iPhone Contacts has duplicate phone numbers and tries to call out using WhatsApp

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Level 1

26 points

iPhone Contacts has duplicate phone numbers and tries to call out using WhatsApp

iOS16.4.1(a)

I've recently noticed two strange behaviours that I managed to pin down to the WhatsApp iOS update in early May 2023.

First (and I suspect this is because Siri has suggestions toggled on), phone numbers for all my contacts were duplicated. To be clear, I did not have duplicate contacts - each contact had duplicated numbers. For example:

Contact name

Work number xxxx

Mobile yyyy

Appeared as:

Contact name

Phone xxxx

Phone yyyy

Work number xxxx

Mobile yyyy

The second thing I noticed was that opening a contact in Contacts and pressing the Call button would invariably result in my screen switching over to WhatsApp with WhatsApp attempting to make the call and then failing.

To resolve this, I did the following.

Uninstalled WhatsApp
Turned off all Siri & Search suggestions for WhatsApp
Restarted my iPhone
Reinstalled WhatsApp

I'm not sure if this is an Apple or WhatsApp issue.

iPhone 12 Pro Max

Posted on May 10, 2023 10:07 PM

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Answer 1

May 11, 2023 1:03 AM in response to Matteo4810

This is neither iPhone nor WhatsApp issue.

Open the Contacts app and Open the Contact whom you want to call.

Touch and Hold (Firmly Press) the Call button as shown in the pic below. Then Select the number you want to make a call to.

Watch the GIF below which explains everything.

Which ever mode of communication you use frequently is what takes priority and displayed. Tap and hold the Call, Video etc as shown in the GIF below

On each of the option, you will find small "v" at the right hand side of options. Tap to get the Phone number associated with the option (Skype, WhatsApp, Hangouts, FaceTime etc)

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Answer 2

Matteo4810 Author

Level 1

26 points

May 11, 2023 1:55 AM in response to SravanKrA

Thanks, but I think you may have misinterpreted the issue.

I contacted Apple Support to try figure out why I all of a sudden had duplicated phone numbers on my iPhone only (this behaviour was not present on my iPad or Mac, which share the same contacts via iCloud). Apple Support agreed there was indeed a problem and we went through a diagnostic process.

As it turned out, the solution I outlined in my original post fixed the problem of duplicate numbers for each contact and stopped my iPhone trying to call out on WhatsApp (which has never happened before).

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Answer 3

Mar 26, 2024 4:36 PM in response to Matteo4810

I had the very same last year August 2023), ut it was on two iPhones and one iPad at different times (the iPad does not have WhatsApp).

i also noticed that when I searched for a contact. The phone icon took a while to display as white (so I could press it).

After. Couple of updates, it went away on all three devices.

Had I not had the photographic evidence of the devices side by side showing duplicated and not duplicated, Apple would not have believed me. The guy in Dublin support conceded that he had no solution to the problem.

this morning it has come back twice, but then gone away, after I closed all of my apps and tried again.

very strange Apple. Hard to pin down on the internet as 99% of the calls for help are from people who have accidentally deleted some or all of their contacts.

If you are reading this Apple, my support case ID is 102046852953

The email trail also identifies previous instances of the same issue from different users.

All very odd and somewhat annoying. When it does duplicate, clicking on only one if the numbers (not to one labelled iPhone, I recall) in a pair will initiate a call.

Cheers

Tony

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Answer 4

Oct 19, 2023 4:56 PM in response to SravanKrA

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Answer 5

Oct 19, 2023 4:53 PM in response to SravanKrA

What’s it mean if it says other next to it

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iPhone Contacts has duplicate phone numbers and tries to call out using WhatsApp

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