iOS 26 Message Filters Could Hurt Political Fundraisers’ Outreach

Apple announced its next major iOS update at WWDC 2025 last month. This comes in the form of iOS 26, which, in addition to a brand new Liquid Glass design language, comes with some new features. This includes a Messages filtering system in iOS 26 that could have a negative effect on political fundraisers.

iOS 26 could impact political fundraisers

According to a Punchbowl News report, one of the features of iOS 26 is a filtering system in the Messages app that could impact the reach of political fundraisers. Basically, when you receive a message from someone who isn’t in your contacts, it is sent to a separate inbox. These messages also bypass notifications, meaning that you won’t even know it was received.

This is great to combat spam and to keep your inbox clean from unknown senders. However, it seems to have sent political fundraisers into a frenzy. In a memo sent by the National Republican Senatorial Committee, it has raised concerns about how political messages will get across to users if they don’t know about it.

“Apple’s iOS 26 update introduces aggressive message filtering. Political texts — even from verified and compliant senders — will be treated as spam by default, silently sent to an “Unknown” inbox with no alerts or notifications. That change has profound implications for our ability to fundraise, mobilize voters, and run digital campaigns.” To that extent, it is estimated that this could cost $25 million in fundraising revenue.

Note that Messages in iOS 26 will have a separate spam folder. To be clear, these messages aren’t being sent to spam. They are simply sent to the folder of “Unknown Senders.” This means that users who want to receive these messages will have to save those numbers.

Another thing to note is that these filters are opt-in. Users have to choose to enable them; otherwise, by default, you will still receive all messages. From both known and unknown senders.

Coming later this fall

Apple hasn’t given a specific release date on when iOS 26 will be released. However, the past few iOS releases have typically taken place in the fall. Or to be more specific, somewhere in the middle of September. This means there’s a good chance iOS 26 could be released in the middle of September this year as well.

iOS 26 will support iPhones dating back to the iPhone 11. So, unless you happen to own a much older iPhone, you’re covered. In th mean time, the iOS 26 public beta is out if you want to check it out.