Is there any way to prevent filtered spam and Unknown Sender messages from contributing to the red unread badge on the Messages app?
I have Screen Unknown Senders / spam filtering enabled specifically because I do not want those messages demanding my attention. They correctly get moved into a separate filtered folder, but they still increase the red badge number on the Messages icon.
This makes the badge much less useful.
I intentionally use unread Messages badges as a persistent reminder that I have legitimate texts I still need to respond to. I have ADHD, so this is genuinely useful as an external reminder: if I can’t reply immediately, I leave the message unread, and seeing “2” on Messages later reminds me that I still owe two people responses.
Now “2” might instead mean two spam texts hidden in the Unknown Senders folder. To make the badge disappear, I have to open Messages, navigate into the filtered folder, and mark junk messages as read — messages that were supposedly filtered so I wouldn’t have to deal with them in the first place.
Turning Messages badges off entirely is not a solution, because I want and rely on badges for legitimate messages.
Ideally Apple should provide a setting such as:
Include Filtered Messages in Badge Count — On/Off
Or filtered spam/unknown messages simply shouldn’t contribute to the badge by default.
Filtering a message out of my inbox while still putting a persistent red notification on my Home Screen defeats the purpose of filtering it.
Has anyone found a setting or workaround that preserves badge counts for normal messages while excluding filtered messages? If not, I hope Apple changes this behavior.
