How to block spam group texts on an iPhone and prevent them from reaching you

You can block the sender of a spam group text on your iPhone and set up a filter to prevent such texts from reaching your Messages inbox.

• You can leave a spam group text message on an iPhone if all the recipients are using iMessage.
• If the recipients are a mix of iMessage and SMS users, you can block the sender or mute the conversation to eliminate notifications.
• Enable the iPhone's Filter Unknown Senders setting to reduce the noise about potentially unwanted messages.  

Spam text messages on your iPhone are an ever-present annoyance. If you're unlucky, you get frequent group texts offering free vacations and unwanted products, or announcing you've won bogus prizes like free cell phone service. 

No matter what the content, they're frustrating. Thankfully, you can manage your spam group texts — you can sometimes exit spam group texts, block senders, and even turn on a spam filter. 

How to leave or mute a spam group text on iPhone

Often, but not always, you can leave an unwanted group text message. To try to leave, do this:

1. Open the spam text message.

2. Tap the group icon at the top of the screen.

Scroll to the bottom of the page and tap Leave this Conversation.

That won't always work, though. You can only leave a conversation if all the recipients are using iMessage and if there are no fewer than three people in the thread. For a spam text, the number of people is rarely a problem, but often the recipients will be a mix of iMessage and SMS users. In that case, you can't leave, but you can do the next best thing: You can mute the message, so you won't receive notifications every time someone responds to it. 

1. Open the spam text message.

2. Tap the group icon at the top of the screen.

3. Turn on Hide Alerts by swiping the button to the right.

How to block the sender of a spam group text on iPhone

You generally won't get multiple spam texts from the same phone number; for spammers, phone numbers are expendable and they change numbers frequently to prevent being blocked. Even so, if you get a lot of unwanted texts, blocking the offenders can sometimes reduce the volume of spam texts you receive. 

1. Open the spam text message.

2. Note the name or phone number that sent the first message in the conversation — you should see it above the first message at the top of the page.

3. Tap the group icon at the top of the screen.

4. Tap the button with the list of names and numbers in the conversation.

5. Scroll down to find the originator of the text message and tap it. 

6. Tap Block this Caller and then confirm you want to do this by tapping Block Contact in the pop-up window.

After blocking the sender, it's a good idea to delete the message so you don't accidentally interact with it. Return to your Messages main screen and swipe the spam message to the left to delete it.  

How to turn on a spam filter for texts on iPhone

Your iPhone offers one other important weapon in the war on spammers. A setting called Filter Unknown Senders doesn't block spam messages, but it does make them dramatically less annoying. If you turn on this feature, it automatically sorts incoming text messages from anyone who is not already in your contact list — probable spam — into a separate inbox called Unknown Senders and does not trigger a notification. To turn on this feature:

1. Start the Settings app.

2. Tap Messages.

3. Turn on Filter Unknown Senders by swiping the button to the right.