Cellphone "Messages"

I have an Android "TCL" telephone.

I am a complete novice at "Cellphone" "ANYTHING".

¿¿¿¿.  Is there any way to simply "Opt out" of the "Messaging", or "Conversations" Mode ????

I 've had the phone for about 6 months and just today discovered this & it's chock full of advertisements & political fund-raising - might even be useful if it only contained messages from legitimate contacts.

Among all the other annoyances, I like to keep it on all night while charging so my wife, sleeping in another room can call me & the constant "Beep-beep" of incoming messages is VERY annoying.

Or do I have to go to an old-fashioned "Flip Phone" for that?  Or do those also have all this intrusive junk, too?

Robert Zanatta wrote:

Don't know what messaging application you're referring to, but most have a way of being turned off, filtered, and having the notification sound disabled.

Probably be easiest to go to the store where you purchased the phone and have them show you.

You are probably right. Thank you.

No guarantee (Android phones are all different) but you can try:

1. Enter Android Settings (gear icon)
2. In the search box type "Do Not Disturb"
3. On that page find "Messages, events and reminders"
4. Should show a page "When Do Not Disturb is turned on" with "Allow Messages"
5. Tap that and choose from (pop-up) "From Contacts Only", "From starred contacts", or "None".
6. Then in Home screen, drag down the top bar and set Do Not Disturb icon to be active (lit up). When it's lit the sound is disabled or limited to Contacts, but phone calls or messages are still received silently.

I routinely set Do Not Disturb when either phone or SMS message spam gets hyperactive, which for me is fairly rare (seems to come in flurries). You have to be careful not to accidentally silence calls or messages that are important to receive but are not from regulars in the Contact list (e.g. if you use SMS messages for two-factor identification for online services or merchant logins).

Some message (and phone) apps allow you to block senders but since spammers are generating fake call and message IDs by the millions, blocking them altogether seems a waste of time.

As mentioned and maybe other options.

You should be able to Block #'s that you don't want to hear from, such as spam calls or texts and even set times that when you do want to hear from them. Press the 3 dots at the top right of the menu to find settings for the app. In your Phone or Text app, there should be an option to Block callers. Not always helpful for number spoofing but no harm in blocking them.

As well as the Do Not Disturb option / settings, you can also put your device into Airplane Mode and while in that mode, no phone calls or messages should come in as the device transmitter and receiver is turned off. (Also a good idea if your phone is near your head during sleep?)

Also, via Android>Settings>App Settings, find the app that you want to customize and there check all the menu options a) to learn what the default settings are and b) control them, which can be quite important  for privacy and stop background data use of some / all apps that you don't want to give that too. Here, you can also control Notifications for EVERY App and or deny Notifications.

You can also Disable any app if you no longer want to use it, such as many Android default apps, such as Google/Android Messenger, as these apps Android would allow you to uninstall it.

Finally, you likely know that you can learn to set up your device and apps by watching YouTube tutorials.

I2K4 wrote:

Some message (and phone) apps allow you to block senders but since spammers are generating fake call and message IDs by the millions, blocking them altogether seems a waste of time.

some service providers have a whitelist capability. customers on Google Fi can enable incoming SMS on their Android device/chromebook to be allowed from their known contacts only and "Block calls & texts from strangers". https://support.google.com/fi/answer/10202169?hl=en&co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid