What you need to know
A key change in Apple’s iOS 26 update makes it easier for users to find and enable the Screen Unknown Senders feature. When enabled, text threads are organized into separate inboxes, with Known Senders appearing in the main inbox and Unknown Senders diverted into another.
Getting your brand onto subscribers' Known Senders lists
With this change, it's more important than ever for a merchant's number to be designated a Known Sender so it ends up in subscribers' main inbox. Luckily, there are multiple ways to accomplish this.
Subscribers can do this themselves via several actions:
Saving your number in their Contacts
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Marking your thread as a “Known Sender”
A button appears under messages if the user has the feature enabled
Subscriber engages in conversation with your brand (Despite guidelines from Apple on this method, testing has shown mixed results so we are continuing to monitor. But it’s a very positive sign for conversational products like Shopper.)
Additionally, time-sensitive messages–including Onsite Opt-in One Time Passcodes–temporarily appear in the main inbox.
Postscript is also adapting to help merchants keep their messages front and center for subscribers. Postscript will soon update Onsite Opt-in to support Known Sender filtering and introduce new features that incentivize existing subscribers to take the small steps required to ensure your messages show up in their primary inbox.
Timeline and impact
Not every iPhone or iPad user will update their device iOS 26 the moment it's released, nor will all users enable the Screen Unknown Senders feature once it's installed. So while this won't be an overnight sea change, merchants can expect some level of adoption right out of the gate.
The feature will remain off by default in most regions, including the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia
Eligible iPhone users tend to update their devices to the newest OS over the course of months, not days
Reported bugs and UX friction for this feature may slow user adoption
In the meantime, Postscript will continue innovating ways to prioritize your placement within the Known Senders inbox.
Will Onsite Opt-in still work?
Yes. Apple confirmed one-time passcodes will:
Show as lock screen notifications
Display in the Known Senders inbox for 1 hour
Trigger auto-fill as expected
Get Support
Have questions? Please feel free to reach out to our wonderful Support team at support@postscript.io or via live chat. You can also submit a support request here!
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