Serious WM Bug (sending phone numbers in text messages) - HTC Excalibur

Hi.
I've been experiencing an annoying bug with Windows Mobile 6.1/6.5:
Whenever an incoming call was answered by my mailbox, a text message is send.
This is how it should more or less look like (translated from German):
Code:
From: Mailbox. You have 1 new message. To listen to your messages call 333.
The weird thing is that WM incorrectly matches the number with one of my contacts. I have a contact (let's name him Adam) with a number like +49176000333. Now all these mailbox notifications are incorrectly tagged as coming from Adam and the message reads
Code:
From: Mailbox. You have 1 new message. To listen to your messages call "Adam, h (+4917600033)".
Please notice: Whereas the message says "From Mailbox" (which is simply part of the text message) the actual sender is said to be Adam!
Why does WM incorrectly match this number (it looks as if any number ending with 333 is incorrectly matched)?
I've tried several things:
First, I created a 'Mailbox' contact with the number 333. Unfortunately this didn't do anything.
Second, I've sent myself text messages including different phone numbers, however I've never managed to get the same result as with the provider-messages above. If I merely send a single number like 333, it is displayed as simple text. If I include a '+' sign and the national prefix number +49333, it is displayed as link and if I click on it, a menu pops up "Verify the number is correct:...".
When I use the number of one of my contacts, the matching is done correctly, let's say I have a contact named Briand with the mobile number +491761234567, and I send myself the text message
Code:
call +491761234567
I get the message
Code:
call Brian, m (+491761234567)
However if I add a 'Mailbox' contact with either the number "+49333" or just "333", it doesn't match the name, I simply get
Code:
call +49333
where +49333 is a clickable link.
What I didn't manage to reproduce is the behavior of the provider messages where the contact matching is wrong (333 matching the number +49176000333 and also (and more important) the sender is incorrectly matched!).
This looks like a both annoying and also very serious WM bug, because this could be used to fake text messages!

Windows mobile does by itself (up to WM6 at least) no number-to-name match for incoming SMS in the SMS itself. There is a software called "intruders SMS fix" that may be in your cooked ROM which is doing this.
Mind that the SENDER of the SMS would be (correctly) matched in the address field of the messages list. It is the text inside the message that is treated as above.
If the Sender is correctly matched in the list, you can:
- either press the "green button" in the SMS list to call the sender
- or when the SMS is open (the sender is already highlighted) press enter to access its contacts record

Thanks for your reply.
tobbbie said:
Windows mobile does by itself (up to WM6 at least) no number-to-name match for incoming SMS in the SMS itself. There is a software called "intruders SMS fix" that may be in your cooked ROM which is doing this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, I'm using 3VO's latest 6.5 ROM and this software is not listed. I had been using Rickywatt's 6.1 ROM before and had exactly the same problem.
Please notice, that it obviously matches 333 to ANY number ending with 333.
Is there any quick and easy way to get the source of a text message? So I could have a look at the provider messages. This problems reminds me of a typical flaw when comparing database entries with a 'LIKE' parameter.
I guess (just a guess), that the matching works like that:
Code:
input: number n from the text message
output: contact from address book
algorithm:
for each contact c in address book:
if c's number ends with n:
return c
return null
The reason for that matching is obviously that the matching should work, even if no country code or regional code is provided with the number.
Mind that the SENDER of the SMS would be (correctly) matched in the address field of the messages list. It is the text inside the message that is treated as above.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It SHOULD be like that, but with the above-mentioned provider messages, the SENDER is also matched incorrectly!

Simple but sad - seems like from WM6.1 onwards WM is doing this match by itself (consistently wrong). Try to search the more general fora at XDA to learn about number to name matching in Windows Mobile. Good luck

Related

Alternate SMS Software?

Hi,
I was wondering if anyone uses any other software to do SMS or whether everyone just uses the normal messaging app.
I've found that the standard app doesn't seem to do new lines - so when I get email alerts from Orange, they are all on one line which is hard to read.
Also, if someone calls when my phone is off, Orange sends me an sms alert with the number in. On my old Treo 600, it highlighted the number as a link - when I clicked on it, it popped up a box which allowed me to dial the number - and, if the number was in my contacts, their name appear in the title bar of that box - very useful! - on my M2000, the number just appears as plain text so if I dont know the number then I dont know who it is (you can't search contacts by a number can you??).
Thanks!
--ian
I am desperately seeking this "phone number link in SMS messages" too!
Anybody wanna tackle this one?
-BD

