How to block annoying texts with a few taps on your iPhone

Apple hasn’t yet provided a simple way to mark unwanted incoming text messages and block and delete them. Nor do they identify texts for patterns–as the Mail app and iCloud.com does to mark commercial and fraudulent emails–to see if they look like something that should go right into the bit bucket. Here are a few things you can do to block annoying texts on your iPhone.

Use SMS filters

You can install third-party SMS filters, an option Apple allowed starting in 2017. These filters do see the contents of your SMS messages, which is a privacy risk, but one that the companies involved have detailed policy statements about and bear the liability for if your messages were to be breached. I wrote about how to use these filters in 2017, and the process remains identical today (though in iOS 18, the configuration is handled at Settings > Apps > Messages > Unknown & Spam).

To find apps that offer SMS filtering, go to the iOS App Store and search on “SMS filter.” The App Store doesn’t have a category specifically for this task.

Due to the end-to-end encryption and privacy intent by Apple for iMessage, Apple doesn’t offer third-party filtering for that category of message. However, because all iMessage posts require validated Apple ID accounts, you can reliably block the source of an iMessage—they can’t just generate endless iMessage accounts, unlike the potential of creating false originating phone numbers for text messages.

Develop a manual reflex

I’ve developed a quick set of actions for blocking unwanted texts that I wish I could make into a Shortcut in iOS, but which appears to require too many elements that aren’t available in Shortcuts.

When I receive an illegitimate text, or one from a real source that I didn’t give permission to text me, here’s what I do:

Tap the conversation to view the message.

Tap the profile link at the top.

Tap the Info button.

Tap Block Caller.

Tap the back button in the upper-left corner (<).

Tap Hide Alerts.

Tap the back button again to get to the top level of Messages.

Swipe left on the conversation and tap the Delete Conversation trash can icon.

What this does is:

Blocks further calls or texts, which has become more reliable since the FCC tightened rules about validating phone numbers in Caller ID a couple of years.

Prevents notifications if that block is somehow eluded.

Deletes the conversation from your field of view, reducing clutter in Messages.

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