How Apple’s SMS Changes Will Affect Rental Businesses

This year, as part of the iOS 26 update, Apple is introducing features designed to reduce spam for iPhone users and give them more control over their messages. These include enhanced call screening and new message sender management tools. While consumers are hailing the safeguards, the changes could spell the end of traditional transactional SMS for many businesses, particularly those in the rental industry that rely on texting customers. In this article, we’ll explore what’s changing in iOS and how rental businesses (and Lockii) should plan to adapt.

Apple’s New Message Filtering in iOS 26

For the sake of this discussion, we’ll set aside the call screening feature (though it’s worth checking out, it looks great). Our focus is on Apple’s new SMS filtering update, which fundamentally changes how texts from unfamiliar senders are handled on iPhones.

By default, any text from a new or unsaved number will be diverted out of the main inbox and into a separate “Unknown Senders” tab. These filtered messages won’t trigger lock screen alerts or even app icon badges, meaning the user likely won’t notice them at all unless they actively open Messages and check the filtered list. In Apple’s words, it’s like a “promotions” or spam folder for texts. Only if the user manually adds your business number as a contact, or regularly checks the Unknown Senders folder, will they see those messages easily.

Apple is making this change to crack down on the surge of SMS spam plaguing users. And the surge is real – Americans received 78 billion spam text messages in just the first half of 2023, up significantly from the year before. Scammers stole an estimated $13 billion via SMS scams in that six-month period alone. Given these trends, it’s no surprise Apple wants to shield users’ inboxes. The new iOS 26 filter will also include a stricter “Spam” category for obvious junk, which is even more restrictive. If Apple’s algorithms or carrier data flag your message as spam, it goes to a junk folder that most users will never look at – an even worse outcome for deliverability.

It’s important to note that Apple’s “Filter Unknown Senders” feature has technically existed for a while as an opt-in setting. What’s different now is how Apple is expanding and promoting it. In iOS 26, Apple has rebranded it as “Screen Unknown Senders” and added category filtering (e.g. classifying texts as Transactions, Promotions, or Junk) to refine the inbox. Early reports suggest that many iPhone users – especially privacy-conscious ones – will take advantage of these features, and that they will be automatically enabled for new users. In fact, Apple will even allow users to customize notifications by category (for example, they might choose to allow alerts for “Transactions” like one-time passcodes, but not for “Promotions”). However, unless a message is detected as a time-sensitive verification code or similar urgent alert, it will likely remain muted in the Unknown Senders list. Apple has built in a small exception for one-time passcode texts – those may temporarily appear in the main inbox for an hour (albeit still without sound or vibration) so that users don’t miss critical codes. But beyond that narrow case, most unsolicited business texts to iPhones are at risk of being quietly screened out.

Visibility vs Deliverability

It’s worth clarifying that your messages will still be delivered to the phone – Apple isn’t outright blocking the SMS from arriving. The challenge is visibility, not basic deliverability. If an iPhone user has the unknown sender filter on, your text goes into a quarantine zone where it’s “out of sight, out of mind.” This has huge implications. In marketing terms, it’s akin to when email providers introduced spam filters and Promotions tabs – messages might land, but fewer eyes see them. As one marketing platform put it, “if your number isn’t saved, your message may get buried” in a secondary inbox. The head of a major SMS marketing company emphasized that this update could directly impact campaign visibility and hurt SMS ROI. In one dramatic example, a U.S. political group predicted it could lose up to $500 million in donations because fundraising texts would be hidden from supporters by iOS 26’s filters. While that figure may be speculative, it underscores the scale of impact when important texts go unseen.

Apple’s perspective is that users should be in control of who can grab their attention. And many users will likely appreciate the relief from constant unknown senders. But for legitimate businesses that rely on texting customers, it introduces a serious obstacle: How do you get critical information to customers if your texts don’t show up unless you’ve been whitelisted as a contact?

Why This Matters for Rental Businesses

Transactional SMS has been a lifeline for rental businesses. If you’re in the rental industry – whether it’s car hire, bike and scooter rentals, equipment hire, vacation properties, or anything in between – you know how crucial timely messages are. You send texts to confirm bookings, share pickup instructions, deliver access codes for lockboxes or vehicles, remind customers of return times, and even enable quick extensions or support. These are not “marketing blasts” but service messages that customers expect as part of a smooth rental experience.

Until now, SMS has been an incredibly effective channel for these purposes. Open rates for text messages are reported as high as 98%, far above email open rates. Moreover, 82% of consumers read texts within five minutes of receiving them. Many customers actually prefer getting updates via text – one survey found 53% of consumers say SMS is their preferred form of communication for timely info. In short, when you send a renter a text, you can be fairly confident they’ll see it almost immediately. This immediacy is vital in scenarios like a customer arriving at a self-service pickup locker at 10 PM, if the keycode is texted to them, you need them to notice that message right away.

