From Annoying To Sort Of Weird Messages Behavior in iOS 26.1

I had high hopes for the iOS update.

My iPhone 17 MxPr still sounds sick when entering the first digit of a phone call

And I am attaching a screenshot of what Messages automatically entered in the text field immediately after sending a text … it’s just too weird … I clicked send and did not enter any further typing

Was it (mis-)transcribing something it heard you or someone else say? (I.e., was dictation on?)

LOL I have turned off at this time, the following:

Raise to wake; Always On Display; Tap Or Swipe to Wake; Shake to Undo

Turns out that Dictation was enabled, but boggles my mind where that conversation came from

It made me feel like maybe this conversation snippet was on the recipients end somehow … but that’s impossible \

But none of this explains how my pocket started listening to the news without my prompting (on a closed screen phone)

Sheesh!