iPhone users in India report intrusive “Recharge Now” messages on iOS
A Reddit post on r/ios by user u/grmln_rsn has sparked a furious discussion after they reported that their iPhone 12 Pro displayed a persistent “Recharge now” message across the home screen once their Airtel prepaid daily data quota was used up. “I can understand a pop-up message as a notification, but this feels intrusive,” they said. “Did not expect this from Apple.” Seemingly disappointed, the user further wrote.
Other Airtel subscribers confirmed the issue. Reddit user u/Frequent-Extreme-881 said, “I’m using Airtel (India) and get this almost every day,” adding that it might be a test in batches, as they only recently started receiving this notification. In contrast, u/prabhat35 noted they had run out of data “many times” but had never seen the alert.
Another Reddit user u/WolframBravo suggested Airtel was misusing the emergency broadcast channel, usually reserved for natural disasters, to push data warnings. They called it “unethical,” while user r/Mr-Pomeroy said, “If this is actually the case that is dark and should be illegal.” Some other user initially thought it was Flash SMS, but r/WolframBravo clarified that Flash SMS behaves differently.
Debate also centred on Apple’s role. r/Anonymous_linux argued, “The carrier can not write random messages to random places in iOS unless Apple allows that,” calling it an “abuse of trust.” User r/MrKuub, however, countered: “Apple needs to allow the usage of that space, as it is intended for actual emergency notifications… Your carrier abusing that functionality is not on Apple.”
The practice appears to be region-specific, with Reddit comments alleging similar cases in India and even in Turkey, where some carriers were said to have taken over the entire phone interface until users recharged.
Despite differing views, some argue that Apple should not allow such invasive practices, adding that Airtel’s approach only strengthens their resolve to resist what they see as scummy behaviour.
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