Can Apple do anything to reduce the number of spam texts?

[Rogifan]

So lately I’ve been getting a ton of spam text messages. Many of them are like this:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1439072424679649280

AT&T has a number you can forward them to but it’s tedious (especially when you get them every day). Blocking the number is useless because every day it’s a new number. Is there anything Apple can do with iOS/iMessage to filter out this spam? AT&T is certainly worthless.

 

[mizzourah]

agree with you - I got the same text, different name of course - I get so many each week.

 

[GtrDude]

Biggest difference between Android and Apple is the crazy number of spam calls/texts I get on Apple.
It's horrendous.
Makes me wonder if Apple figured they're better of just getting a slice of all the robo call app sales than coming up with their own database and keeping it fresh ever day like Google does.
With Android I simply never got those. Never.
Makes it hard for me to recommend iPhones to people.

 

[danny842003]

Biggest difference between Android and Apple is the crazy number of spam calls/texts I get on Apple.
It's horrendous.
Makes me wonder if Apple figured they're better of just getting a slice of all the robo call app sales than coming up with their own database and keeping it fresh ever day like Google does.
With Android I simply never got those. Never.
Makes it hard for me to recommend iPhones to people.

how would they possibly know you’re on iPhone? They’re just auto generating numbers I think.

 

[Rogifan]

Biggest difference between Android and Apple is the crazy number of spam calls/texts I get on Apple.
It's horrendous.
Makes me wonder if Apple figured they're better of just getting a slice of all the robo call app sales than coming up with their own database and keeping it fresh ever day like Google does.
With Android I simply never got those. Never.
Makes it hard for me to recommend iPhones to people.

I‘ve only started receiving them the past two months or so. Before then I rarely got spam text messages at all.

 

[Rogifan]

agree with you - I got the same text, different name of course - I get so many each week.

And yet in Mail a lot of my legitimate mail goes directly to junk so I never see it. I have no idea why Apple thinks it’s junk.

 

[mizzourah]

I‘ve only started receiving them the past two months or so. Before then I rarely got spam text messages at all.

Same - this isn’t Apple vs Android. Ridiculous premise.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Yes, they can. But they won't.
They could give you the option of blocking messages that contain certain words. Or messages coming from senders without a phone number. Or messages/calls coming from a range of numbers (i.e. block a country/area prefix altogether, not just individual numbers). People have been asking for such features for ages, but to no avail. They don't care. They'll never implement them. If you want full control you need Android.

In this particular case, on Android I would simply create a rule that all incoming messages containing the phrase "AT&T Free" should be blocked. Easy-peasy. I've done that. But I really doubt we'll ever see this in iOS.

 

[bige12]

I also get those same texts

 

[Ninjaman]

Too bad you can’t silence texts like you can calls. Lol

 

[earthdog]

Same texts and been an issue for 2-3 months. I wish they would allow text blocking or mark as spam.

 

[wankey]

STIRRED SHAKEN is being deployed soon, blame us Canadians for delaying it to June (sorry November was 2020). Rogers asked for a delay

 

[earthdog]

Per ATT (in the US) they have already implemented STIRRED SHAKEN in June of this Year. If so then it is not helping or does not resolve the issue.

 

[wankey]

I think shaken/stir is only for calls. Honestly, I use things like textnow.com to sign up for free numbers like crazy, blew my mind that I could do that without recourse.

Whenever I have to sign up for some bs service I use the textnow number.

 

[posguy99]

Same texts and been an issue for 2-3 months. I wish they would allow text blocking or mark as spam.

They do, there's an API for it. Install one of the apps from the store, block whatever you want. VeroSMS is even cloud-sourced, for those who like that sort of thing.

 

[saudor]

The sms filter on iOS is terrible. It’ll block it but itll still send it to other devices like the Mac.