iPhone text messing
December 7, 2018 5:38 AM Subscribe
Apparently some recent "enhancement" by the UX "geniuses" at Apple has altered the behavior of iOS text messaging to my great puzzlement.
Recently I noticed that if I get a group message from V, there is no way to tell it is a group message until I see messages from others in reply that clearly are referring to V's message--it just shows up at the end of the messages between me and V. This is sub-optimal, since I might send a very different message privately to V than I would send to a large group, and if I reply to it, it goes to the entire group.
I have searched various fora and find nothing that even acknowledges that this behavior has changed. I would like to know a) how to tell the complete set of people that will receive a message I'm sending a reply to and b) how to turn off this incredibly dumb misfeature and get the old behavior (separate group threads). This is an iPhone 6+ with iOS 12.0.
It is also possible I am doing something dumb...
Recently I noticed that if I get a group message from V, there is no way to tell it is a group message until I see messages from others in reply that clearly are referring to V's message--it just shows up at the end of the messages between me and V. This is sub-optimal, since I might send a very different message privately to V than I would send to a large group, and if I reply to it, it goes to the entire group.
I have searched various fora and find nothing that even acknowledges that this behavior has changed. I would like to know a) how to tell the complete set of people that will receive a message I'm sending a reply to and b) how to turn off this incredibly dumb misfeature and get the old behavior (separate group threads). This is an iPhone 6+ with iOS 12.0.
It is also possible I am doing something dumb...
Firs thing I would try is updating to 12.1.1 that just came out. I, too, see all of the group when I get texts and I am still on 12.1.
posted by soelo at 6:28 AM on December 7, 2018
posted by soelo at 6:28 AM on December 7, 2018
Go to
Are Group Messaging and/or MMS Messaging set to on?
posted by zamboni at 6:29 AM on December 7, 2018
Settings > MessagesAre Group Messaging and/or MMS Messaging set to on?
posted by zamboni at 6:29 AM on December 7, 2018
I have an iPhone 6 with iOS 12.1 and when 12.0 was current, I ran that. I never noticed a change like that. If you haven't restarted your phone in a while, I might start there.
posted by advicepig at 6:30 AM on December 7, 2018
posted by advicepig at 6:30 AM on December 7, 2018
At the top of a 3-person group message thread, for example, my phone displays the initials or photos of the other two people in the group, plus " 2 People > ". If you click on the "2 People >", and then click i (info), you can see the full names of the other 2 people in the group. Bottom line -- you can clearly see if an incoming message is coming from an individual or from a group.
posted by JimN2TAW at 8:03 AM on December 7, 2018
posted by JimN2TAW at 8:03 AM on December 7, 2018
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by zamboni at 5:50 AM on December 7, 2018 [3 favorites]