Techniques to reconfigure messaging clients during contact information changes

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor circuit on a client device;
• a network interface controller on the client device;
• a messaging component operative on the processor circuit to:
• receive a contact phone number update via the network interface controller at a messaging client on the client device from a messaging system, the contact phone number update associated with a contact participating in a message thread in the messaging client, the contact phone number update comprising a previous phone number and an updated phone number;
• determine the existing message thread by determining if a participant in the message thread is identified by a phone number matching the previous phone number in the received phone number update;
• and
• send a user message to the contact using the network interface controller via the messaging system using the updated phone number as a destination address;
• and
• a user interface component operative on the processor circuit to:
• display a contact phone number change notification in the existing message thread;
• and
• receive the user message for the contact.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising instructions that, when executed, cause a system to:

• receive a contact phone number update at a messaging client on a client device from a messaging system, the contact phone number update associated with a contact participating in an existing message thread in the messaging client, the contact phone number update comprising a previous phone number and an updated phone number;
• determine the existing message thread by determining if a participant in the message thread is identified by a phone number matching the previous phone number in the received phone number update;
• display a contact phone number change notification in the existing message thread;
• receive a user message for the contact;
• and
• send the user message to the contact via the messaging system using the updated phone number as a destination address.