Recommend me an iOS SMS spam filter

December 17, 2021 8:58 AM

I get a lot of spam texts. My mobile network doesn't offer a spam text filtering service or app, and iOS itself is useless on this front. There are several options in the app store, but they either have a lot of solid reviews but collect way too much personal data (e.g. TextKiller), require a lot of manual configuration, or don't have a lot of reviews but at least don't claim to collect data. If you've had good results with a privacy-respecting, zero-configuration spam filter on iOS, I want to hear about it!
posted by jedicus to Computers & Internet (3 answers total)

iOS itself is useless on this front

Sanity check: have you tried using Settings -> Messages -> Filter Unknown Senders?

You may have tried this and not had it work for you, but I only ask because some people don't know that exists.
posted by vitout at 10:21 AM on December 17, 2021

Sanity check: have you tried using Settings -> Messages -> Filter Unknown Senders?

That's not useful to me because I get a lot of necessary messages from senders that are not in my contacts list and that don't necessarily use the same number each time: 2FA codes, delivery notifications, various work notifications, weather and emergency alerts, etc. It's not worth it to make all of those important messages require active checking (rather than a push notification) and extra effort to get to.
posted by jedicus at 10:31 AM on December 17, 2021

I've been using Bouncer. I get very few spam texts now. Doesn't help with all the spam phone calls, alas.
posted by adamrice at 2:39 PM on December 18, 2021