Clicky Skip to Content

What Does Filter Unknown Senders Mean

What Does Filter Unknown Senders Mean

What Does Filter Unknown Senders Mean

An unknown sender is a text message you get from someone who isn’t in your Contacts list in the context of Apple’s Messages app. You may see or change your Contacts list via the Phone or Contacts applications on your smartphone. This is a unique contact book.

Filtering means all messages coming from the people in your contacts list are added to a “Known senders” list. Message Filter sorts messages from people not in your contacts into their own list, making it easier to see messages from friends, family, or colleagues on their friends own Dedicated Known Senders list. Once you turn on the feature, texts from people you know that are not saved to your contacts list still go directly into your Known Senders list.

Messages sent by a removed person (or any who are not part of your contacts) now appear on a list that is kept separate from the rest of your messages. From this point forward, you will not get messages from the same sender again. From now on, every time you get a text from an unknown number, your iPhone will no longer show a notification or make any sounds.

Even when you have Filter unknown senders enabled, sometimes the Messages app still warns you with a notification when you receive a text message from an unknown source. Apples filter unknown senders feature lets the Messages app automatically block texts from numbers that are not part of your contacts to clutter up your inbox.

If you’re interested in How Much Is A New Macbook Air Battery, take a look at my other article

Let us take a look at how to filter out unknown senders, as well as where the filtering of unknown senders leads to potentially junk texts, so that you can review those messages. With a whole new feature, these annoying spam texts will go from your view to your head, so you can focus on the messages that are important to you. Your iPhone has a feature that allows your iPhone to filter out texts from unknown senders to a separate tab, where you also do not get notifications about these messages.

Filtering also offers a way to keep getting valid text messages from unknown senders, such as 2-factor authentication messages, knowing where they are going to show up. The ability to filter messages among contacts and everyone else is only currently a feature of iPhone and Mac.

Now that you know how to filter messages from unknown numbers on an iPhone, you can return to the Messages app, and you can toggle messages from your contacts and unknown numbers by tapping on the tabs on the top of the app screen.

Watch this video to know the meaning of Filter unknown messages from sender

Our tutorial continues below with more info about how to filter unknown messages on your iPhone, including pictures of those steps. For more awesome iPhone messaging tricks, see our free tip of the day. If you are looking for other iPhone hacks, find out how to disable autocorrect, recover deleted messages, how to turn on reading receipts, why your texts are green, and more iPhone tricks that will make using your smartphone easier.

Now you know how to disable notification alerts from unsolicited messages. It makes sense, and seems smart, to turn off notifications from all unknown senders on your iPhone, and to eliminate the chance that someone could pester you with a junk text message. When you receive a Message from a sender that is not on your Address Book, you do not receive the Notification.

If you do not recognize the sender or number, you should ignore instructions to Text STOP to prevent future texts. Open text from number you want to block and tap the senders number. When you have done blocking, the unknown numbers will be sent directly to your voicemail, with an opportunity for them to leave a message.

On the iPhone, open a conversation, do not click on any links in the messages, and tap the phone number near the top of the chat. Once you have forwarded the message, the text and the phone number may be investigated by the phone provider. The senders information and message is sent to Apple, and the message is permanently deleted from your device.

DefinitionDescription
Filter Unknown SendersA setting on an iPhone that filters messages from people who are not in your contacts
How it worksMessages from unknown senders are filtered into a separate list in the Messages app
BenefitsReduces the amount of spam and unwanted messages that appear in your main message list
How to enable/disableGo to Settings > Messages and toggle the “Filter Unknown Senders” option on or off
ExceptionsMessages from people you have recently been in contact with are not filtered
What does filter unknown senders mean

If a message appears on your list of unknown senders & is indeed junk mail, touch on the message, and then tap on the & rsquo;Report Junk Link, as seen in the screenshot below. When tapping on an unidentified iMessage, if it looks like spam, you can tap on the Report Junk link at the bottom to report it to Apple.

If you receive an iMessage from someone that is not saved to your contacts, you will see the report junk link below the message. You will not receive notifications about any iMessages which are recognized by your SMS Filter (if you have an SMS Filter installed in Step 4 above). If you decide you want to unlock a sender later, use Junk Email filters to modify what messages you see.

Note the setting that says imessages gets filtered, but from my experience, any unknown senders who are not on your contacts list are put in the box with the Unknown senders, and this includes SMS texts, and not just iMessage users.

You can even set things up to get only alerts from messages from people you know, with anything else being quietly added to your Unknown Inbox. You can hide particular messages from people, alerts from a chain of texts, or even notifications from apps. Apple lets you filter and classify incoming text messages coming from unknown numbers, which we will explore below.

To start filtering texts coming from unknown numbers, open Settings by tapping on the gear icon. Once enabled, you can head directly to the Messages app to see filters in action.

What is nice is you do not have to download a third-party app in order to perform the filtering; your iPhone is already equipped with the text-filtering function within the Messages app. The filtering feature requires the latest version of iOS, older versions do not support Unknown sender inboxes within the Messages app on iOS.

If you’re interested in Apple Pencil Grip, take a look at my other article

On Android, you can also block junk texts by opening your Messages app and clicking on the three dots on the top-right corner of your screen. Go to Messages and tap on the three-dots icon at the top-right corner of your screen Choose Details Tap on App settings Choose Spam protection Turn on Enable spam protection Once your phones built-in spam protection is enabled, you are less likely to accidentally engage in spam texts. Select the three-dot icon in the top right of your screen Select Forward text message to 7726 When it comes to texts and safety, using some common sense and taking advantage of your phones privacy features — and the privacy features that are available from your carrier — can help you deal with spam texts more effectively.

What does unknown sender mean on iPhone?

When you navigate Filters and Unknown Senders, you can see messages from persons who are not in your contacts. You cannot click any links in messages from unknown senders until you add the sender to your contacts or respond to the message.

What is a safe senders list on iPhone?

Using the iPhone Mail app, you can mark particular senders as “safe senders.” Whitelisting is another name for this. When you add a sender to your white list, the Mail app knows that emails from that sender are secure and will be delivered to your inbox rather than your spam folder.

Do you still get notifications from unknown senders?

Although you can filter out texts from unknown senders, you’ll still get a notification when you do. You might wish to turn off notifications for texts you got from unknown senders if it turns out to be spam because this could prove unpleasant.

Skip to content