My (iPhone 11) phone has suddenly started adding "thumbs up/down" or other comments to text messages which I myself did not make. I can see an icon now attached to the particular messages where this has happened, but I never myself did it. IOS 16.6 latest version. This first started happening a couple of days ago but seems to occur now in many conversations.
iPhone 11, iOS 15
Twelve Shades Publications wrote:
Remember: the original text message came from her, not me. The person who purportedly "thumbed" it therefore was supposed to be me, but it wasn't. And there are no other parties involved.
The way a message gets "thumbs uped" is if you press and hold on it and then tap the appropriate icon. I just did a test and yes, you can do it on a message sent to you from an non-iMessage contact. I have two thoughts about what may be happening. One, that somehow, you're holding the phone and doing this accidentally (please note this is not a judgment, just a suggestion of a possibility). Or two, that your touch screen is starting to fail. To remedy the first, try to make sure you lock the screen when you're done with whatever you're doing on the phone. And, for two, as noted above, contact Apple.
Twelve Shades Publications wrote:
Remember: the original text message came from her, not me. The person who purportedly "thumbed" it therefore was supposed to be me, but it wasn't. And there are no other parties involved.
The way a message gets "thumbs uped" is if you press and hold on it and then tap the appropriate icon. I just did a test and yes, you can do it on a message sent to you from an non-iMessage contact. I have two thoughts about what may be happening. One, that somehow, you're holding the phone and doing this accidentally (please note this is not a judgment, just a suggestion of a possibility). Or two, that your touch screen is starting to fail. To remedy the first, try to make sure you lock the screen when you're done with whatever you're doing on the phone. And, for two, as noted above, contact Apple.
Twelve Shades Publications wrote:
All right then, please explain how I could have "a touch screen problem" when the phone wasn't(!) in my pocket.
Ghost touches and missed touches are among the various symptoms of a failing digitizer or display. These ghost touches can arise with no contact, or in an unexpected location with a touch, or touches can be missed or mis-located.
Usual path there is to remove any screen-protective film and any protective case and testing again, then probably a re-install as that can sometimes re-calibrate the display, and then a discussion with Apple Support about repairs.
The person you are texting with has the ability to mark a message as thumbs up, or a few other “emotions”, which you will also see.
If you feel comfortable with it, please share a screenshot of these messages. Using the Markup tools, pick the highlighter, choose the color black, and color everything in except the very end of the message where the thumbs up’s are. That way we can help determine if it’s you or the other person leaving these.
Please make sure no personal info is showing.
Are you, or she, sharing your Apple ID’s with other people?
This is nothing "accidental" on my part, e.g. any of the strange and wonderful things that a phone might try to do while rolling around in your pocket. :-) After a lengthy (chat ...) conversation with Verizon, they suggested that I might wish to replace the SIM-card in this phone – which can be done for free at any "corporate" store – just in case the phone might somehow have been "hijacked" or "cloned." Although I consider this possibility to be very unlikely (I live in the country ...), I plan to do it. They told me that they did not have access to the thread itself – and I must take their word on this, I suppose – so as to be able to determine from their end what might actually have happened. They took the transcript of my 'chat' and agreed to open and escalate an internal incident report within Verizon.
Since this incident involved "both an iPhone and an Android," hence an SMS conversation and not iMessage, I'm not really sure at this point if there is really anything else to be done. Nor anything in particular that "Apple" could do. So, I must consider this to be "closed."
Thank you, all, for your prompt and valuable contributions. One thing that this exchange has told me is that at no point did anyone step up and say, "Hey! This happened to me, too!" Neither did Verizon indicate such.
Twelve Shades Publications wrote:
After a lengthy (chat ...) conversation with Verizon, they suggested that I might wish to replace the SIM-card in this phone – which can be done for free at any "corporate" store – just in case the phone might somehow have been "hijacked" or "cloned." Although I consider this possibility to be very unlikely (I live in the country ...), I plan to do it.
It is so unlikely as to not be worth the trip to the store. The reason they suggested that is because they didn't know what else to tell you and wanted to get you off the phone. Customer service agents at Verizon have a quota of people they have to help and, they are really not technical support people so, either they will blame Apple or tell you to go to the store. Yes, I worked for them for 20 years.
It is far more likely that you have a touch screen problem than that your phone has been "hijacked".
They told me that they did not have access to the thread itself – and I must take their word on this,
They were telling you the truth. They do not have access to anything beyond the time, date and sender/recipient of messages.
At this point, it is my recommendation that you reach out to Apple Support for further assistance and advice:
Good luck!
You are hitting the thumbs up button by accident without realizing it! I keep doing the same because the put the **** thumbs up right next to the send button. 🙄
Hello Twelve Shades Publications!
Is it possible that the other person is leaving them?
A screenshot would help, if you don’t mind.
No. No person has access to this phone-number nor this phone other than myself. The actions "appear to come from me" but did not. One recent event occurred on a text-message conversation with my wife, who immediately realized that "I never use the thumbs-up/down feature at all," which is entirely true. I really don't know much about this feature of text messaging, and I have never used it. This phone is never outside of my personal possession.
To state things very simply, "no." Consider a direct text-message conversation with my wife. She informs me that I had "thumbs-up'd" a comment that she had previously made ... knowing full well that I do not do that. Indeed, I had done no such thing. But, there the message was: now flagged with "thumbs up." I didn't do that, and neither did she. So, who or what did?
Remember: the original text message came from her, not me. The person who purportedly "thumbed" it therefore was supposed to be me, but it wasn't. And there are no other parties involved.
No. Simply stated, "this is coming from somewhere else." I am texting to "my" wife using "my" phone which is in "my" possession and control at all times – as is hers ... there are no other parties and no other equipment ... and yet, tagging of messages is recently occurring without our knowledge or consent. (This began to happen "quite recently.")
This is actually a big deal, which Apple also should be very actively looking into. But I don't know how to escalate it into a formal "trouble ticket" in the case of iPhone. (If anyone does, "please do.")
I have contacted the cellular carrier (Verizon) and asked them to investigate as well.
All right then, please explain how I could have "a touch screen problem" when the phone wasn't(!) in my pocket.
Admittedly, the problem does not lately appear to be occurring "regularly," and I've also noticed that it seems to somehow be linked to "my device." But – exactly "what is(?!)" the problem that you describe?
Hi Twelve Shades,
My wife is experiencing this same issue currently. Do you recall what the solution was?
I believe it was tied to her mac computer - deleted the conversation it was happening in and then updated the computer. Hasn't happened since, but I do not want to see a reoccurrence. Hopefully you'll still get an alert. Thanks in advance.
It is significant to note that the target phone is an Android. So this is not an "iMessage" conversation.
My phone is adding "thumbs comments" to text messages that I didn't make
