Are you dealing with loads of spam iMessages from unknown senders? You can easily deal with this situation by setting your iPhone to divert iMessages from unknown senders to a different tab. This will immediately cut down all the spam messages, leaving you with messages from known senders.
iMessage Unknown Senders Filter
Unknown Senders Filter for iMessages was first introduced in iOS 8.3 to deal with the alarming increase in spam messages, targeting iPhone users. You should be making use of this useful feature in case you are getting flooded with spam iMessages.
Apart from being annoying, spam Messages can waste time, take your attention away from genuine messages and increase the chances of missing or not replying to important messages.
All this can be avoided by just turning on the ‘Unknown Senders’ Filter in iMessages. Once the filter is turned on, all iMessages from those who are not on your Contacts List will be diverted to a separate tab, rightly titled as ‘Unknown Senders’.
Also, iMessages landing in the Unknown Senders Tab won’t be bothering you with notifications or alerts. You will be getting notifications only for iMessages or standard Text Messages from known senders.
Note: You will be made aware of iMessages sitting in the Unknown Senders Tab via a Red Badge on the Messages app.
Filter iMessages from Unknown Senders
Follow the steps below to turn on the Unknown Senders Filter for iMessages. This should help you deal with spam by diverting messages from unknown senders into a separate tab that you can deal with later on.
1. From the home screen of your iPhone, tap on Settings
2. Tap on Messages
3. Scroll down the screen and toggle ON Filter Unknown Senders
With these settings you will find iMessages from known senders in a different tab. Messages from unknown senders which are most likely to be spam messages will be available in ‘Unknown Senders’ tab.
Disadvantages of Using ‘Unknown Senders’ Filter
While the Unknown Senders Filter is useful in dealing with spam iMessages, it has certain disadvantages that you need to be aware of.
1. The filter can only stop iMessages, it cannot stop standard text (or SMS) messages.
2. There is always a possibility of iMessages from legitimate senders landing in the Unknown Senders tab. This can happen when the sender of a genuine iMessage is not listed on your Contacts List for some reason.
For this reason, it is a good practice to take a quick look at iMessages sitting in the Unknown Senders tab from time to time, in order to make sure that only spam messages are being filtered out.
Tip: Using the Unknown Senders Filter you can identify habitual spammers and block them permanently on your iPhone – How to Block and Unblock Someone on Your iPhone
