Apple’s second developer beta for iOS 16 is out following the first that was made available the day it was announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2022. One of the new features that has gotten everyone talking is the revamped message filtering on iMessages. The new update puts the focus on streamlining SMS’ making it easier to sort out your inbox and filter out what you do not want to see.
This update on iOS 16 will allow developers to filter extensions. As TechCrunch points out, this is basically an SMS filter like what Truecaller, and Apple’s own version that’s in place for India and Brazil. The filter is going to classify non-personal messages (messages you receive from unknown numbers) into 12 subcategories under the ‘Transactions’ and ‘Promotions’ tabs which already exist. The ‘Transactions’ category will soon include Finance, Reminders, Orders, Health, Public Services, Weather, Carrier, Rewards, and Others; while the ‘Promotions’ category will include Offers, Coupons, and Others.
Besides this, Apple also explained that after a user has “responded to an SMS or MMS message three times, or have added the sender to your Contacts, SMS and MMS messages from that sender will not be filtered as an unknown sender”. So, by any chance, if a message gets wrongly filtered, there are ways to fix that.
As Apple explained at WWDC, developers will be able to incorporate these categories into their SMS filters and the company is rolling out this for India and Brazil. It is not clear yet if other countries will get these filters too.
These new SMS filters will be activated by default and users can go into Settings and turn them off if so desired. But given the amount of SMS’ we do get from banks and random promotions, we for one are keeping all the filters on.
Additionally, Indian iPhone users will get another helpful feature – extractable events. Movie or train flight ticket details can be added to your calendar via Siri suggestions, Message threads, and in the Calendar inbox.
iPhone users in the US will be able to report spam messages to carriers via a new “Report Junk” feature once iOS 16 rolls out. This option is going to be visible inside the messages app under the ‘Unknown Senders’ category. Apple said that this feature will be available only for select carriers but has not mentioned yet who they are. And if you are using two SIMs on your iPhone, you will be able to filter messages based on SIMs too.
Also Read: This is how Apple plans to solve the CAPTCHA code hassle with iOS 16
Also Read: How to install iOS 16 on your iPhone in 10 easy steps
