Glitch sends thousands of outdated, mysterious texts

Across the country, hundreds of people this week began reporting that they were receiving months-old text messages in a bizarre tech glitch. 

Some reported receiving texts from exes, friends, co-workers and others that were sent earlier this year around Valentine’s Day, The Washington Post reported.

{mosads}The culprit appears to have been third-party text platform Syniverse, who said regular maintenance from its IT staff caused approximately 168,149 undelivered text messages to accidentally be sent this week. The mix-up appears to have affected phones with a number of different operating systems as well as a range of mobile carriers, including Sprint, T-Mobile, AT&T and Verizon. 

“We apologize to anyone who was impacted by this occurrence,” William Hurley, Syniverse’s chief marketing and product officer, said in a statement, The Washington Post reported. “While the issue has been resolved, we are in the process of reviewing our internal procedures to ensure this does not happen again, and actively working with our customers’ teams to answer any questions they have.”

A Sprint spokesperson also blamed a “maintenance update” after the old messages were sent, The Associated Press reported. 

The messages sent this week reportedly ranged from harmless late messages to intensely emotional ones. Alana Johnson, a children’s librarian at the Los Angeles Public Library told The Washington Post that the glitch caused her boss to receive a text saying she would be out of work sick.  

“Thankfully she was kind about it,” Johnson said.

But Samantha Majorczak, an Arizona cashier and college student, said she received a text from her now-deceased father asking “How is your day going?” Her father died in March.

“I immediately started crying,” said Majorczak. “He used to text me every morning, and after going eight months without any messages, I was in complete shock.” 

The Hill has reached out to Syniverse for comment.