New To Modern Smartphones... Help Needed- PLEASE

mzdrati

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Jan 12, 2011
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Hi. LONG time member- but I have not posted in many, many years. I think my profile lists my phone as a Blackberry Storm. LOL!

I just upgraded from a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 to a Note 9. As you can imagine- the difference is stark. My Note 4 still works really well (if you don't need to run apps, games, or do much more than email, talk and text) but the reason for the upgrade was that I for some reason have gotten on some sort of spam list where someone put my phone number into a database, and I get 40 to 50 spam phone calls a day, and 15 to 20 spam text messages a day. The Note 4 has primitive spam-blocking capabilities, and my hope was that the Note 9 would be more capable and advanced in that area, and would make the current onslaught a bit more tolerable. (I run a small business, and my mobile number is my work number. I have had my phone number for over 20 years, so I do not want to change it if at all possible)

I will say that the after one week with the Note 9, I am not so disrupted by fake phone calls as I was with the Note 4. I still get them but the phone can remember a seemingly unlimited number of spam numbers (so although the spammer's number changes constantly, I keep blocking them, and more and more of them get blocked without my phone ringing.) The Note 4 has a limit of remembering 100 spam numbers, and when the limit is reached (every few days) I was deleting the oldest 50 and getting tons of calls. The text messaging is more of a pain. I use the stock messaging app (Samsung Messages), and it seems that every single one is from a new number, so the messages still are there, and still have to be dealt with. All or most of the messages have a name ("Martha") and I truly wish that this app (or any app) had the ability to block using a keyword or phrase. My wife uses a Galaxy S7, and her stock Samsung Messages app has this feature, so obviously it's possible to implement, and Samsung has chosen not to offer it any longer. I went onto APK Mirror and found the same version (4.4.30.59) but I can't install it for some reason. Does anyone know if it's possible to replace the current version of Samsung Messages with one from 2018 that has this "Block by keyword / phrase" feature without rooting the phone?

Assuming that it is not possible, does anyone know of a 3rd party text messaging app that offers this feature? I contacted the creators of Chomp SMS and Textra (it's the same company) and neither of them do this. I was considering downloading "Block Text, SMS Blocker, Spam Message Block" from the Play Store, but I read that it does not offer Group Texting (which I need for my job).

I'd appreciate any words of wisdom those here can offer.