Android does a great job of handling incoming spam SMS messages. But there are two things you may need to do manually. The first is to delete unwanted SMS messages. Given the constant deluge of spam that floods our various inboxes, these messages can add up. You definitely don’t want to allow your device to fill up with blocked spam messages.
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The second thing you may need to do is manually add the blocked numbers. Android does a very good job of detecting and blocking spam numbers, but it’s not 100% every time.
So how to delete these messages and add new blocked numbers? I’ll show you how.
What you will need
The first thing you’ll need is a device running Android. It should at least run Android 10, but Android 11 that would be better. You will also need to have collected spam SMS messages. If you haven’t received that first spam message yet, consider yourself lucky and just catalog this information for the inevitable day when the spam starts flooding in.
How to delete SMS spam
The first thing we will do is delete some of the unwanted SMS messages that you have collected. It’s a very simple process but can be tedious (because there’s still no option to select everything – Google, are you listening?).
To delete your spam messages, open the Messages app. In the main window, tap the menu button, then tap “Spam and Blocked”.
In the Spam & Blocking window, you will need to manually tap each message you want to delete.
The trick to selecting messages is that you must first long press on one of the messages to select it. Once you’ve selected that first message, you can go through the list and tap each one once to select them. After selecting all the messages to delete, tap the trash can at the top right to delete the messages.
After tapping the trash can, you will be asked to confirm the deletion. Tap Delete and the messages will disappear from the Spam and Blocked folder of your messages.
SEE: How to Record a Phone Call on Android in 5 Ways
How to manually add a phone number to spam and blocked messages
Now we will manually add a new phone number to the Spam & Blocked list. From the same screen, tap the menu button, then tap Blocked Contacts. In the resulting window, tap Add number.
Type the number to add and tap Block.
And that’s it; you have just added a new number to the Android Messages blocked numbers list. You will never have to worry about receiving SMS messages from this number again.
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