You know about spam and SMS scams, right? We're talking about those kinds of trap messages that, without us even noticing, try to trick us into tapping a link or replying without thinking. Now, with the new Messages app coming with iOS 26, Apple has found a clever way to reduce that risk to a minimum. Let’s see how they're going to do it.
iMessage in iOS 26: A new way to organize our messages
With iOS 26, which this autumn will bring us lots of new features (although not for every iPhone), the first thing we’ll notice when opening Messages is a much clearer and better organized structure. Similar to what we already see in Mail, a new filter button will appear in the top right corner, allowing us to switch between several message categories: Messages, Unknown Senders, Spam, and Recently Deleted.
In the Messages section, we’ll find the usual: our ongoing conversations with friends and family, verification codes, and useful messages like bookings or confirmations.
Messages from the other sections ("Unknown Senders" and "Spam"), however, won’t generate any notifications. This means that if someone we don’t know sends something suspicious, we won’t see it like a normal message. A major improvement when it comes to avoiding scams.
Also, from "Manage Filters", we’ll always be able to toggle the "Spam" and "Unknown Senders" filters on or off separately, in case, for example, an important message ends up in one of those folders by mistake. We’ll be able to mark it as known and return it to the main view with just a few taps.
iMessage in iOS 26: Messages you can’t tap or reply to
So far, so good. But the most interesting change lies in what Apple has done with the messages that end up in the Spam folder. Here, Apple applies two key restrictions: links and phone numbers can't be tapped — they’re disabled — and we also can’t reply to any message in that folder, as the reply option isn’t even available.
This may seem like a small detail, but it actually makes a huge difference. It’s an essential security measure that gives us time and perspective to think twice about whether a message is legitimate before, if we consider it safe, moving it to the main Messages folder so we can respond.
With this, Apple has made it much harder to fall for scams without realizing. No annoying notifications, no full-screen interruptions, and no need for us to actively change anything. They’ve simply put the right barriers in the right places. In fact, Apple has spent years working on security measures we don’t even see — silent but effective. And this new filtering system in Messages is exactly that. A quiet upgrade with a big impact on our daily experience.
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