iPHONE CALL FILTERING SETTINGS

With iOS 26 there are some new settings that may prevent calls and text messages from reaching your phone. These settings are important to understand as they may affect the messages you receive as well as messages received by your clients.

Phone Call Settings

To access the settings related to phone calls, open your iPhone Settings. Scroll all the way down to Apps and select Phone. Scroll down to find the settings related to screening and filtering unknown calls.

Screen Unknown Callers

Screen Unknown Callers provides 3 different options:

Never is the default setting, and it means that no calls will be silenced, even if they come from an unrecognized number.
Ask Reason for Calling prompts the caller to state their name and reason for calling when the number is not in your contacts list. The text of their response will be displayed on your screen, allowing you to reject or accept the call.
Silence will cause all calls from unrecognized numbers to be silenced.

Call Filter Settings

There are 2 options related to Call Filtering:

Unknown Callers will silence all calls and voicemails from unknown numbers. These calls will be added to the Unknown Callers list.
Spam will filter all calls identified as spam by your mobile carrier. They will be sent directly to voicemail, and calls will be added to the Spam list.

Call Blocking & Identification allows you to turn Business Call Identification on or off. When turned on, this will display verified caller ID details as identified by Apple or your mobile carrier.

Unknown & Spam Callers

Once numbers have been added to the Unknown Callers or Spam list, they can be removed or edited by tapping the context menu on the Phone screen. Unknown numbers can either be deleted or marked as known so future calls won’t be silenced.

Message Settings

To access the settings related to phone calls, open your iPhone Settings. Scroll all the way down to Apps and select Messages. Scroll down to find the settings related to screening and filtering messages from unknown senders.

Message Filter Settings

There are 4 options related to Unknown Message Senders:

Screen Unknown Senders will hide notifications and move messages to the Unknown Senders list.
Allow Notifications gives you the option to receive for messages that are:
- Time Sensitive - alerts, verification codes, urgent requests
- Personal - not sent by businesses or organizations
- Transactions - order updates, receipts, confirmations
- Promotions - general offers and updates sent to multiple recipients
Text Message Filter will automatically sort messages into categorized lists.
Filter Spam will hide notifications and move messages to the Spam list.

If you have not allowed Time Sensitive notifications, you will not receive notifications for Intulse App verification codes. And if you send bulk messages to clients, they will not receive notifications for those texts unless they have allowed Promotions notifications.

Unknown & Spam Senders

Once numbers have been added to the Unknown Senders or Spam list, they can be removed or edited by tapping the context menu on the Messages screen. Unknown numbers can either be deleted or marked as known so future messages won’t be hidden.