Recommend me an app to stop Android being thick about phone numbers

Any good recommendations?

Apple 🙂
Or a Nokia 3310

Why own a 'phone' that the makes have placed more design emphasis on harvesting your data than you being able make and receive phone calls?

Thank you.
You and my phone would get on well together 😉

Can you install the default Google apps for these? I don't have the problem you describe.

https://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/inanimate-objects-which-are-pricks/

most "contacts" apps support multiple phone numbers for a given contact. Can you not just add all the numbers to the same contact?

Strange, my phone sees all 3 variants as the same number...you got a setting switched off/on perhaps?

Why own a ‘phone’ that the makes have placed more design emphasis on harvesting your data than you being able make and receive phone calls?

'Cos it's cheap and small and smart enough for my needs without being a full-on supercomputer to run my life. It didn't even have Google apps when I bought it, had to root it and mess around with Magisk and whatnot to get them on. Hey if the Chinese have my data then why not give it to America as well! They're welcome to whatever they can glean from my sparse contacts and occasional stupid game playing. Not particularly bothered tbh.

most “contacts” apps support multiple phone numbers for a given contact. Can you not just add all the numbers to the same contact?

...

Strange, my phone sees all 3 variants as the same number…you got a setting switched off/on perhaps?

Yes, and whether I add them to the contact or not the phone does recognise them as the correct contact, but still puts messages in separate threads for each version or shows the contact 3 times in the search results.

Can't see a relevant setting.

Go onto contacts.google.com and change every stored phone number to the latter format.

No more confusion and all your numbers will still Just Work when roaming.

most “contacts” apps support multiple phone numbers for a given contact. Can you not just add all the numbers to the same contact?

I rather suspect that's the root cause of the problem, the OP has got multiple numbers on a contact rather than one.

Go onto contacts.google.com and change every stored phone number to the latter format.

No more confusion and all your numbers will still Just Work when roaming.

Hmm. Will fix it mostly but let's say I send someone new a text and type in "07123...." as normal, then get a reply from "+44123..." it goes in a different thread... Then I save their number from an email or something when it has a space in, so the contact is "0712 3...", so from now on whenever I send a message from contacts their response goes into  a different thread (with the contact name, even though "+44etc" is not actually saved in the contact)... aargh

I rather suspect that’s the root cause of the problem, the OP has got multiple numbers on a contact rather than one.

Some yes, some only have the one number but the phone still links them (see above). At some level the phone is perfectly capable of telling that it's the same thing, this is why I suspect it of deliberately taunting me.

All my contacts have multiple numbers - although not multiple variants of the same number...some have spaces between the numbers, some have no spaces and very few have +44 on them. However, I can send a message (text, WhatsApp) using any combination of the same number and it goes to the right person...when they reply it shows as that contact, regardless of how their number is set to send.

Think you need to merge contacts, used to be a facility/option on android about 5-6 generations ago.
Haven't seen it, or been offered the option to merge a contact in probably a decade. Suspect it's automatic on the later versions.

You might also have the different versions of the same number stored in different locations (phone memory/SIM/Cloud/Google Account/whatever) even though they appear as the same contact.
Pick one and stick to it. (Google is *usually* the best.)

let’s say I send someone new a text and type in “07123….” as normal

You're manually typing in phone numbers "as normal" to send texts?

Texts? What's a text?

🤣

You’re manually typing in phone numbers “as normal” to send texts?

No not usually... I meant the number format as normal.

eg if someone tells me their number verbally and then I send them a text, I type it in that way. I also type it that way when making a new contact manually.

Guess I'll try a couple of different things... was just hoping someone had had this issue and could give a magic solution (that doesn't involve Apple!).

When they tell you their number to they tell you where the spaces are as well or is it just a single stream of numbers?

It didn’t even have Google apps when I bought it, had to root it and mess around with Magisk

I suspect that this is the root cause. A Chinese market phone will not only be missing the apps, it will also be missing a lot of the basic stuff that underpins those apps.

someone had had this issue and could give a magic solution

Consistency.

Really, if your phone is treating 01234 567890 and 0123 456 7890 as different numbers, it's just being shit. As above, I shifted all my contacts to +44 format years ago and it's never missed a beat since.

Interesting.
On my pixel if I go into my text app (Google Messages) and type 0779 it comes up with a list of contacts whose numbers start 0799 (no surprise there) and if I type +44 799, or any other variation of that number, it comes up with exactly the same list of contacts.

My conclusion is that you have a crap phone (and as already said, one that is not not the 'full' android).

Can you install Google Contacts?

Cougar has it.
I would add, to help here ongoing, get the Google versions of apps installed. They. Just. Work.

The contacts app also has a useful merge function.

Contacts
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.contacts

Dialer
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.dialer

Texts/Messages
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.apps.messaging

And Google Keyboard
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.latin