The most powerful SMS spam blocker on iOS. Artificial intelligence, customizable lists, regular expressions. Easily get rid of political spam, ads, scams and more.
Junkman is the most powerful SMS filtering app for iOS. It can classify incoming messages as normal, junk, transaction or promotion. It will not classify old messages. It works completely locally on your device without the need for any network connectivity. It is written to filter all kinds of unwanted text messages, including betting, political, scam messages and company advertisements.
Junkman primarily uses a state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm called Smart Filter, that is trained with thousands of messages in English, French and Turkish languages. This results in an artificial intelligence which can classify the message contents. The Smart Filter can differentiate between normal (conversations etc.), transaction (bank OTP messages, shipping information, doctor appointments, etc.) and junk (promotional, gambling, unsolicited, spam etc.) messages instantly. It treats all promotion messages as junk.
Junkman also has a spam and threat database with special filters to detect and filter the most invasive junk messages without the need for the Smart Filter.
In case you would like to override the classification of the automated filters, you can add rules to one of the Allowed, Junk, Transaction and Promotion lists in the app.
The rule lists let you write much more powerful rules than most of the competing apps. They can work on both the sender or the content of a message and they accept any input including regular expressions (Regex). They are also simpler to manage than other apps.
If you think the Smart Filter did not classify one or more messages correctly, you can report them from the Messages app (iPhone only) for review. The more wrong classifications you report, the better the Smart Filter gets!
Features of Junkman:
• Smart Filter: A state-of-the-art machine learning algorithm that can classify any message in English or Turkish as normal, junk or transaction
• Spam and Threat Database: A database that includes special filters which can be updated immediately using instant notifications when necessary
• Proactive Filter: A special algorithm to directly filter the most invasive junk messages without the need for the Smart Filter
• Rule lists, supporting any input, including powerful regular expressions (Regex)
• Time schedules to customize filtering times
• Under Attack Mode: A mode that can help with text message attacks
• Reporting Extension support to report messages that you think were not classified correctly by the Smart Filter (iPhone only)
• Configuration testing that lets you check any message to see the classification in real time
• iCloud sync support for sender lists to sync information between your devices
• Detailed VoiceOver design for better accessibility support
• Dark mode support
• Interoperability with Begone - Spam Call Blocker and Directory
Junkman is the successor of SMS Checker app.
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Junkman works completely locally on your device. It does not collect, store or transmit any data you enter into it. It does not collect, store or transmit any information from the messages it filters. Junkman respects the privacy of its users with utmost importance.
End user license agreement: https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/
Since experiencing a text bombing incident a few years ago, I have constantly dealt with unwanted junk messages. Shortly after that happened, Google/Android made improvements to their messaging app to filter out these messages. It was quite effective, and I received very few junk messages. Fast forward to this year, and I switched to an iPhone. Unfortunately, Apple's Messages app does not filter out these messages. I was receiving numerous junk messages every hour, which became quite bothersome. I tried a few apps, but they were not effective. Fortunately, I found Junkman, which has fulfilled my expectations. It successfully filters out the junk messages, and whenever it mistakenly filters something important, I simply create a filter for it. The regex functionality is particularly useful for handling more complex scenarios. I even sent a few dollars to the developer because I would have willingly paid for this app.
I never write these reviews, EVER, but here I have to
Applejedi1
I lose about two man-hours a day, to weeding out SMS spam. That’s about $146K of my time. 730 hours of my life, every year. So, for a $76 lifetime subscription, I got the greatest gift that anyone could give me: Peace, and productivity. I have worked in computers since the 1970s. I have seen a ton of great programs (apps) come and go. Some have tricky installations. Some have great bits, but huge flaws, too. Junkman is not only a breeze to install. Kerem Erkan has thought through, from the perspective of a user, not software engineer, how to solve a pernicious problem with the latest technology, make it elegant, easy, and, most importantly, ADAPTIVE and EVOLVING, to cover future threats. Erkan is the 21st C. Peter Norton. This is an app that EVERYONE should have.
Developer Response
This is one of the most rewarding comments I have ever received. Thank you very much for your kind words.
Doesn’t Actually Block Anything
katroach74
If it doesn’t actually block spam messages, what good is it? If the sender doesn’t know they’re being "blocked", aka filtered, why would they even stop messaging? If Apple doesn’t let these apps actually block messages, what good are they? If spam is just moved to another location on my iPad by keyword and the sender doesn’t know it, what stops the sender from spamming me again and again? Makes Apple complicit in this message blocker app scam. I canceled my subscription immediately. The built-in "Delete message and report junk" already does that for free.At least on my phone, the Number Shield app "answers" these calls by posting "stopped by Number Shield". All I have to do is access the missed calls screen and select BLOCK CALLER. I never get another call from that phone number. Does the sender know they’re being blocked? No idea. But I never get another call from that number ever again. I never set up voice mail on my phone so spammers don’t get to leave me a voice message. That’s good enough for me.
Simple, effective, and inexpensive!
wrongsideof35
I never leave reviews but I was just looking through my phone and noticed outside of my main inbox was a separate junk inbox that has apparently been in effect since I downloaded the app. I tried a couple of the other popular spam killer apps and they were expensive, I received all of the same spam texts that I received before so they were useless, and there were too many settings that made it confusing for the average user to set up properly. I deleted them right away since they clearly weren't doing their one job. I found this one for the smallest price I've seen for any app in years and didn't think much of it since it was such a small loss if it didn't work. But something about its simplicity gave me the benefit of the doubt and I downloaded it and went back to my life.It's been 2 months and I didn't even stop to wonder where all of the political or fake USPS deliveries had disappeared off to because this app had been taking care of them the entire time. Even better, they put it into a separate "junk" folder instead of the "unknown senders" folder. The "unknown senders" folder still shows you notifications so it is still inconvenient because you have to open the folder anyway to clear them otherwise they will sit there making you think it's a real message. The "junk folder" that Junkman implemented is basically invisible unless you go out of your way to look for it. They even filter other messages like "Transactions" or "Promotions" and make their own separate folders (but you still receive them since it's not actually junk).The smallest things like spam/scam texts are so annoying and this app really helped remove that inconvenience from my life. I felt like I needed to thank them in a review so that others give their app a chance over the overrated versions. Definitely the best $1/mo. ever spent.
IMPORTANT: Updating your device to iOS 26 can disable text filtering. Please make sure that Junkman is enabled in your device settings.
If Junkman stops filtering messages after an update, please reboot your device.
• Fixed spam sensitivity settings
Version 14.7
The developer, Kerem Erkan, indicated that the app’s privacy practices may include handling of data as described below. For more information, see the developer’s privacy policy .
Data Not Collected
The developer does not collect any data from this app.
Privacy practices may vary, for example, based on the features you use or your age. Learn More
The developer indicated that this app supports the following accessibility features. Learn More
Supported Features
VoiceOver
Voice Control
Larger Text
Dark Interface
Differentiate Without Color Alone
Sufficient Contrast
Reduced Motion
Information
Seller
AKE Software GmbH
Size
35.4 MB
Category
Productivity
Compatibility
Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
iPhone Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
iPad Requires iPadOS 15.0 or later.
iPod touch Requires iOS 15.0 or later.
Mac Requires macOS 26.0 or later and a Mac with Apple M1 chip or later.
