Your Phone app shows duplicate sent messages

This is my first post in this forum and it got longer than expected.  Sorry about that!  However, I hope you find the information useful and is consumable in a way that is understandable for the non-technical person reading this.  I will send this to Microsoft as well to see what they have to say about it.  Cheers and I hope this issue gets resolved.

From my Experience:  I have been a long time Samsung phone user since the S1, all the way up to current model, as well as a Windows user since Win3.1.  One could say that I am bit technical, as I have been way more than just a user of these systems.  However, I don't have any inside knowledge of what is actually happening to cause this issue.  I am having the same issue and I'm looking for a resolution from Microsoft, the developer of the Phone app for both Windows and Android.  When I have the duplication issue, it is intermittent, which leads me to connectivity as a root cause.  Sometimes, I can send a lot of texts to others without duplication, and other times, the Phone app will either send duplicate or even quadruplicate messages to the recipient.  And, yes, the recipient receives all of the duplicates, or sometimes, no message at all.  😲  In short, I believe this to be a connectivity issue between the PC and Phone Apps and the Android OS connectivity, in which the PC Phone app is sending duplicate messages.

Assumptions related to duplicate messaging:

1. I am working from a perspective for users of Windows and Android OSs
2. The connectivity of the mobile device and response timeouts between the PC app and Android app are out of sync.
3. The Android Phone app gives you a preference option to sync using "mobile data" and WiFi, or just WiFi.  The setting is set to use mobile data and wifi data.
4. The PC app and Android app are both up to date.
5. The PC Phone app is the primary controller of messages being sent.
6. The PC Phone app will send over the typed message to the Android OS Phone app to use WiFi method first and then try the mobile data method second.

My Hypothesis:  The PC app does not get a "sent confirmation" from the Android Phone app before the PC Phone app times out, so the PC Phone app re-sends again to try to use WiFi and/or mobile data methods.  The confirmation may come late from the Android app to the PC app, but the PC app has already moved on to try other means to get the message out on the network for the recipient to receive.  Thus, the duplication of text messages being sent.  I believe it would look something like this:

     IFthe PC Phone app DOES NOT get a "sent confirmation" response from the Android OS Phone App due to either 1) that there is a problem with the WiFi or, 2) the WiFi is turned off, or 3) some other WiFi issue is present...

     THENthe PC Phone app will resend the typed message to the Android OS Phone app to use mobile data (if this option is enabled)...

     ELSE(if both of scenarios fail) the PC Phone app will keep trying to resend via WiFi until X number attempts to get a a sent confirmation, which the PC Phone app will display "Message Failed" until the user clicks the error message to re-initiate the send sequence case.

Note1: The ELSE part of this case is a catch all, meaning, even if you do not have the mobile data preference turned on in the Android Phone app, you can still get duplicate messages from using WiFi only since the app is just trying to get the message out to the network until it fails.

Note2:  I have not tested the hypothesis on a wired connection only with regards to duplication issues.

Conclusion: I believe the timing of the PC Phone app sending the message to the Android Phone app is out of sync.  So the PC Phone app will send another send text message to the Android Phone app due to no "sent confirmation" being received within the expected time-limit by the PC Phone app, even though the first attempt did get transmitted to the network and the Android Phone app provided a "sent confirmation" to the PC Phone app outside the PC Phone app time-limit.  Thus duplicate text messages are being sent to the mobile device's network.

