Text messages, now you see, now you don't

[Harry Bloomfield]

This has happened twice this week, not quite the same and its an older Iphone I'm using...

I messaged someone, after which a comment appeared such as who is that, then a reply saying it was from Harry. The two messages obviously wasn't for me, but then seconds later they disappeared.

Today similar happened, someone sent me a message saying they were not going to be able to turn up, I replied with a message expressing my disappointment, I then briefly saw message asking if I was OK. As I was replying to that, the message asking if I was OK disappeared. The 'are you OK', seemed to fit the thread.

[Andy Burns]

Are the real SMS messages carried by your network's SMSC, or Apple iMessages? I don't have an iThing so don't know how you'd tell (I have a vugie recollection some are green the others are blue) even if they hadn't disappeared. Can you disable iMessages?

[Harry Bloomfield]

The first was a message via Imessage, the second via the normal mobile network.

[Blano]

iphones don't send just normal SMS texts, the imessages can be deleted.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Blano explained on 07/08/2015 :

What, by the sender of the message?

The second message - might it have been sent via Imessage (hence her being able to delete it), but when I replied, despite having Imessage enabled and my phone connected via wifi, my message in reply went via the mobile network?

[Andy Burns]

Might you have several iphones/ipads/ipods signed in on the same apple account, and they're being read and deleted on one just as they're being seen on the other?

[Blano]

Yes, for just that situation where you send in error.

The system can be a bit quirky like that, particularly when it decides that the receiver isn't currently available and so sends it via SMS.

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andy Burns was thinking very hard :

No, I am on my own and I only have one phone able to use the wifi here. The brief messages which saw, seemed to fit with the message thread and the message I had sent, even with my name mentioned in one.

[Andy Burns]

Yes, I remember your recent threads.

The other device might not necessarily be on your WiFi, as long as it's on the internet somewhere. I wondered if your partner used to have another ithing on an account which you shared, and which has now been given to a relative?

[Harry Bloomfield]

Andy Burns formulated on Saturday :

No, she struggled to use just basic phones - but one relative does have an Iphone, which is set up for access on our wifi. I wasn't messaging him at the time, but his sister, when I saw a message asking who I was and a reply which mentioned my name, before both messages disappeared.

Anyway, the rule would seem to be - to leave messages a while before replying to them, to make sure they are actually valid and intended for you.