There’s an issue with the Messages app that prevents users from sending voice-based messages that include ampersands, resulting in a curious bug that means you can’t use audio messages to tell your friends about Dave & Buster’s, H&M, Tiffany & Co., or any other similar proper name.
The bug was first highlighted on the Search Engine podcast, and then further investigated by app developer Guilherme Rambo. Basically, if you try to send someone an audio message in the Messages app that includes the phrase “Dave and Buster’s,” it won’t go through.
After you send the message, it’ll show on your own iPhone, and the person on the other end will see three dots as if you’re typing something. The message ultimately just disappears after a few seconds, never showing up for the person that you’re speaking to. It was Dave & Buster’s that led to the bug being discovered, but it in fact impacts any company with an ampersand in the name.
As it turns out, the problem isn’t with the audio message itself, but with the transcript that accompanies any audio message that you send. Apple’s transcription engine understands proper company names like H&M or Dave & Buster’s, displaying them with an ampersand rather than the word “and,” so when you send someone a voice message saying something like “Do you want to go to Dave & Buster’s?” the transcript is rendered just like that, with the proper name.
It’s the ampersand symbol that’s causing an issue, because Apple’s transcription engine isn’t rendering the ampersand XHTML correctly, causing a parsing error on the device of the person receiving the message. The parsing error triggers Apple’s BlastDoor Messages feature that protects users from malicious messages that might rely on problematic parsing, so ultimately, the audio message fails to send.
Rambo goes into more detail about the root of the issue, and the original Search Engine podcast also has more on the bug, so check those out if you want to hear more about Apple’s minor error that’s nixing any audio message with an ampersand.
