iOS 26 is stepping up its fight against spam, with exciting updates that will make your phone experience much smoother. Among the most important changes are two new features: Hold Assist and Call Screening. Along with these, there are also a number of small but impactful updates Apple didn’t highlight during its WWDC 2025 keynote. One significant addition is the ability to flag spam voicemails directly from the Phone app. When you open a voicemail from an unknown number, you’ll notice a new ‘Report Spam’ button. If the message turns out to be a scam, simply tap the button to send it to Apple. You can choose whether to keep the voicemail or delete it after reporting.

While it’s unclear exactly what happens to these reported voicemails, Apple already uses a similar reporting system for spam messages, so it’s likely these voicemails will help improve iOS’s spam filtering. However, reporting a voicemail as spam doesn’t block the sender automatically. You’ll need to block them manually if you wish.
On top of the voicemail reporting feature, iOS 26 introduces Call Screening. This feature helps filter out calls from unknown numbers, asking the caller for more details before forwarding the call to you. In addition, the Messages app has been improved with better spam detection. Spam messages are now sent to a separate Spam folder, while messages from unknown senders are placed in the Unknown Senders folder. Notably, messages from services like two-factor authentication will go to the Unknown Senders folder, and scam messages will go to Spam. If any message is miscategorized, you can still report it as spam.

Both spam and unknown messages are muted, so you won’t get notifications unless you check the Messages app. However, you can disable this feature in Settings if you prefer. Currently, iOS 26 doesn’t include automatic filtering for spam voicemails, but with the new reporting feature, it seems likely that Apple will develop a filtering system in the future.
iOS 26 is available in developer beta now, with the public beta launching in July. The official release will come in the fall. For those tired of spam calls and messages, these updates can’t come soon enough. Even though I don’t get a ton of spam voicemails, I’m happy to see Apple taking steps to protect us from this annoyance.
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