Now, imagine that same scenario under Apple’s new rules. Your system sends an automated SMS with the pickup PIN or gate code to an iPhone user who just booked a rental. But because the customer hasn’t texted with your number before (and probably hasn’t saved your business contact), the iPhone quietly shuttles that message to the Unknown Senders list. The customer’s phone never buzzes. No notification pops up while they’re waiting at the locker. From their perspective, the code just never arrived, when in reality it’s hidden in a corner of their Messages app. This isn’t a far-fetched scenario; it’s exactly the kind of situation the iOS update may create. AppleInsider notes that “unknown texts don’t notify users by default, nor do they place a notification badge on the app icon”, which means less tech-savvy users especially are likely to miss these texts entirely. For a rental business, a missed message isn’t just an annoyance, it could lead to a customer being unable to access what they paid for, panicked support calls, or a negative review because the pickup process failed.

In essence, Apple’s spam-fighting move will sabotage legitimate transactional messages. Rental businesses, which often don’t have the luxury of prior text engagement with a customer (unlike, say, a hair salon that might be in a customer’s contacts), are especially vulnerable. Each new rental customer is likely texting with you for the first time, so virtually all of those messages will be “unknown” to iOS. If a large share of your customers use iPhones (and statistically, a lot of them do), the reliability of SMS as a communication channel will plummet overnight.

How Lockii (and Others) Plan to Combat This

So, what can rental businesses do? Abandoning SMS may feel like being thrown back to the Stone Age of email (with its lower open rates). The good news is that Apple’s push away from standard SMS is also a push toward more modern, native messaging channels. In other words, Apple isn’t trying to kill business-to-customer communication; it’s nudging it into forms that give users more control and verification. At Lockii, we’ve anticipated these changes and have been working on alternative messaging solutions to help rental operators stay connected with their customers. Here’s how we plan to adapt:

• Apple Business Chat (iMessage for Businesses): We are adding support for Apple’s Business Messages, which is an official way for a business to communicate via the Messages app. Apple Business Chat allows your messages to appear as a branded chat thread (with your company name/logo) rather than a random number, which helps users trust the sender. It also means you’re not an “unknown” in the eyes of the Messages app. For example, if a customer books through your site and opts in, you could send their confirmation or access code via Apple Business Chat – it will show up in Messages with an Apple-verified sender ID, avoiding the unknown sender filter. Many large companies (banks, airlines, etc.) are already using this for customer support and notifications. It keeps the conversation in a controlled channel where the user can even respond or ask questions. We see this as a key tool for transactional messaging on iOS going forward.
• Web Push Notifications: Apple has finally enabled web push notifications on iOS (as of iOS 16.4 in 2023), which opens another avenue to reach customers on iPhone. Lockii is rolling out support for browser-based push notifications for users who book through your website. With the customer’s permission, you can send them real-time notifications via Safari (or a Progressive Web App) that pop up on their iPhone home screen, no phone number needed. For instance, 15 minutes before a reservation starts, you might push a notification: “Your rental is ready! Tap to view pickup instructions.” This bypasses SMS entirely and isn’t affected by the Messages filtering. Early adopters in other industries are calling iOS web push a “game changer” for reaching users without a native app. We’ll make that process as seamless as possible – for example, by prompting users to enable updates when they complete a booking.
• App Clips (Instant Mini-Apps for iPhone): For an even more integrated experience, Lockii is launching App Clips for rentals. An App Clip is a lightweight, instant app for iPhone – users can launch it without installing a full app, often by scanning a QR code or clicking a smart link. We plan to offer renters an App Clip (branded for your business) after the booking process completes. This App Clip can live on their home screen during the duration of their hire and can send native iOS push notifications (with user consent). That means during a rental period, you can push live updates – for example, “Remember to lock up by 5 PM” or “Need more time? Tap to extend your rental.” Because the App Clip is essentially an extension of your service on the user’s phone, those notifications will appear immediately like any app notification (even on the lock screen), ensuring the customer sees them. It also provides an icon on their home screen for quick access to their booking details, which can make things like extending the rental or accessing support much easier. Essentially, App Clips let us temporarily be on the customer’s phone as if we had a full app installed, with far less friction. Once the rental is over, the App Clip can expire or be easily removed, keeping things lightweight.
• Android Instant Apps and RCS Messaging: Not to forget Android users – we’re implementing analogous solutions for them as well. Android’s Instant Apps work similarly to App Clips, allowing quick, no-install use of app features for the duration of the hire. Additionally, for SMS on Android, the landscape is a bit different: Google supports RCS (Rich Communication Services), which upgrades traditional SMS to a richer, verified channel. RCS messages can display your business name and even logo if you’re registered, and they enable features like confirm receipt and interactive buttons. They are also less likely to be flagged as spam because carriers verify the sender. While Apple doesn’t fully support RCS on iPhones yet, Android-to-Android communications are moving in that direction. We will leverage RCS for Android customers where possible, meaning your Android-using renters might receive messages that look more like a WhatsApp chat – with branding and rich content – rather than a plain SMS. This improves trust and visibility on that side of the ecosystem.

