When I send a text to a person in my contacts, why can't iPhone select the mobile number to send the text to? Is there a setting for this? It seems to pick the landline number about half the time, even for people I have sent texts to before. Or at least it could give me a choice if there's an ambiguity. This doesn't seem that hard.
iPhone 12
You are indeed offered a choice.
I set up this contact for illustration.
Then I started to create a message, and the incorrect number appeared.
So on clicking where the above arrow shows, I may select the correct number.
You are indeed offered a choice.
I set up this contact for illustration.
Then I started to create a message, and the incorrect number appeared.
So on clicking where the above arrow shows, I may select the correct number.
Thanks for the reply. I see that right arrow sometimes, but not every time. Sometimes it doesn't show the arrow and I think "OK, I've sent a text to this person before so it knows" but the text fails cuz it goes to landline. Besides, the mobile number is clearly marked in contacts - why can't iPhone just choose it straight away? I see in your example it first selected the wrong number.
djm52 wrote:
I see in your example it first selected the wrong number.
As I (obviously) constructed this example specifically to illustrate this scenario, I thought the most likely way to build the sample contact would be to enter the landline first. I think (but am not certain) that’s how the contact’s phone numbers are presented when messaging - in the order they appear in the contact’s data itself.
OK you might be right. But I don't "build" my contacts. They are what they are, and if I entered a landline number first (as is often the case for people I've known a long time) I'm not inclined to rework thousands of contacts just because the iPhone is too dumb to recognize the "mobile" label. And I know that as soon as I spend hours doing that some engineer at Apple would say "Hey, this would be a good thing to do..." and spend 30 minutes fixing the code.
Anyway, I don't mean to sound unappreciative. You put a lot of time into answering my question, and I appreciate that. Thank you and Happy New Year.
I wouldn’t rebuild the contacts either. There do come times in my experience where I need to choose the mobile number (or Apple ID) when sending a message instead of the default landline.
Texts sent to landline phones