inserting contact at message

hai any body
i had problem inserting contact to message (short message service). i just can send contact as message, but how can i insert contact number to message?
thank you
Just go to your sms message center, create a new message.
This is the part you care about, Click on MENU. and add recipient.
This takes you to your contacts, scroll to the contact name and press the left soft key(OK). This will add the recipient's phone number to the Header of your sms and you can begin typing away. Also you can type away 1st, then add recipient, if you want.
outerdepth said:
Just go to your sms message center, create a new message.
This is the part you care about, Click on MENU. and add recipient.
This takes you to your contacts, scroll to the contact name and press the left soft key(OK). This will add the recipient's phone number to the Header of your sms and you can begin typing away. Also you can type away 1st, then add recipient, if you want.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i think hes trying to send a phone number to another person...am i right?
I don't think so, his english is bad, but translated correctly, read it.
i just can send contact as message, but how can i insert contact number to message?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This becomes....
I can JUST (or ONLY) SEND contact as a message, how can I insert the contact's number to the message.
I think he's saying he can send the contact's number to a person as a message, but he cannot add the contact's number to the message.
Maybe not, it's kinda hard with this hazy post.
tennisshoeninja said:
i think hes trying to send a phone number to another person...am i right?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
outerdepth said:
I don't think so, his english is bad, but translated correctly, read it.
This becomes....
I can JUST (or ONLY) SEND contact as a message, how can I insert the contact's number to the message.
I think he's saying he can send the contact's number to a person as a message, but he cannot add the contact's number to the message.
Maybe not, it's kinda hard with this hazy post.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lmao...i really don't know...wait a while everyone learns English sooner or later
sorry about my english
sorry about my English too bad, so you can't understand my mind. When i write message, and i want to add contacts number (that i saved in phone memory before), i can not insert them. can you help me?
geerje said:
sorry about my English too bad, so you can't understand my mind. When i write message, and i want to add contacts number (that i saved in phone memory before), i can not insert them. can you help me?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
try http://freewareppc.com/ search for insert contact...ive seen it before
is there a way to have the contact list drop down when just typing in their name. I've seen another 6.1 rom on a tmo dash that inserts the name (or gives you the names of you contact list) as you type the first few letters of that name. hope im being clear.. example when i type VI in the recipient TO: line, it would show all contacts who's name has VI in it, such as VINCE, or VIVIAN, etc. it should also work when typing in the first few numbers in a phone number. Thanks. Bill.
backdoc7 said:
is there a way to have the contact list drop down when just typing in their name. I've seen another 6.1 rom on a tmo dash that inserts the name (or gives you the names of you contact list) as you type the first few letters of that name. hope im being clear.. example when i type VI in the recipient TO: line, it would show all contacts who's name has VI in it, such as VINCE, or VIVIAN, etc. it should also work when typing in the first few numbers in a phone number. Thanks. Bill.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does anyone know how i can enable this?
Ricky's remake doesn't have this option enabled.
Thanks
could someone please tell me how to enable it for this rom?
The program they mentioned is not what i'm looking for.
the thing, im looking for is like smart dailer, for txt message.
thanks
I understand what the guy is saying because I had a similar question a while back. Sometimes I want to insert a phone number and contact name IN the text message. The only way on the Dash to do this is to add the number in the recipient header and then typing it on your own but there is no direct way of doing it. Its weird because on my old RAZR and SLVR I could and here on a WM device I can't. And yes, I also would like to know where I can get the drop down menu list when typing a name in the recipient header. I saw it in a ROM I think it was Ricky and Stylez but Kavana's doesn't have it.
Thanks

Adding additional email field in contacts?

I've always understood that you could add or change contact fields to accomodate more than 3 email fields. So far I can't seem to figure out how to do that, anyone care to share?
Thanks.
Cyph
I don't think it is possible with Contacts - even Microsoft Outlook supports only 3 email entries.
I wish you could have more than 1 Mobile/Cell Phone number listed for someone. When will M$ change this? Now people do have more than 1 cell phone.
You can use other redundant fields for additional numbers, e.g., I use the Pager field for the 2nd mobile number - not many ppl have a pager where I live these days
i know you can do that, but if you want to text someone, you can only text to numbers listed as mobile (without having to pull up the contact list & manually selecting the number). i type the name of the person i want to text in the "to" field, & only mobile numbers show up when you do that.
Sadly that is a limitation of a lot of the software - they presume you can only text to mobile numbers
I want to text my home number too (where I live you can sms to landlines, provided they have a phone with text capability) but I bypassed the problem using a separate Contacts entry with the home number stored as a mobile number - not convenient I know.
Thanks all.
Someone noted a nice lil work around for convenience, it you add a note to the contact with mailto: in front of it, when you tap on it, it'll launch a new email. Nice.
Cyph

