Why is iMessage splitting group conversations into multiple threads after upgrading to iOS 8?

No, I don't think it's a carrier issue. We have a few groups where everyone is on the same carrier and still have this problem.

Even when starting and using a brand new group (without deleting previous groups), messages are still sometimes routed to previous groups.

Extremely frustrating!

It's not a carrier issue. For ex: I am iPhone on Verizon and I have the problem with a few groups. In one of my splintered groups, we have 2 iPhones on Verizon and 3 iPhones on AT&T. Another splintered group is 1 iPhone on Verizon, 2 iPhones on AT&T, and 1 Galaxy on AT&T. It's Apple.

Both the local Genius bar and Apple support insisted that the only way to resolve it was for everyone in the group to delete the entire thread. A terrible solution but, alas, we each backed up the thread for posterity and we each deleted it. In addition, we each double-checked our Message settings (iMessage on, Send & Receive info correct, Group Message on, etc.). Then we started a brand-new group message. Deleting the group thread did NOT work! The brand-new group message seemed to work at first (for the first few test-replies) but then split into multiple threads with individual convos.

Confidence level w/ Apple Message = zero.

I currently have this issue.

One person that responds gets their own thread but everyone gets the message if I reply to any thread, BUT it creates a new thread.

One thing I notice is that ONLY in the group chats that have created names for them have split.

Other group chats haven't split.

We have 10 in a group we have had for years. All have latest version of IOS all have different carriers. When the ability to name a thread became available. 4 of us named same thread with Different names. Same people same group NOW each thread comes in different. My sister can ask a question ano when I answer it will be answered on my group name. To say this is annoying is an understatemet. How the heck can we fix this issue

Exactly. We have had the same group of 10 of us for a year or two and now that a few of named the same group on our devices /accounts we have 4 threads going it makes me crazy and my 85 year old mom can't follow anything any more because of it

I know this is not the best fix but it has worked for me.

Turn off iMessage then delete all of the group threads.

I did this and only one showed back up. I may turn iMessage back on to see if they start coming back.

rhorton8998

AT&T has a limit of 10 people total allowed to be in a text group (not including yourself). Verizon does not have a limit, that I am aware of anyway. We had a group with 12 people and 11 of them were on Verizon and one on AT&T. When he would send out a text to the group, it would randomly take one person off and send it to everyone else. This problem is different than the one mentioned by the person that started the thread. Yours is due to the service provider (AT&T), but his seems to be with Apple's software in version 8. I am having the same problem as the initial post stated as well.

I Wonder if people in the group NOT using ios8 is causing this issue or if when you change the name of the group.

iive ive created new groups, adding a person and the splitting stopped.

also, having someone else create the group with the same people stopped the issue.

The same thing was happening to me and I found that by deleting the name of the group (if there is one) completely solves the problem and even combines the threads that were previously separated. Hopefully this helps some people.

I am having the same problem. I send to a group and everyone receives the initial message, but replies from those not on an iPhone come arrive in separate threads between that person and me. My family is dealing with a TERMINALLY ILL father and we need to communicate as quickly and efficiently as possible, but with this situation messages are being lost or overlooked. And since they are split into separate threads, I must reply the same exact thing in three different threads. Absolutely unacceptable, Apple! How would you like to see a lawsuit because someone was not able to make it to the bedside of a family member in time before they died, because of your horrible technology? At the very least, provide a way for those of us who have these glitches to roll back to iOS 7. BTW, I am using a 4s iPhone, and addition to the messaging problem, iOS 8 has slowed my phone down to a crawl.

I've found that when someone in the group renames the group this problem starts happening. So what we did was to have EVERYONE delete any/all threads we were having trouble with and having one person start a new one. The second anyone else renames the thread, the same thing happens, so DO NOT have anyone change the name of the group text.

It's annoying to have to delete all the messages, especially if you've shared a lot of pictures/videos, but it's the only way to fix the problem, for us at least. Good luck, all! Hopefully Apple is aware of this problem and is working on a way to fix it. But as this discussion was started in October and there really isn't a fix for it yet 3 months later, I'm not going to hold my breath.

We have fixed the problem and still have a named group. The problem is definitely due to the naming of the group. I was the first person to name the group then some of the other girls separatrly named the same group (with the same name) and each time they responded their text was separated to their named group thread. Here's what we did. Click in the message, click details in the top right corner, click in the group name field and delete it. Do the same with all the other separated threads for the same group of individuals. Have the rest of the group do the same, if needed. Now if everyone texts, everyone will start showing up in the same thread. Now, if just one person names that conversation a certain name (the given name will show up on everyone's phone) and the thread will still remain combined. If someone starts a message with the same people and they separately name the same group the same name (or a different name) then it will start separating to different threads again.

Btw, we did not have to delete any of the entire threads, we just had to remove the names of all but one.

It worked for us so I am a happy camper and all my friends think I'm a genius! I should have said this, but when you click details in the group message there's a hidden line before the first name listed. Pull down on the screen just a tad to reveal the hidden "group name" field.

Thanks for trying, Scovio, but when I pull down the list there is no group name in my thread. Maybe it's on the thread of someone else in the group. We'll all be together this weekend and will troubleshoot live. Will post here if I figure it out.

baweibel, the naming of the group iMessage is a feature specific to iPhone users on iOS8 and thus I am also not seeing that option in the group text messages that I have on my phone when one (or more) of the recipients is not an iphone user. As those messages will not be iMessages, they will be text messages (showing up in green vs. blue). So, though I think my solution will solve many of the problems for many of those commenting here (as the name of this thread specifies iMessage), it's not going to be your solution as you're not using iMessage (non-Apple devices can't receive iMessages so those messages will default to text). The times when I have experienced an Android users message coming in a separate thread from the group message (they respond to the group and either the individual they are replying to or each member of the group receives the message in an individual one-on-one text specifically between them and the Android user) it is because said Android user needed to alter their phone settings to allow group messaging.