Blocking alphanumeric senders

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Level 1

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Blocking alphanumeric senders

In India, almost all commercial SMS is sent using string caller ID, such as "BT-BZLOAN". One can open that contact and click "Block Contact" and it appears as if it worked, but it does nothing.

For some but not all such senders, there's a laborious workaround of dialing it, finding a numeric string it corresponds to (often with special characters) and then blocking that. However, this is hacky and hit or miss. Over time, block list is filled with meaningless junk which makes it hard to use.

Junk SMS messages are increasing in volume, and iOS inability to block alphanumeric callers is a huge miss. Apple, please support your users in India by making sure basic features like SMS contact blocking works as designed.

iPhone 7, iOS 14

Posted on Mar 28, 2021 11:44 AM

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Answer 1

sf_talkative Author

Level 1

10 points

Mar 28, 2021 12:07 PM in response to QuickTimeKirk

Thanks for the reply. Yes, that'd be the intuitive flow but the bug is that it does NOT work.

Clicking "Block" does not work. Here's what happens:

Pick caller, say, BT-BZLOAN and open info, and click the "Block" (in red)
Appears to work, changes to "Unblock the Caller" in blue (so far, so good)
Exit the dialogs, and come back to BT-BZLOAN text message, and open info again
It is back to unblocked state. "Block" is seen in red

One can run through steps 1 through 4 any number of times, the sender is never blocked. It keeps going back to unblocked state and text messages keep flooding in.

This bug has been around at least since 2016 as can be seen in the below thread, and yet Apple hasn't fixed it. This is basic phone functionality that isn't working. I even once logged a support case. Nothing. It's sad how little Apple cares for it's users in India.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7691952?answerId=32452760022#32452760022

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Answer 2

Mar 28, 2021 11:50 AM in response to sf_talkative

In a Messages conversation, tap the name or number at the top of the conversation, then tap. at the top right.
Tap info.
Scroll down, then tap Block this Caller

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Blocking alphanumeric senders

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