Here's why you got a mysterious text today

If you got a weird, out-of-the-blue text message from one of your contacts this morning, you’re not alone. And… sorry your ex is not trying to get back with you after seven years...

A ton of people received text messages overnight that were originally sent on Valentine’s Day and it’s happening to people across all major US carriers.

One person's phone sent a 5am text to her ex that was supposed to be sent in February. Another person's wife got a text from her husband's cell number, but the text didn't show up in his outbox. There's some weird cell phone stuff happening today:

A number of people whose phones apparently sent the text messages reported they couldn’t see them on their own phones, leading them to wonder whether they had been hacked or if they were experiencing some other security problem. “Someone texted my wife using my phone number. The text does not show up in my outbox. How do I stop this,” one Reddit user asked. “Why did my phone send a text without me knowing?????” another person on Reddit posted.

Other people reported awkward text interactions with people they'd otherwise lost contact with. “Y’all... my damn phone apparently delivered a text to my ex at 5am this morning that was supposed to be sent in FEBRUARY. The universe wants me to fail,” a woman named Jamie said on Twitter.

A spokesperson for Sprint says the issue was caused by a maintenance update made to part of the “messaging platforms of multiple carriers in the US,” and has since been fixed. The problem “caused some customers to have older text messages resent to their devices. The issue was resolved not long after it occurred. We apologize for any confusion this may have caused.” It's not clear what, exactly, that means. The spokesperson did not respond to questions asking why these particular texts were affected.

T-Mobile had a slightly different—or at least less complete—explanation for the glitch. “This is not a T-Mobile issue, it’s a third-party vendor issue that also affected other networks,” a spokesperson said in an email. “We’re aware of this and it is resolved.” T-Mobile did not clarify what vendor may have been responsible.


This post originally appeared on WIRED.COM

Jessica NaziriComment