Receiving notifications for unknown senders

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Level 1

14 points

Receiving notifications for unknown senders

Prior to updating to iOS 26, I was able to completely turn off notifications from unknown senders. With the new update, notifications for messages are severely broken. I receive messages from unknown senders, and I do not receive messages from my known contacts - even my emergency contacts! It is like everything is backwards! There seems to be an issue with syncing notification settings on my phone and watch also. I have my watch set to mirror my phone, but I am getting unknow sender text messages on my watch and other app notifications are gone. I have adjusted several settings and even went so far as to turn on screen time to block unknown senders but that causes the message previews to disappear so that I have actually open up messages to see who they are from before I can determine if it is a junk text message or not. I am absolutely dealing with more unknown sender text messages than I ever have. This is completely wrong, and Apple has to fix this. I want to go back to the previous iOS and get my life back!

iPhone 15 Plus, iOS 26

Posted on Sep 26, 2025 6:29 AM

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Answer 1

arempas Author

Level 1

14 points

Oct 17, 2025 8:57 AM in response to dintystew

I contacted Support and they suggested that I submit feedback on iOS 26. Please add your voice to our battle cry to stop the insanity! 😆 Feedback - Messages - Apple

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Answer 2

Oct 16, 2025 5:19 PM in response to arempas

I am having this same problem. First, there is a huge problem with spam texts, as many have pointed out. Thankfully I was able to mute those in the past as you described. For a while, my watch was doing as I bought it for - alerting me to important messages and notifications, and silencing spam that I have no desire to be notified of. But now, I get spam texts on my watch, even though they are being filtered into "Unknown Senders" on my phone, and my watch is supposed to be mirroring my iPhone messages settings. There clearly is a glitch here that I hope is being worked on, because these spam texts are driving me crazy.

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Answer 3

Oct 27, 2025 3:23 PM in response to arempas

I totally agree, I am SO frustrated. I keep getting notifications on my un known senders which I set to screen unknown senders and to allow no notifications. But they just keep on coming . The notifications come the way I had set for my known senders . Plus I receive the notifications on watch also which I set to mirror my phone.

Apple does need to fix this soon!

i don’t seem to be missing messages from my known contacts though. I am sorry you have to deal with that also.

i

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