iPhone weirdness: please explain
May 1, 2016 12:06 PM   Subscribe

Mr. BlahLaLa and I each have an iPhone 4s -- same phones we've had for years. Just in the last few days we're experiencing a weird phenomenon when both phones ring at once.

Our phones will be hanging out near one another on, say, our living room table. Both phones will start ringing at the same time. We will each look at the screens and see that we're receiving a call from someone we know. Say, my mother. We'll both try to pick up but neither call will go through. Invariably a minute later my mom will call on our house phone, saying she tried MY cell but the call didn't go through. Meaning, this was a legit call that somehow rang both phones at once.

Note: there is another situation when this occurs that is entirely different. That's when both phones start ringing, and we look at them and see the same fake or spoofed number calling. If one or both of us pick up it's clear that this is some stupid telemarketing call, no doubt enabled by an auto-dialer on the marketer's side. Those calls will connect as two separate calls, so I think this is not related to the double-ring scenario.

So, what's the deal with both of our phones ringing at once? Our phones do have numbers that are one digit off -- xxx-xxx-xxx1 and xxx-xxx-xxx2. Is that part of the reason? Is it because they're so old? IS IT A GLITCH IN THE MATRIX? Please explain.

One more data point: Kid BlahLaLa also has a 4s but his has an entirely different number: xxx-yyy-yyyy. His phone is never affected.
posted by BlahLaLa to Technology (6 answers total)
 
Is it possible that these are FaceTime voice calls and you share an Apple ID?
posted by Automocar at 12:12 PM on May 1, 2016 [2 favorites]


I also suspect you're sharing the same apple ID
posted by HuronBob at 12:17 PM on May 1, 2016


Response by poster: They're not showing up as FaceTime calls. We do share the same Apple ID, however we have since we got these phones years ago. What could have changed in the last week or two?
posted by BlahLaLa at 12:18 PM on May 1, 2016


Best answer: Okay, so I knew there was some ability to send phone calls to other devices using the same Apple ID.

Did you update the phones to iOS 8 recently? Or perhaps Continuity got turned on somehow? Anyway, I bet this is what's happening.
posted by Automocar at 12:27 PM on May 1, 2016


Best answer: Apple devices have the ability to bridge (send / receive) phone calls (not FaceTime calls) on other devices when connected on the same wifi network and using the same Apple ID. It's so if I'm on my Macbook / iPad I can do phone stuff without my actual phone if it's nearby.

I'm guessing it got turned on accidentally - it's under Settings -> Phone -> Calls on other devices.
posted by meowzilla at 12:30 PM on May 1, 2016 [3 favorites]


Response by poster: Yeesh. That continuity thing is what happened. We just upgraded to IOS9 last month and I guess the default was for that to be turned on. Thanks for the help, people!
posted by BlahLaLa at 2:41 PM on May 1, 2016


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