ios26 message filtering still notifies for every unknown sender

Question

Level 1

10 points

ios26 message filtering still notifies for every unknown sender

Before ios26, I had already set messages to not notify me of any texts from unknown senders and it worked great. Now that ios26 has changed that to filtering, I am getting notifications for every text, including unknown senders. What used to work has been broken by ios26! Every toggle is off for the "Screen Unknown Senders" switch and "Filter Spam" switch. And "Allow Notifications" has always been switched to none, including "time sensitive", "promotions" etc - everything. Despite all these settings, I still get notified of every single unknown and unwanted text, both on my watch and on my phone. Please fix this bug!

iPhone 13 Pro, iOS 26

Posted on Oct 9, 2025 5:34 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Oct 15, 2025 12:39 AM in response to Merrymango

Yeah, same issue here after updating to iOS 26 — Apple seems to have broken the old “Silence Unknown Senders” logic. Even with Filter Unknown Senders and Allow Notifications fully off, I still get alerts for random texts. It’s likely a bug with the new message filtering system. For now, the only workaround is turning off Notifications → Messages entirely or reporting it via Apple’s feedback page until they patch it in a future update.

Reply

Answer 2

Csut805

Level 1

8 points

Oct 27, 2025 4:26 PM in response to Merrymango

This worked for me: turn off the unknown messages filters/allow notifications. **Reboot your phone** Turn unknown messages filters back on/hide notifications from unknown.

Reply

Answer 3

Oct 13, 2025 3:51 PM in response to Merrymango

Same. The following is configured:

Screen Unknown Senders: On

Allow Notifications: None

Text Message Filter: Text Message Filter

Filter Spam: On

Yet, I continue to receive notifications from unknown senders with iOS 26.0.1.

Reply

Answer 4

richwag

Level 1

14 points

Oct 14, 2025 12:12 PM in response to Merrymango

Yes, also notifies on my watch. Super annoying. Does it for messages marked as promotions too.

Reply