Can you separately text 2 different numbers under the same contact name?

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Level 1

56 points

Can you separately text 2 different numbers under the same contact name?

ex: i have a contact named "mom & dad". i have both their separate cell numbers within that same contact. i was texting with mom and wanted to text dad happy birthday. i backed out of mom's, selected new text, went to mom & dad contact, selected dad's number. it opened what appeared to be new text thread. typed happy birthday and such. clicked send, and the ongoing thread with mom opened up with my new happy birthday showing? at first i didn't know if maybe it went to him but just showed up cause it was under the same contact name. but then i wondered how could you tell who you were texting if they both were under the same thread. it wasn't like a different color or said "dad" at the top of that sentence and "mom" on the rest. i guess that would.be too sophisticated to have a little mom or dad over who was sending what. anyway after asking who got what, turns out it went to mom and not dad. i have them both under the same contact obviously cause they are both my parents. they each have their own number so i wasn't trying to create a separate text with the same number, which i read iphone can't do. i wanted to keep them both under the same contact name to make it easy. when i use the phone to call it will tell me who was last, so it seems like it should be able to keep them apart. do i have to create another contact to be able to text both at the same time with different threads ?

iPhone 13, iOS 26

Posted on Dec 30, 2025 8:42 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Camelot

Level 9

60,729 points

Jan 13, 2026 10:22 AM in response to Diamondave55

I think the error here is in having a contact for both people. By definition, a contact is supposed to be an individual.

When you send a message, Messages searches your contacts for a matching Contact with that number, and it's clearly picking the 'wrong' one. It's thinking that the person called "Mom & Dad" has two phone numbers, and had no idea they are two different people.

The solution is to nix the 'Mom & Dad' contact, and instead create a Mom & Dad group.

Now when you create a message, messages sent to Mom will go to Mom, messages sent to the contact Dad will go to Dad, and messages sent to the group Mom & Dad will go to them both.

On your Phone you can go to Contacts and tap Add List to create the group/list, then you can add Mom and Dad (the individuals) to that list.

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Answer 2

Diamondave55 Author

Level 1

56 points

Jan 13, 2026 12:41 PM in response to Camelot

thank you, i thought i figured it out but not quite 🙄. i added the list mom & dad. it shows up under the main contact page under "all iphone" . their contact was under that. when i first clicked it they each showed up separately with their respective numbers. so i sent my mom one, then backed out to that spot and clicked to send dad one, as soon as it sent, the previous mom message opened up 🙁, and now when i click their name in that same spot, they no longer show up individually, like the phone automatically combined them after i made the 1st attempt... i guess i didn't do something correctly. maybe it's not worth all this, i thought it would be cool to be able to do it the way i want. might be easier to just make 2 separate contacts and name them similarly so they will appear close together under the contacts. maybe "mom & dad M" and "mom & dad D" or something like that 🤔.... i'd say 1 or 2 but i might forget who i made #1 and i wouldn't want them finding out i ranked them haha... thanks for trying, maybe i'll try your idea again, not sure where i messed up. i attached a picture of where it added the list. did i miss a step ?

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Answer 3

Diamondave55 Author

Level 1

56 points

Jan 13, 2026 5:15 PM in response to Camelot

ahh no i did not. i thought by removing the actual contact it would remove it all together even from the list. maybe that's the problem.... guess that's why it actually showed them separately when i first tried from the list, but as soon as the 2nd text went, to "dad" it automatically combined them again in the list. cause when the dad text popped up in my mom's conversation. i went back to the list and they were no longer separated, when i clicked on it that second time it opened the original contact with them together.... weird thing is tho i asked my dad and he said he got the text i sent him, but it showed up to me within the text i had with my mom 🤔.... she wasn't able to tell me which specific ones she got cause she was preoccupied. i can try again when they both have time to mess around. but like i said, he got the one message, on my end it didn't show up as a separate text to him, it showed with my mom's stuff, maybe it was like a group text at that point even tho it just showed one "mom & dad" in the top header 🙄🤔... kinda confusing the way it was acting.... so you are saying after creating that list, delete the original contact and then see what happens ? i'm curious now 🤓... i may still end up just making 2 contacts with similar names so they are in order in my contact selection, thank you again for the ideas... i'll mess with it later and see what happens

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