Here's why your iPhone may have received strange texts last night

Posted:
in iPhone edited November 2019
A batch of text messages sent months ago were delivered to iPhones and other mobile devices in the United States early in the morning of November 7, with the mysterious message delivery most likely linked to the rollout of the recently-launched Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative.




In the early hours of Thursday morning, a number of US mobile users discovered they were receiving text messages at an unusual time of day. The messages, which included both texts from companies and from people the recipients know, all appear to have been originally sent around the time of Valentine's Day in February.

The messages were not limited by mobile device producer or operating system, which effectively rules out services like Apple's iMessage that are limited to iOS devices like the iPhone. The affected users were also not limited to a specific carrier, with customers of all the major mobile networks in the US seemingly falling victim to the problem.

The out-of-context nature of the messages led to posts on Twitter and Reddit complaining about their occurrence, reports Popular Mechanics. As the messages seemed like they were legitimately sent by the sender, this caused some confusion between the two parties, and with many not necessarily keeping messaging logs that go as far back as February, many are left without the ability to check if the messages were originally received correctly.

While there is no official statement from any of the carriers explaining why the event took place, radio station 92 Moose advises U.S. Cellular confirmed there was an issue with an update to the Cross-Carrier Messaging System. According to the representative, the glitch affected several carriers, and is unlikely to result in any more messages from Valentine's Day reappearing.

Some customers have also reported similar responses from the support teams of other carriers via social media.

Officially announced in October, the Cross-Carrier Messaging Initiative is based on GSMA's Rich Communications Service industry standard to improve messages between customers on the different carriers. AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon have all signed up for the venture, which aims to develop and deploy the interoperable messaging service in 2020, initially to Android devices.

CCMI is expected to enable an enhanced experience to privately send individual or group chats across carriers with high-quality pictures and videos, as well as to help customers interact with brands and perform transactions, such as paying bills or scheduling appointments. Most importantly, it aims to create a "single seamless, interoperable RCS experience across carriers, both in the US and globally."

Given the large number of people who would be affected by the system's implementation, it seems likely Apple would have to include support for it in Messages in the future.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 17
    Does anyone else find it creepy that the carrier has a listing of all the previous text messages in their system queued up to resend? I understand the need to keep the text message metadata because of laws or other purposed, but the actual message content? 
    edited November 2019
  • Reply 2 of 17
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,597member
    Does anyone else find it creepy that the carrier has a listing of all the previous text messages in their system queued up to resend? I understand the need to keep the text message metadata because of laws or other purposed, but the actual message content? 
    It's worse than that. Those quite old Valentines messages came via a "3rd party provider". 
    AppleExposedlibertyforallcaladanian
  • Reply 3 of 17
    I thought it was weird that I got a message from a friend at 3 in the morning asking "what's going on". She would be sleeping and I was sleeping. I don't even know if she'd remember when she sent that one either.

    Edit: I just searched my Messages and found the exact same message text from March 20th from her. Wow.
    edited November 2019
  • Reply 4 of 17
    AppleExposedAppleExposed Posts: 1,805unconfirmed, member
    The future is, scary.
  • Reply 5 of 17
    coolfactorcoolfactor Posts: 2,323member
    Does anyone else find it creepy that the carrier has a listing of all the previous text messages in their system queued up to resend? I understand the need to keep the text message metadata because of laws or other purposed, but the actual message content? 

    I'm sure all carriers do it. On my previous carrier, I was able to log into my account online and see all text messages sent between my device and others using the web interface. Yes, creepy, because clearly there's no encryption involved at all, so my conversations are sitting in plain-text on my carrier's servers? So much for privacy, eh?


    caladanianrazorpit
  • Reply 6 of 17
    jasoco said:
    I thought it was weird that I got a message from a friend at 3 in the morning asking "what's going on". She would be sleeping and I was sleeping. I don't even know if she'd remember when she sent that one either.

