Warning: your group texts may be sharing everyone’s numbers
If you send a text to a group of people from your contacts, your phone may now be sending everyone’s mobile number to everyone else on the list. Most people have no idea this has changed.
I found out the hard way. For years I’ve sent group texts from my contacts to bands, members and clients with no problem: each person got their own message, and replies came back privately. This week, one text to about 20 people went out as a group chat with every number on show. When I went to send an apology, my phone lined up the same group chat again.
Then it got more confusing. When I apologised to people one by one, it turned out lots of them had never received the original text at all. Some got it, some didn’t, and my phone showed it as sent to everyone.
What changed: “chat” quietly replaced texting
The cause is a messaging system called RCS. On Samsung phones it’s called “Chat features”; on other phones it’s just “RCS”.
It sends your texts over mobile data or Wi-Fi instead of the old text network, and switches on automatically whenever both phones support it. The catch: old-style texting could send a message to a group as separate private texts. Chat can’t. A message to several people becomes a group chat, and everyone sees everyone else’s number.
Even switching off “Group conversation” doesn’t stop it, because that setting only covers old-style messages. As more phones, including iPhones, are forced onto chat through updates, more group texts get turned into group chats.
Why some people got it and others didn’t
A group chat only works smoothly when everyone in it is on chat. Most of us text a mix of Android phones, iPhones, older phones and people who’ve changed settings, and that’s where it falls apart.
If someone’s phone can’t take part in the chat, or the system wrongly thinks they’re still on chat after they’ve changed phones, the message can simply vanish. Unlike a normal text, a failed group chat often doesn’t fall back to an ordinary text message. And if it does fall back to an old-style group message, anyone with picture messaging or mobile data turned off, a spam filter, or a carrier limit on group size may miss it too.
The worst part: the sender’s phone still shows it as sent. You think 20 people got your message, when only some of them did.
Snuck in with a “security” update
I didn’t choose this. Samsung kept telling me to update my phone for security reasons, so I did, like everyone else.
I used to read the terms and conditions. These days, like most busy people, I just trust the button. Nowhere was it made clear that this update would change how group texts work, or that my contacts’ numbers could end up shared with each other.
Who’s actually running your texts
On most Android phones in New Zealand, chat isn’t run by your telco. It’s run by Google.
NZ carriers haven’t run their own chat service for Android phones, so Google switched it on here itself, around 2020. iPhone support is newer: Apple now lists chat messaging for One NZ, and the other main providers are reportedly on their way.
The terms behind the button make your agreement with Jibe Mobile, a Google company in California. They also say your contacts’ phones may be checked for chat capability, even though your contacts never agreed to anything. Google says it deletes chat messages once delivered, but it keeps phone numbers, device and SIM details for about a month.
Why this matters under New Zealand law
If you text customers, members or volunteers on behalf of a business, club or community group, it’s worth knowing that phone numbers count as personal information under New Zealand’s Privacy Act 2020.
The Privacy Commissioner says organisations can’t share personal information unless an exception applies, even by accident. A group text that shows everyone’s numbers to each other is exactly the kind of slip to watch out for.
How to turn it off
Samsung Messages
- Open Messages, tap the three dots, then Settings.
- Tap Chat settings and switch off Chat features.
- Go back to More settings → Multimedia messages and make sure Group conversation is off.
Google Messages (most other Android phones)
- Tap your profile picture, then Messages settings.
- Turn off RCS chats.
- Under Advanced → Group messaging, choose the option that sends separate texts and gets individual replies.
iPhone
- Go to Settings → Apps → Messages.
- Turn off RCS Messaging if it’s there, and turn off Group Messaging.
Then test it: text two people and check each reply comes back as its own one-on-one conversation. It appears they’ve made it intentionally complicated to turn this setting off.
Pass it on
Why do I always seem to be the one who finds these things? I used to send group texts all the time, then took a break. When I came back to it, the rules had quietly changed underneath me. So I went digging to piece it all together, and this is what I found.
Is Big Brother watching? A US tech company now sits in the middle of everyday Kiwi texting, checks your contacts’ phones without asking them, and changed how group texts work without telling anyone. Check your settings, and share this so your friends do too.