All of these measures share a common goal: staying visible and useful to your customers. Apple is essentially steering businesses to either become a known, trusted contact or to use app-like channels for messaging. Lockii’s platform will help ensure your rental business can do exactly that without adding too much burden on you or your customers. (For example, our system might automatically include an “Add to Contacts” vCard in the first confirmation email or message – a tip recommended by marketing experts to improve SMS visibility. If the customer taps and saves it, your SMS number becomes known to their iPhone, avoiding the filter. Little tactics like that, combined with the bigger shifts above, will collectively maintain communication flows.)

Beyond Rentals: How Others Are Adapting

Rental companies aren’t alone in facing this shift. Across industries, businesses that have relied on text messaging are pivoting their strategies in response to Apple’s changes. A few examples and lessons:

• E-commerce & Retail: Online retailers who send order updates or promotion texts are encouraging customers to save their contact cards or opt in to branded messaging platforms. Some brands now include a prompt after checkout like, “Add us to your contacts to ensure you get your delivery updates.” Retail marketers are also exploring channels like WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger for subscribers, but interestingly, over 55% of people still say they prefer SMS over Messenger or WhatsApp for updates, highlighting that text isn’t going away. These companies are experimenting with loyalty apps and push notifications to supplement SMS for VIP customers.
• Financial Services and Healthcare: Banks, fintech apps, and healthcare providers have been ahead of the curve in pushing users to install their apps for secure messaging. Many banks already send fraud alerts or OTP codes via their own app notifications rather than SMS, both for security and to avoid deliverability issues. With iOS 26, this approach becomes even more pertinent. We’re likely to see more institutions urging customers to download apps or use secure message centers that bypass SMS entirely.
• Hospitality & Travel: Airlines and hotels learned early that having a native app can save the day when a flight is delayed or a room is ready – app push notifications reach the traveler instantly, whereas an unknown SMS might now be missed. These industries are also using email as a backup channel for itineraries and exploring RCS for Android users. For example, an airline might send an iMessage through Apple Business Chat to iPhone customers saying “Boarding now at Gate 10” (which would appear like a special message thread from the airline), while Android customers get a rich RCS text with the same info.
• Political and Nonprofit Campaigns: As noted, political campaigns are scrambling too. Some are shifting to opt-in supporter apps or targeted in-app ads for fundraising, fearing that mass texting will yield diminishing returns. The uproar from these groups about iOS 26’s impact is a sign that bulk SMS as a tactic is likely to decline. In a way, this could be beneficial for consumers (less unsolicited spam) and for genuine business messages – when fewer random campaigns are blasting texts, users might pay more attention to the texts they do receive. But the key takeaway is that everyone is being forced to innovate in how they reach their audience on mobile.

Striking the Balance Between Privacy and Communication

Apple’s iOS 26 update is a clear win for user privacy and peace of mind. It puts control back in the hands of consumers to decide who gets their attention. However, it also challenges businesses to rise to a new bar of trust and connectivity. Simply firing off a text and assuming your message will be seen is no longer a safe bet, especially for iPhone users. Rental businesses, which often operate on tight timeframes and critical information delivery, must take this seriously.

The silver lining is that modern technology is providing alternatives to keep customers informed:

• If SMS is becoming a muddier channel, build a presence on the channels that are clear – whether that’s an App Clip, a push notification, or an official Apple-verified message.
• Focus on getting customers to recognize and trust your communications. For instance, double down on clarity and branding in your first interaction: if the first SMS a customer gets from you also contains a note about “This is how to save our contact for future updates,” you increase the chance that subsequent messages aren’t lost in a black hole.

At Lockii, our mission is to ensure that running a contactless, self-service rental business is convenient for both you and your customers. That’s why we’re proactively adapting our platform to these Apple policy changes. We believe that by embracing native channels and thoughtful design, we can actually enhance the customer experience (beyond what plain SMS could offer) while maintaining high delivery rates for your messages. App Clips and web pushes, for example, can provide richer interactivity and context than a 160-character text ever could. In the long run, engaging customers through these channels might not just mitigate the loss of SMS – it might deliver even better customer satisfaction and engagement.

We know these changes from Apple could throw a spanner in the works for many businesses. If you’re unsure about how to navigate the new iOS policies, or how to implement things like Apple Business Chat or push notifications, please reach out to us. We’re here to help you find the right approach so your renters stay informed and happy. The rental industry is evolving with technology, and together we’ll ensure that even as Apple changes the rules, your customers will still get the timely, helpful information they need for a great rental experience

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