    Edit: I just searched my Messages and found the exact same message text from March 20th from her. Wow.
    I wonder how many people in the same boat, replied back and inadvertently started very awkward conversations.

    I wonder how many people received texts from recently deceased loved ones.  Ouch. 
    macseekerrazorpit
  • Reply 7 of 17
    SoliSoli Posts: 10,038member
    From the deceased seemingly texting people to exes creepily reaching out in the middle of the night, this sure has caused quite the commotion.
    razorpit
  • Reply 8 of 17
    Soli said:
    From the deceased seemingly texting people to exes creepily reaching out in the middle of the night, this sure has caused quite the commotion.
    Yeah, Halloween was last week.
  • Reply 9 of 17
    Sounds like a bulk data collection bug that revealed....all messages are retained indefinitely. Just like cell phone call logs.
    toysandmerazorpit
  • Reply 10 of 17
    Most importantly, it aims to create a "single seamless, interoperable RCS experience across carriers, both in the US and globally." 

    Because carriers and phone manufacturers are renowned for their ability to work together well and deliver innovative features at pace. iMessage only launched in 2011, so they are catching up fast. 

    Given the large number of people who would be affected by the system's implementation, it seems likely Apple would have to include support for it in Messages in the future.”

    Riiiiiight. There is a higher probability that Apple would release a line of fax machines. 
  • Reply 11 of 17
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,267member
    Why is the iMessage app on the home screen green? Should it not be blue?
    razorpit
  • Reply 12 of 17
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    entropys said:
    Why is the iMessage app on the home screen green? Should it not be blue?
    Glad you asked. I was thinking the same thing.
  • Reply 13 of 17
    linkmanlinkman Posts: 1,046member
    entropys said:
    Why is the iMessage app on the home screen green? Should it not be blue?
    @entropys @razorpit can you explain further? On the AI article I'm seeing the iMessage as blue and the text message as green. Is there an iMessage app? I'm running iOS 13.1.3 on my iPhone 7 and there is a Messages app in green on my home screen, but no iMessage app (nor can I find one in the App store, but there are apps related to iMessage that Apple calls "iMessage apps" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206906).
  • Reply 14 of 17
    razorpitrazorpit Posts: 1,796member
    linkman said:
    entropys said:
    Why is the iMessage app on the home screen green? Should it not be blue?
    @entropys @razorpit can you explain further? On the AI article I'm seeing the iMessage as blue and the text message as green. Is there an iMessage app? I'm running iOS 13.1.3 on my iPhone 7 and there is a Messages app in green on my home screen, but no iMessage app (nor can I find one in the App store, but there are apps related to iMessage that Apple calls "iMessage apps" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206906).
    It's just a wonky picture without the context behind it. No need to explain.
  • Reply 15 of 17
    gatorguygatorguy Posts: 24,597member
    So the company responsible for delivering those old texts is Syniverse. I had no idea a company like this existed. 

    https://www.syniverse.com/insights/syniverse-statement-regarding-todays-text-messaging-event
    Soliroundaboutnow
  • Reply 16 of 17
    entropysentropys Posts: 4,267member
    linkman said:
    entropys said:
    Why is the iMessage app on the home screen green? Should it not be blue?
    @entropys @razorpit can you explain further? On the AI article I'm seeing the iMessage as blue and the text message as green. Is there an iMessage app? I'm running iOS 13.1.3 on my iPhone 7 and there is a Messages app in green on my home screen, but no iMessage app (nor can I find one in the App store, but there are apps related to iMessage that Apple calls "iMessage apps" https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT206906).
    On your home screen the app icon you tap to open iMessage is green, not blue. Should it not be blue like an iMessage bubble?
    razorpit
  • Reply 17 of 17
    When I had my phone Jailbroken, oh 5 years ago or so there was Winterboard theme where you could change the color of your messages app. I had mine blue as it seemed appropriate and frankly it just looked better. Not that this all that important, but hey it’s Monday. 
    edited November 2019
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