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The latest
iOS 12 feature is causing major headaches for some Apple users.
This iOS 12 feature is left off the official iOS 12 features list. It
was proposed to merge chats you had with iOS operated devices users who
have various phone numbers and emails.
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A perfect example can be quoted of a friend with whom you have multiple
chat threads on her personal number and work email.
Theoretically, this sounds extremely amazing, like a great improvement
that organizes and cleans up your Messenger app, keeping your
conversation threads organized.
iOS 12 device users are taking to Apple’s Support Communities forum to
share reports that the newest version of Apple’s mobile operating system
is mistakenly merging contacts that belong to completely separate
individuals.
Users on the forums are reporting that their messages intended for just
one person are being sent to many other irrelevant contacts, thus
breaching the privacy. For example, a message intended for husband is
also mistakenly sent to mother and brother thanks to the unintended
merges.
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Messages being sent to unintended third parties could be a disaster for
many users who are gossiping among co-workers or someone cheating on
their significant other. This can be damaging many relationships.
In most of the cases being reported online, the affected users all
appear to be in an immediate family relationship. Mothers, fathers,
husbands, wives, siblings, children — the reason for this is that the
issue seems to be affecting those who share Apple IDs.
This is definitely not a bug that we are dealing with, but a major flaw
from Apple not accounting for its customers having utilized its features
in unintended ways. It appears like Apple is identifying which messages
to merge on the basis of contact numbers and emails who share same Apple
ID. Therefore, contacts merged by Apple ID should belong to one
individual only.
Judging by many of the cases on Apple’s Support Communities, families
seem to have been sharing Apple IDs to make App Store purchases or to
monitor children’s activity.
And while commentors are stating the solution would appear to be just to
setup individual Apple IDs for everyone, according to reports on the
forums, that doesn’t look to be working as a solution for those whose
chats have already been merged.
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Another issue with the integrated chats is that there doesn’t appear to
be a way to manually unmerge contacts in Messenger once iOS 12
mistakenly merges them.
It’s unclear just how widespread the issue is. While it does sound it’s
only affecting iOS 12 users, it’s also unclear if its only impacting
individuals who never shared Apple IDs.
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