iOS 26 has an up to date Telephone app with a number of new features. There are notable new additions like Maintain Help and Name Screening, together with smaller choices like a characteristic to flag spam voicemails.
While you faucet right into a voicemail from an unknown quantity, you may see a brand new “Report Spam” button you can faucet if it’s a spam name. Tapping on possibility sends the voicemail to Apple, and you may both report the message as spam and maintain it, or report it and delete it.
Apple does not embrace info on what it does with spam voicemails, however the firm has allowed related reporting of spam iMessages for a while now. It is also not clear what Apple does with iMessages which might be reported as spam, however they seem to tell spam filtering performance added in iOS 26.
As with spam iMessages, reporting a voicemail as spam doesn’t block the caller, and that must be executed with a separate step.
Apple is working to implement options that minimize down on spam messages and calls. The Name Screening possibility in iOS 26 intercepts calls from numbers that aren’t saved in your contacts record, and asks the caller for extra info like a reputation and purpose for calling earlier than forwarding the decision alongside to you.
The Messages app additionally has a refined spam reporting workflow in iOS 26. Messages that Apple detects are spam are despatched to a selected Spam folder, which is now distinct from the Unknown Senders folder. Messages from numbers that are not in your contacts, comparable to two-factor authentication messages, go in Unknown Senders. Rip-off messages are despatched to the spam folder. For those who get a spam message that is not accurately categorized, you’ll be able to faucet right into a miscategorized message and faucet on the “Report Spam” possibility.
Messages from unknown senders and spam messages are each silenced and you will not get a notification for them, however you will notice a badge on the high of the Messages app. You’ll be able to disable these options within the Messages part of the Settings app, if desired.
There isn’t any automated filtering of spam voicemails, however that could be a characteristic that Apple might use sooner or later after receiving sufficient voicemails that folks flag as spam.
iOS 26 is restricted to builders proper now, however a public beta might be launching in July. The software program will see a public launch this fall alongside new iPhone 17 fashions.
