GO SMS Pro - my spam blocker

Getting spammy texts has become one of my pet peeves. They come at all times of the day and night and sometimes disturb my sleep. And beyond getting unwanted texts, it also makes me wonder how my number and that of many of my friends seem to be openly available to these text blasters.

If you're using an Android phone like me, here's an app that I have been using because of its many nice features but which I now have also activated as a spam blocker - GO SMS Pro.

GO SMS Pro comes as a free version and as a paid version. I only have the free version but it is already more than enough. There doesn't seem to be any need to upgrade to Pro. Besides, I read some reviews of the Pro app on Play Store and there were a few unhappy people who upgraded and recommended we stick with the free version.

I made some screenshots of the Spam Blocker feature.

Just look at all these features within GO SMS Pro. I don't even use half of them yet. So far I've only used themes, Private Box (certain numbers don't show up in your publicly viewable list of messages and is password protected), and Folders (categorize messages).

When you choose SMS Blocker, you can choose different kinds of blocking modes. I chose My Mode. Here's my tip. If you really want to block ALL spam, set your blocking mode to "Only Accept Contacts". Anyone not on your phonebook will be blocked. Of course, that also blocks friends who may have changed mobile numbers so choose your level of filtering.

Not only does this give you an option to blacklist but you can also designate some numbers in a whitelist. Whitelisted numbers are never blocked even if you choose to block all numbers. I still have to try this feature. May be good for emergency numbers and family members.

Here I am showing you the blacklist so far. These were all senders of spam texts, both political and involving the RH bill issue then. I don't know if there is a maximum number of numbers so will update this post in case I hit the limit.

With 2013 elections coming up in the Philippines, I already dread the onslaught of campaigns via texts as well as black propaganda with one side hitting the other side, throwing mud at each other, all through SMS. And most of us will be the helpless victims caught in the middle of all these.

I hope that spam blockers like GO SMS Pro can somehow reduce my torture. Of course, it won't be perfect. I suspect these blacklisted numbers are prepaid numbers so it's possible they are discarded after 1 or 2 text blasts (see how some of those numbers above seem to be in series?).

Hope this helps you somehow protect your Android phone from unwanted disturbances like spam texts.

Give me a heads up if you find any other effective spam blocker app for Android or iOS.