Solutions?:  I have checked all recommended Microsoft settings for my mobile device settings, and mobile device app, but I still have the duplicate text message issue until I complete one or two of the following correction methods for a temporary fix (suggestions 1 - 3 are mine; suggestions 4 - 5 are from Microsoft):

1. Close the PC Phone app, turn ON airplane mode on the mobile device (kill all connectivity), and then turning airplane mode OFF (allow it to connect to network again), and then launch the PC Phone app.
2. Close the PC Phone app, disable my PC WiFi connection, turn on airplane mode on the mobile device (kill all connectivity), and then re-enable PC WiFi connection (allow it to connect to internet), turn airplane mode off (allow it to connect to network again), and then launch the PC Phone app.
3. In a worst case scenario, restart both Windows and the mobile device until both are connected to the network and have finished their respective boot sequences.  Then launch the PC Phone app.
4. If it still is not working, I would try to use the Microsoft troubleshooting resolution suggestions:
   1. Ensure you PC app is up to date by going to the Microsoft Store and check for updates and check your RCS messaging settings on your Android device.  For more info:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4539634/troubleshooting-for-messages-in-the-your-phone-app.
   2. For generic suggestions (which I am sure most of you have already tried):  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4531298/troubleshooting-the-your-phone-app
5. In the VERY worst case scenario, you will should try to search for the steps to "Unlinking your phone and PC", and then once these steps are completed, go to the Your Phone app on your PC and follow the set-up process to establish a new link.

At the end of the day, I don't want to have to use any of these temporary remedies, but rather would like to see Microsoft dev team troubleshoot this common bug and to find a resolution for all the users of this app.

To take matters in your own hands:

You can contact "Support in the browser" via chat by going to:  https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/contactus/

You can also provide feedback and recommendations to the Microsoft Phone App development team by providing in-app feedback:

Open the Your Phone Companion app on your Android phone:

1. Open the Your Phone Companion app.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Select the Provide Feedback option.

Open the Your Phone app on your PC:

1. Type Feedback hub into the search box on your Windows taskbar.
2. Select Suggest a feature.

Hi Cutt,

Your analysis is quite extensive, and I hope it somehow helps us get a version that works correctly.  It would be great if the people at Microsoft used your information, since (as a developer, I know that) more information is always better, when troubleshooting.

From the information presented, you make a good case that the cause is a timing issue with the (Windows 10) "Your Phone" app -- that it's not getting a "message sent" acknowledgement before its (whatever) timeout, and so it's resending the message.  I've seen many posts from people who've replaced the built-in Samsung messaging app with the Google Messaging app, and their problem went away.  (Here, "replaced" means that they installed the Google Messaging app and selected it as the default app.)

For me, that didn't work, and I think that the Samsung app is (at least partially) causing the problem.  It's possible that the Google Messaging app is getting (and correctly forwarding) the message request from the Win10 app, but that the Samsung app is still actively processing some messages (even though it shouldn't be).  The only real way for me to test this would be to (somehow) disable it or ideally remove it, but both would require that I root the phone.  Sure, I could do that, but I'm not sure it's that important.

Not yet, anyway.

As always, all thoughts are appreciated.

Happy Tuesday!

Dave

Good stuff DaveTheBatMan.  I have been trying to do more testing and I really do think it is response timing issue that is causing duplicate texts to be sent.

The interesting thing that got confirmed this morning is that not ALL recipents are getting duplicate messages from me, but most are.  The question is what make this one person different technically?  I'm not sure...

Anyway, I sent my thoughts from the previous post to Microsoft dev team.  If I hear something back, I will update here.  Cheers!!

Happy Tuesday!

Ryan N.

Thanks much @DaveTheBatMan and @Cutt. I've continued to try everything, including disabling data, removing any app that the OS identified as being able to handle the default texts. For the past couple days its been off the hook, almost duplicating every text... since the latest Your Phone update.

I purged cache, reconnected phone, rebooted PC & phone, still not better. Then I decided to try something different... I disabled the built-in Samsung Messages app. Fingers crossed, not one dupe message in about 1.5 days. I'll post updates on this.

Hey Ryan (@Cutt),

Thanks for the response and the info.  I'm glad that you're sending this info to the Microsoft Dev team, and hope that they're able to do something with it.  Obviously, I'd love to hear about anything you hear back from them.

Hopefully, we'll all be able to get this solved, someday.

Dave