Last week, The New York Times’s personal tech columnist, Brian X. Chen, went over how to stop robocallers from bombarding our phones. Now he tackles a related annoyance: unsolicited text messages from marketers, political groups and others.
Here’s what we can do:
On iPhones, you can filter out messages from unknown senders. This doesn’t stop the texts, but they won’t make your phone vibrate or ding. The texts will show up in a list labeled “unknown senders.” That way, the unwanted texts don’t distract you or clog the messages you want to see from people you care about. To do this, open the Settings app, tap Messages, scroll down and toggle on Filter Unknown Senders.
You can also block a specific phone number from texting you. In the offending text message, tap the name and number at the top of the message and then tap the Info icon on the right. Tap the “info” button again and select Block this Caller.
Android device owners can also block specific numbers from sending them texts. On Pixel phones, for example, open the text message and then tap the icon in the upper right hand corner that looks like three vertical dots. Select Details and then choose Block & report spam.
There are also third-party apps that offer to prevent spammers from texting you, but I generally am not a fan of them. In my tests, those apps still let plenty of unwanted messages through — plus they get expensive to use over time.
We should continue pressing the mobile phone companies to fix this problem on a network level. Until then, we’re on our own with some imperfect tools.
The New York Times