Google admits Android is misdirecting texts

Google admitted this week that an issue with how the Android OS handles contacts and text messaging is causing phones to sometimes randomly send or misdirect SMS messages to the wrong users. The issue was first reported in late June of last year, but was not confirmed as a legitimate bug until now.

Engineers have been able to recreate the issue, and now say that they believe the problems stem from two different issues with the Android OS. That said, the company stressed occurrences of the bug are rare, and a fix for the problem has been developed and would be released soon.

According to bug reports in a thread on the Google Code website, in one case an SMS message appears as sent to the correct user. Instead, the OS sends it to another user in the phone user's contact list. Viewing the message details will then show the phone number of the incorrect recipient in the "To:" field.

View the full article