How to Stop Spam Texts on Android

A text arrives from a number that has never contacted you, pushing an unpaid delivery fee, a job offer, or a friendly wrong number. Blocking that number feels like the fix, but it was disposable before it was ever used. Reporting is what feeds the filter that catches the next one.

Block and report the conversation

Open Google Messages, open the conversation, tap the three-dot menu, then tap Block & report spam. Tick Report spam and tap OK. The thread is removed and further messages from that number are held back.

Report without blocking

Threads from unknown senders show a banner with Report spam at the bottom of the conversation. Tapping it sends a copy to Google without blocking the sender, which is the safer option when the message might be from a real business, a clinic, or a delivery service.

Turn on spam protection

In Google Messages, open the three-dot menu, tap Settings, Spam protection, then turn on Enable spam protection. Suspected spam is then flagged at the top of a thread or moved into its own folder before it is read.

Forward the message to 7726

Touch and hold the message, copy or forward it, and send it to 7726, which spells SPAM. The carrier replies asking for the sender's number; send that back as a second message. All major US carriers accept this, and it acts at the network level rather than on one handset.

Block from Samsung Messages

Touch and hold the conversation in the list and tap Block. To manage the list or turn on filtering, open Settings, Block numbers and spam.

Never reply and never tap the link. Replying STOP to a real marketing message works, but replying to a scam only confirms that a person reads texts at that number, which raises its value on the lists these messages are sent from. Links in these texts lead to fake sign-in pages built to capture a password or card number.

Filtering beats blocking one number at a time. Senders rotate through pools of numbers, so a blocklist never catches up. Spam protection, carrier reporting through 7726, and keeping the number off public forms and contest entries do more than any individual block.