Why does my iPhone keep wanting to send new texts messages to the home's landline numbers from my Contacts?

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Level 2

214 points

Why does my iPhone keep wanting to send new texts messages to the home's landline numbers from my Contacts?

Shouldn't my iPhone (12 mini with updated iOS) automatically default to the mobile number for texting, instead of home's landline number, from my Contacts? I do have labels assigned for each number. Or at least, tell me that the texting fail to send to this landline number?

Here's my scenario: I have contacts that multiple numbers like mobile, landline at home, fax line, etc. When I send a new SMS message to a contact who has multiple numbers, my iPhone likes to pick the home landline number. Shouldn't it be picking mobile number if it knows landline numbers can't do texting? I was wondering why my contact didn't get my texts because my iPhone sent it to the wrong number (a landline). Also, I wished the previous history told me which number I used. I noticed it when I deleted the old text history and started a new one, and saw Contact's number was wrong (landline instead of mobile).

Thank you for reading and hopefully answering soon. :)

iPhone 12 mini

Posted on Dec 25, 2025 4:26 PM

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Answer 1

Recycleur

Level 4

1,645 points

Dec 26, 2025 7:05 PM in response to antdude

I just performed some tests. When you start a conversation by typing a name, Messages shows you all matching names from your contacts. You'll notice that some have blue numbers, some have green numbers, and some have both.

The blue numbers are registered to iPhones (I guess Apple checks in its database for that), the green ones are not listed in its database and can be anything: land lines, fax lines, or Android mobiles.

The label you enter is ignored, the numbers seem to be listed in numerical order (most of the time anyway) within each colour, blue always at the top.

So the only solution is to carefully label your contacts' numbers anyway, so if you have two green numbers you know which one is the mobile to select. The next time the same number should be used automatically.

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