It’s a real feature in first party apps (messages, mail, etc), but it’s not fully automatic. When it thinks that a number/address/etc is related to an existing contact, it’ll prompt the user to confirm or deny, and upon confirmation the info is added. Ultimately it’s up to the user.

I don't know when they added it to iOS, but my iPhone does this. I get a text from some new number and the message includes (e.g.) "Hey this is Tom." and a notice right in Messages says it "found" a contact that this may be and asks if I want to add the number to that contact. I could imagine having this happen correctly a few times in a row might make one trust that it knows what it's doing.

Absolutely, and it's generally OK to trust it.

I wouldn't trust it with my bank details though (i.e. while I might send bank details to my life partner, I definitely wouldn't send them to someone my iPhone thinks might be my partner). And I DEFINITELY wouldn't trust it with military operation details.

The iPhone contacts app is an absolute cluster of an app in terms of how it manages adding contacts (or allows other apps to add contacts).

Years ago I had my nicely arranges contacts in place, then added Gmail and it upload contacts so now they were all duplicated. Then when I dug into it, I realize you have have folders of different contacts, but depending on the view they are shown as combined.

Then add on top Gmail keeps asking me if I want to update someone's contacts from an email they sent me. I click yes, but it keeps coming up even though their contact info doesn't change (what?).

Then if I try to copy a message from iMessage, it will randomly assume a number is someone's phone number and ask me if I want to create a new contact (what?). If my fingers were fatter it would be easier to click "yes" and end up with a non-phone number added to some person's contacts.

I only trust the contacts that I add manually, everything else is suspect.

Really? I think the text of the pop up is “new number found for CONTACT NAME. Add it to contact?”

But does it extract this information from a email where a different contact was included? That part sounds weird to me (but possible).

The article says an email including Goldberg’s signature block was copied and pasted into a text message from Hughes.

I read that. But it would still be Goldbergs signature block. So is apple so "dumb" to just take this number and assume it belongs to the email adress contact? To be confirmed with a single touch?

That would be weird to me.

It is for sure a terrible design for a top secret communications system.

For a consumer platform, it makes some sense, and the prompt is supposed to be “hey you might want to do this”, and the user can decide if it makes sense. I’ve used an iphone since they came out, have seen this prompt like twice, and got it right both times. But I’m not a national security advisor or anything so maybe it’s more clear to me.

It’s not new, been seeing this for years