When Apple released iOS 26 in September 2025, the update brought a useful call screening feature to your iPhone that can help block spam calls on your device. The update also includes a feature that can filter out texts from unknown senders, which can help keep your inbox spam-free.
With this feature enabled, those messages will be filtered to their own folder in Messages without notifying you. Once these messages are in their respective folders, you can look through them at your own pace to make sure you haven’t missed anything important, or you can delete them without a second thought.
Here’s how to enable the text screening feature on your iPhone in a few easy steps.
How to block spam and messages from unknown senders
This feature was automatically enabled for me when I updated to iOS 26, but here’s how to make sure spam texts and messages from unknown senders are being filtered on your device.
1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Tap Messages.
Under Unknown Senders, you’ll see toggles to enable Screen Unknown Senders and Filter Spam.
You don’t need Text Message Filter to be on to filter out spam and messages from unknown senders.
Enabling Screen Unknown Senders can filter out any messages from unknown numbers. So, it could filter out a message from a family member who just got a new phone number or a message asking for feedback on services. For example, my wife and I requested a city service, and after the service was complete, the city sent me a message asking for feedback. But since the message was from an unknown sender, it was filtered out of my inbox.
According to Apple, if you enable Filter Spam, your device’s on-device detection filters will also hide spam from your inbox. My iPhone marked a few scammy-looking messages as spam sent them to their own folder. Messages in the spam folder automatically delete after 90 days.
That Department of Taxation message looks serious. I hope I’m not in trouble.
My device also said that messages from unknown senders may also be marked as spam and sent to your spam folder. It’s a good idea to check the folders from time to time just in case a non-spam message slipped through, but I never had that issue.
Where to find the spam and unknown sender folders
Once your iPhone filters out messages from unknown senders and spam, you can find them in Messages. To see these messages, go into Messages and tap the inverted pyramid icon in the top right corner of the screen. This will open a new menu that shows you different folders for each filter, including Unknown Senders, Transactions and Spam. Tap into any of these to see the filtered messages.
The new filters in Messages are a nice way to keep your inbox clean and spam-free.
If a message gets filtered into Spam but it’s not, you can long-press on the message and see an option to Remove from Spam. And if you want to move a message from Unknown Senders to your main mailbox, tap into the message and then tap Mark as Known near the bottom of the chat. Then your iPhone will ask you to add the sender to your Contacts.
These filters are pretty good, though. I haven’t needed to move messages from Spam or Unknown Senders once, so you might not need to either.
For more iOS news, here’s what to know about iOS 26.4 and iOS 26.3. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet for our full collection of tips and tricks.
Watch this: The Biggest Battles Ahead for Apple’s Next CEO, John Ternus
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Frequently Asked Questions
Open Settings, tap Apps, tap Messages. Under Unknown Senders, you will see toggles to enable Screen Unknown Senders and Filter Spam. You do not need Text Message Filter on for this to work.
Messages from unknown senders are filtered to their own folder in Messages without notifying you, so you can review them at your own pace or delete them.
Yes, enabling Screen Unknown Senders can filter out messages from unknown numbers, like a family member with a new number or feedback requests from services you used.
Apple released iOS 26 in September 2025, bringing a call screening feature to block spam calls and the text filtering feature for unknown senders.
