iMessage/iPhone in preference of other numbers.

 

[madeirabhoy]

Possible silly question but if the phone numbers are attached to the same contact, how would the phone know which number to reply to? If your phone has received texts from two different numbers for the same person then it has to pick one to reply to. It sounds like it is picking iMessage/iPhone in preference of other numbers.

well the easy way, would be simply to show you which phone it comes from, in the same way it can show me which phone it comes from.

and maybe in some unobtrusive way, allow me from within the messages, to choose what phone im messaging.

 

[madeirabhoy]

Thought about creating 2 different contacts and have each number with its own?

see, thats what I have, by accident for some other people. but thats not perfect either, as the two conversations are in permanently different threads.

I have a colleague who has an android phone with two sims in the same, phone, one is her work one, one is her personal one, and ive no idea how/why she chooses, but generally in a matter of a conversation ill text one, she answers back from the other one and im sure sometimes it changes mid conversation.

 

[mrochester]

well the easy way, would be simply to show you which phone it comes from, in the same way it can show me which phone it comes from.

and maybe in some unobtrusive way, allow me from within the messages, to choose what phone im messaging.

This is effectively sub-partitioning messages so that they are initially partitioned by contact and then by phone number.

I presume it could be done but isn’t a priority (or even a feature request!). Your best bet is submit feedback to Apple and hope enough people have the same issue for Apple to take notice and do something about it.

 

[jzuena]

well the easy way, would be simply to show you which phone it comes from, in the same way it can show me which phone it comes from.

and maybe in some unobtrusive way, allow me from within the messages, to choose what phone im messaging.

the easy answer would be a long press onthe message, but that’s already reserved for reacting to a text