Messages app freezes when I try to send a text/message to a number not in my contacts.
iPhone 13 on iOS 16.6.
If I use Messenger to try to send a message/text to a mobile number that's not one of my contacts, Messenger locks up completely. I can't erase the number or do anything with the app. I have to swipe it up to force close it.
The app freezes as soon as I get as far as a number that it doesn't recognise. Here in the UK, mobile numbers start with 07 so I'm OK typing 07 but as soon as I've typed a number that is not in my contacts, the app will freeze.
E.g. if I only have 07944 111 222 and 07944 111 333 in my contacts, as soon as I type 07944 111 4 then the app will freeze - as soon as I enter the final digit 4.
Feels like a setting somewhere but I have no idea where. This has happened on my previous iPhones too and I've never got to the bottom of it.
Any ideas to save me from having to create a new contact for each number I want to message?