Consumers Feel More in Control of Spam

Spam texts and emails have long been the bane of digital consumers, and of the key stakeholders in the consumer engagement ecosystem. Telcos, CPaaS providers, hyper-scalers, industry associations and others – including, most recently, Apple – are facing head-on the challenges of detecting, filtering and blocking unsolicited messages, to ensure the continued value of SMS and email to consumers and brands; SMS and email are the communications channels brands still most use to engage with their customers. And it seems their efforts are finally paying off! In 2025, 56% of respondents to MEF’s Annual Consumer Survey said they felt controls for managing unsolicited texts and emails had improved – a staggering 11 percentage point rise since 2022 when only 45% of consumers felt that way. Clearly more of us feel there are better controls for spam, suggesting the effective use of technologies such as SMS firewalls and AI-based email filters, and industry self-regulation such as registered 10DLC and codes of conduct. There is still some way to go, however, with a total of 40% of consumers in 2025 stating that they felt there was no change or that controls for managing unsolicited messages had gotten worse.

The full report, and all survey data from over 11,000 respondents across 17 countries, is now available to download from mef.mobi and click on MEF Data!