It’s a bizarre bug for 2025: your voice message about meeting at “Dave & Buster’s” might vanish into thin air. A strange glitch in Apple’s Messages app is causing voice notes containing the ampersand symbol (&) to fail silently. Discovered on the Search Engine podcast and confirmed by developer Guilherme Rambo, this issue isn’t about bad reception—it’s about a single character breaking the app’s code, leaving users in the dark and their messages undelivered.
How a Simple Symbol Breaks Your Voice Message
When you send a voice message, Apple’s software doesn’t just send the audio file. It also creates a text transcription of what you said that appears below the audio player. This is usually a helpful feature, but it’s the source of this peculiar problem.
If you say a brand name like “H&M” or “Barnes & Noble,” the transcription engine tries to process the “&” symbol. However, due to a coding mistake, it fails to handle the character correctly.
The result is a silent failure. The message never sends, you don’t get an error, and the recipient never knows you sent anything. It simply disappears, creating confusion for both the sender and the receiver.
BlastDoor: Apple’s Security Feature Turned against Itself
The problem gets deeper when you look at how Apple protects its users. According to developer Guilherme Rambo, the failed transcription creates what is known as a parsing error. This jumbled code is then inspected by a security system inside Messages called BlastDoor.
BlastDoor was introduced in 2021 to act as a digital bouncer, scanning incoming messages for malicious code or potential spyware. It’s designed to be overly cautious and block anything that looks suspicious.
Unfortunately, the garbled code from the ampersand bug looks suspicious enough to trigger this security feature. So, BlastDoor does its job and blocks the “dangerous” message, which is actually just your innocent dinner plans.
Is It Just Dave & Buster’s? A List of Affected Brands
This issue isn’t limited to a single restaurant chain. Any brand or name that uses a formal ampersand is a potential trigger for the bug. This makes casual voice communication surprisingly difficult if you’re trying to coordinate a shopping trip or a meeting.
The problem is surprisingly widespread given how many popular brands use the symbol.
| Brand or Location | Potential to Cause a Failed Message |
|---|---|
| Dave & Buster’s | Yes |
| H&M | Yes |
| Tiffany & Co. | Yes |
| Barnes & Noble | Yes |
| Bed Bath & Beyond | Yes |
| Johnson & Johnson | Yes |
The Discovery and Apple’s Quiet Response
The glitch first gained public attention when PJ Vogt, host of the Search Engine podcast, described his frustration with sending a voice message that included “Dave & Buster’s.” This prompted iOS developer Guilherme Rambo to investigate, and he quickly confirmed it was a reproducible bug tied to the ampersand.
The story spread quickly online as users began testing it themselves, confirming the bug’s bizarre consistency. Despite the growing awareness and media attention, Apple has not yet publicly acknowledged the issue or announced a timeline for a fix. This silence is frustrating for users who depend on the Messages app for reliable daily communication.
What Can You Do While Waiting for a Fix?
Since Apple hasn’t released a patch, users have discovered a few clunky workarounds to make sure their voice messages get through. While none are ideal, they can help you avoid the frustration of a silently failed message.
Here are a few temporary solutions:
- Say the word “and” instead of using the symbol’s sound. For example, say “Dave and Buster’s.” This seems to avoid triggering the transcription error.
- Avoid mentioning brands with ampersands entirely. This is the simplest but most restrictive option.
- Use a different messaging app. Competitors like WhatsApp or Signal do not have this specific transcription bug.
Ultimately, these are just temporary fixes. Users shouldn’t have to change the way they speak just to send a simple voice note. For now, everyone is waiting on Apple to patch the bug and let the ampersand be a humble connector again, not a message killer.
