Lots of SMS being sent to #474663

[dejavu89]

I just went and checked my Usage History. There are tons of outgoing messages to the number 474663. Anyone know why is this happening?

[umnikke8]

@softechmakes some sense. So Public doesn't have the module/server hooked up for Visual Voicemail to even respond that it's inactive for customer and phone infinity retries to get status. ( And we are left with a polluted usage history that makes it harder to find actual usage. Wonder if that is also related as to why voicemail notifications rarely work. 

Got me thinking, is Visual Voicemail one of the things in the carrier settings file, and that it should be set unavailable and then phone wouldn't try to configure it? 

Also, one more text has gone out 15minutes after the last one since reboot.

Added: dug through the links more, it appears the 474663 number is not universal to the device/OS, it is chosen by the provider. Which would explain why you can't find much info on it outside references the various Telus services.

[softech]

---

@umnikke8 wrote:

some feature they don't implement or something else like that.

---

@umnikke8 

you are on the right track!!!

474663 is something to do with visual voicemail.  This is something PM does not have.  Look like iPhone was trying to activate it but didn't get a reply from the system (and the OS does not know how to stop it when no response received)

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Phone-automatic-make-call-to-a-number-to-...

https://www.howardforums.com/showthread.php/1779853-Telus-VVM-on-others-device-!

[umnikke8]

@softech I just checked, one was sent out after rebooting phone. And looks like another 5 minutes later, perhaps more will follow with some kind of retry interval. But they happen far more frequently than rebooting phone. No event or action that I can think of corresponds to when they are recorded. Not sending/receiving texts/imessages, phone calls, connecting or disconnecting from wifi. They must serve some purpose someone knows about but doesn't document publicly.

Anyway, it just strikes me as odd that this comes up commonly with Public Mobile, but is rarely mentioned by others, despite the millions of devices out there and variety of networks. Is it a configuration error at Public, some feature they don't implement or something else like that.

[softech]

@umnikke8   try to keep track of it to see if it always send one when you reboot/power up your phone

[umnikke8]

FYI I just looked, in the past month, 92 texts over 11 different days.

[softech]

@umnikke8   yes, googling the code will give you results from PM or Koodo, but I found other threads talk about it on  AT&T as well

One thing we know, it's not too much to worry about, at least it is an Apple thing, hope you can trust Apple on this 🙂 

[umnikke8]

@softech @dust2dust I've never pulled out the sim since switching to Public. I don't switch Facetime or iMessage on or off. I'm not doing anything I would think should trigger a registration or setup message. I'm sure it's a bunch of black boxes, but I still find it very odd that this number doesn't pop up elsewhere. Unless it's well known and other providers hide it on purpose.

[dust2dust]

@umnikke8- The other thread had participation from a retired oracle and one of the forums iphone experts. I see Koodo also had talk of this shortcode. It was a real concern with the old limited texts plan. Do you switch out your sim a lot or testing in other phones?

[softech]

@umnikke8   

According to this post

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Outgoing-texts-to-474663/m-p/309376/highl...

This generally happens if/when:

• iMessage and FaceTime are enabled on the iPhone
• SIM card is inserted for the first time into the iPhone

... and it will stop  stops as long as you don't pull/insert the SIM card or toggle the iMessage/FaceTime setting; are you seeing more?

did you happen to pull your sim card or toggle iMessage/Facetime lately?

[umnikke8]

@dust2dust Yes, why?

[dust2dust]

@umnikke8- Did you read this thread and the one linked by dabr?

[umnikke8]

I get piles of these in my usage history as well. It's not a new number, phone or service, they just show up randomly in the usage log all the time. The only reference I can find about this SMS number is about Public. It's annoying, but not doing any harm currently. Sure be nice to get a better explanation of what it is though.

[JL9]

Be mindful if you are using imessage or facetime etc to be on wifi if possible so you don't chew up your data, otherwise you may want to go into settings to switch it to sms

[dabr]

@dejavu89   Found this old thread discussing that shortcode and seems to be related to Iphones/Google.  Do you have an Iphone?

https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Get-Support/Outgoing-texts-to-474663/td-p/288805

[hTideGnow · Accepted solution]

hi @dejavu89 you have an iPhone. 

 Those texts are iOS sending updates to 474663 to try to register  FaceTime or iMessage connection with the new number.