iPhone not receiving notifications from Megafon SMS chat

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Level 1

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iPhone not receiving notifications from Megafon SMS chat

Hi everyone,

I’m having an issue with SMS notifications on my iPhone and I hope someone has encountered this before. My SIM card is from Megafon (Russia). In the Messages app, there is an auto-generated “Megafon” chat where the operator sends SMS. The problem is that these messages arrive without any notifications at all — no banner, no sound, nothing. I’ve checked all possible notification settings on the iPhone: notifications for Messages are fully enabled, alerts are allowed, sounds are on. Other SMS chats work normally.

There’s one strange thing (details are shown in the attached screenshot):

If I tap the chat name (e.g., “MTS.dengi”), I can open the chat’s settings and choose whether to hide notifications for that specific sender.
But with the Megafon chat, tapping its name does nothing — I can’t open its chat settings at all.
Also, Megafon doesn’t appear in Contacts (same as MTS.dengi), but MTS.dengi chat settings still work normally. Only the Megafon chat is “locked” this way.

It feels like this is some kind of special system chat that gets bugged, because everything else is configured correctly.

Has anyone experienced this issue with operator SMS chats (especially Megafon)? Any ideas on how to fix it?

iOS 26.1, iPhone 16 Pro

Thanks in advance!

iPhone 16 Pro

Posted on Dec 10, 2025 8:31 AM

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Answer 1

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cyclonific Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2025 1:29 AM in response to cyclonific

In the "Allow notifications" section, there is no "Transactions" item, only "Verification codes" ("Коды проверки") and "Other unknown items" ("Другие неизвестные"). I enabled both items, deleted the chat, received a message, and the ‘Megafon’ chat was moved to the “Unknown senders” tab in the app, and the notification finally arrived! Then I marked the sender as “known,” and now the chat is in the general list. Since the “Filter unknown senders” option is enabled, other chats whose senders are not in my contacts are now placed in a separate “Unknown senders” tab (which is inconvenient for me), so I disabled the “Filter unknown senders” option, and notifications from Megafon continued to work. Now I can access the settings for this chat. Thank you very much, SravanKrA!

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Answer 2

Dec 11, 2025 12:53 AM in response to cyclonific

In that case, there’s no toggle on the iPhone for this, because the carrier defines the SMS type.

Some carriers send these as “Class 0 flash SMS” converted to normal SMS

These are Flash SMS sent by the Govt (think: those big system popups)

Notifications often don’t fire.

Settings → Notifications → Government Alerts

(Scroll all the way to the bottom of the Notifications page.)

These alerts:

Don’t appear in Messages
Don’t stay in Notification Center
Don’t have a history
Pop up full-screen or as a strong banner
Make a loud alarm sound (ignores Silent Mode)

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Answer 3

Dec 10, 2025 9:37 PM in response to cyclonific

Delete the thread, turn off “Filter Unknown Senders,” or reset all settings — these usually force iOS to rebuild the thread with normal notification behaviour.

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Answer 4

Dec 11, 2025 12:45 AM in response to cyclonific

Check this Allow Notification Settings: iOS categorizes these as Transactional / Service messages

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Answer 5

cyclonific Author

Level 1

4 points

Dec 11, 2025 12:15 AM in response to azaksalmarzur28

I tried that. “Filter Unknown Senders” was always turned off, never turned it on. Resetting the settings didn't help either.

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