HTC Desire doesn't show sms sender name

Hi in my country Lebanon ,mobile numbers starts with 03 or 70 or 71 than the 6 digit contact number.. the problem is that my HTC desire doesn't show SMS sender name upon receiving sms sent from senders that starts with 03(local sms), instead showing the sender number.I am having this sender in my contact list. There is no issues while receiving international SMS or senders with phone numbers starting with 70 or 71.
But when the same person calls me, its displaying the caller name correctly.
What would be the reason?
I tried the adding the country code +961 to the contacts, but if i do that, the sms problem disappear BUT call receiving stopped showing caller name - only number is shown.
One thing i noticed is, while receiving SMS, the sender number is preceded by country code(+961) while receiving a call only caller number is there.
a temporary workaround is to add 2 numbers for each contact: when with the country code +961 and another one without it.. but it is frustrating if u have hundreds off contacts
My iphone had the same problem but it was fixed easily by downloading a program "Caller Id fix, i think this is due to the number of digits in the phone number it seems.the device needs minimum 8 digits and it doesn't consider the zero in 03 as a digit!
Any help?
I am in Lebanon too and I have the same problem.
Since we have the (03) area code, the matching fails on it because the phone number would be 1 digit less than the configured matching preset in Android.
This sucks big time. I've read on all forums, and there's no fix. I tried asking in htc-linux chat room, and no one answers We're doomed lol..
I'm on Android 2.2 by the way, and the problem is still there.
Apple fixed this on iPhone it by adding a database of countries and specifying the matching preset for each country. Android = no
Same problem here, there must be a way. Perhaps modifying some XML in Android root?
Same problem here. no solution yet.
Only workaround is to Backup ur google contacts (CSV), edit them in Excel so that you would have 2 numbers for each contact, then re-import into google.
Even with hundreds of contacts it should not take you more than 10 minutes.
Hopefully this would be fixed soon.
i am using handcent sms. it is a good temprorary solution. it shows contact names correctly..
But I would like to see a solution for the built in sms application from htc
ebaak said:
i am using handcent sms. it is a good temprorary solution. it shows contact names correctly..
But I would like to see a solution for the built in sms application from htc
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree.............
oZ87 said:
I agree.............
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Guys,
Anyone found a solution for this issue. I am on HTC Desire HD and still have the problem.In addition if you store the number as 9613xxxxxx then the name will not be shown when someone calls in.
Apparently it's a problem only with HTC since Samsung Android doesn't have this problem.
Thanks
Are you all on custom software? Have you recently flashed a new ROM??
I had the same issue once, where I hadn't restored Contacts from Titanium properly, so all SMS I received did not show sender ID.
Just a thought...

S9 Text Messages - How to tell which number for a contact I am texting with

Since replacing my S7 with an S9, I can no longer tell what number of a contact I am text messaging with. I have several family members and friends/coworkers where I have them as a contact but with both work and home cell phone numbers. There are times when I need to text them on their work phone and times when I need to only text them on their personal cell number. On my S7 I used to be able to see the phone number (or even email address if I was texting an email address for a reminder or something) underneath the contact's name at the top while in that text messaging exchange, but when moving to the S9, it only displays their name at the top. Tapping on the contact name does no good as it just takes me to the contact card for that person and shows me all of their available contact numbers/addresses. Any idea how to clearly/quickly tell which number that text exchange is with (other than by guessing based on the context of the past messages in that exchange?)
This comes in handy for reminders for myself as well. I have several different text strings going with myself to send reminders to my work email, home email, etc. There is no way to easily tell which number or email I am sending a text to unless I'm missing something.
Thanks for any help!
I had to load up Samsung messages to look at that since i used it 2 minutes before i decided i didn't like it. The only way i can see is when you click on the contact's name their number shows with a > besides it. Click on their number and select the number to text. Inside a text i see no way of identifying the number. I see your problem though. My son works in a high security area where he might text me from his business phone but never from his personal phone while there. If he texts me I alway just reply to wherever the txt comes from. So far it's worked but I can see where it may not if he moves from one area to another.
You can tap the phone icon in a text message and it will pull up the dialer and show you which number it is. Like I have my wife's work cell and her personal numbers and I have them designated as mobile and work. Hope that helps.
Probably easier to create a new contact for each number tbh
*Detection* said:
Probably easier to create a new contact for each number tbh
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If I have contacts with multiple numbers, I just designate what each number is like I did with my wife. On the S9, if she texts me from her work phone, it doesn't add to the currently ongoing text conversation I have, it is a new text thread.

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