A "dash" on email address after iOS 17 update

I have found a solution. In settings, type auto-hyphenation. You will see the Books icon and the word Auto-hyphenation. Click on it and turn OFF the auto-hyphenation feature. It fixed my dash issue in text messages.

Issue with Automatic Hyphenation in Text Messages Affecting Email Addresses and URLs

Dear Apple Support Team,

I am writing to report a specific issue within the Messages app on Apple phones running iOS 17. The problem concerns the automatic hyphenation feature within text messages, which incorrectly breaks long email addresses and URLs.

Issue Description:

When typing or receiving a long email address or URL in a text message, the Messages app automatically inserts a hyphen to split the text at the end of a line. This action is causing functional issues, as it alters the integrity of email addresses or URLs. For example, an email address like "name@domain.org" gets split into "name@domain-.org", pushing ".org" to the next line and rendering the email address incorrect and unusable.

Impact:

This issue leads to confusion and communication errors, as recipients cannot directly use the message's broken links or email addresses. It requires manual correction or clarification, which is inconvenient and time-consuming.

Expected Behavior:

The ideal behavior would be for the Messages app to recognize email addresses and URLs as entities that should not be split or hyphenated, regardless of length. Instead, these should wrap as a whole to the next line.

Steps to Reproduce the Problem:

1. Open the Messages app.
2. Type or paste a long email address or URL that extends beyond the width of the message input area.
3. Observe as the app automatically inserts a hyphen and splits the text.

Here is the solution I found myself. In settings, type auto-hyphenation. You will see the Books icon and the word Auto-hyphenation. Click on it and turn OFF the auto-hyphenation feature. It fixed my dash issue in text messages.

It would best serve us to fix the bug as the books and text messages are different features. Thank you.

While this is definitely a bug since since update IOS 17.2.1, and Apple really need to fix it immediately, there is a temporary workaround to stop the hyphen issue when typing in long email addresses that don't fit on one line in messages.

Simply type the first part of the email address, then hit enter and place the rest on the second new line.

for example....

user@

myemailapple.com

I know this is not an ideal solution, and Apple users should not have to do this, but at least your message recipient will get your correct email address without the hyphen!

This bug has been reported and posted in a few support threads on the Apple community now over many months, and I cannot believe some of the responses of experienced Apple Support techs... They don't seem to get it or understand the problem!

I am also surprised that out of the 1000's of Apple executives and employees worldwide, no one has reported this SERIOUS problem... Don't any of them send email addresses in texts or messages!!! It is so plain to see the problem, I am astounded!

A TEMPORARY solution that helped me send an email address just now:

As someone suggested, I was trying to rotate my screen so that Apple Messages had more room for text characters. But even with auto-rotate lock off, Messages still wouldn't rotate even when other Apps did.

Then I read that this rotation issue can be caused by Display Zoom being on, which it is on my phone because I like viewing everything larger. When I turned Display Zoom off, Messages rotated with the screen just fine, but also the smaller text size meant that I was able to fit this particular email address on one line in portrait mode too.

Settings -> Display & Brightness -> Display Zoom

After I restarted my iphone, the dash went away. Thank you!!!

I turned off BOLD text and it solved my problem!!!!

I just found out it is just a display feature and if you change the text size you can see it doesn't really send a hyphen. Even copying and pasting it, the hyphen will disappear. The real problem is confusion with anyone who still types them in with the same text size. Clicking or copying and pasting solves it.

@danakayw This has nothing to do with who the text message is sent to. This has everything to do with iOS 17 adding a "hyphen" to email addresses being sent in ANY text message. Every single time that I type an email address (ie: my.name@mylongdomainname.com) it will present as my.name@mylongdomain-name.com.

As you can see, those are completely different email addresses. I have had many people ask me why my email address, work or personal, now has a hyphen in it. I then noticed that it is hyphenating all emails texted to ANYONE!

This is a giant bug and needs to be fixed immediately. I concur with everyone else asking if Apple employees NEVER text anyone their email address or if there really is a fix or setting for this that Apple is keeping quiet for some reason.

Either way, please add this to the list of bugs that must be fixed now!

Not a solution, but a workaround. When I need to provide my address in a message, I simply screenshot it. :/

This is a silly bug that Apple should easily address.

This is defiantly a bug, that needs to be addressed as a priority. You can enter @domain.com and it works fine. Enter a YourName@domain.com and it adds the hyphen.

This could be considered a vector for potential fraud and security abuse and should be treated as serious.

I have the same issue. Any long email send by WhatsApp or Imesaage generates a hyphen when the next line is used. Even the receiver receives the hyphen.

This needs to be corrected as it is confusing.

This is happening to me too. Apple needs to fix this. It started after this ios 17 update. It even happens when I open an email and type a long email address which makes it impossible for me to send an email from my phone because it inserts the dash. Very frustrating.

This has nothing to do with the recipient, deleting a contact does not solve the issue. I have the same problem with all my contacts. It is not reasonable to expect users to delete all their contacts.

This is super annoying. I send my email via text often to a variety of different people and it adds a hypen after the dot but before the "com" so XXX@XXX.-com is what it looks like. This has nothing to do with contacts as it happens EVERY TIME I text my email address. Please fix!!!!

Hi,

This is a bug. It's doing it when I enter my own email to send to someone else in Apple Messages.

Please let us know about a fix - thanks

Hey there Jennie_723,

Thanks for reaching out to Apple Support Communities. We'll be happy to help with your emails. From what you've described, there may be an issue with the contact you're sending to. Try deleting that Contact and setting it up again, including the email. Once that's done, test to see if there's still an added character. If so, reach out to Apple Support for further assistance: Get Support.

Take care.