Originally Posted by kevs
REtry the question:

The people filtered out, (not those who are blocked, but those who are not block, BUT, you don't know at all -- would never see at all?

Taking it from the top:
  1. Open Messages and Touch Filters
  2. Choose which group of messages you want to see. Note: the number represents the number of UNREAD messages in that list.
  3. View the list of messages from Known or Unknown at your discretion.

Messages from anyone that is in your contacts list will appear under the known senders tab and Messages from anyone not in your contacts list will appear under the unknown tab.
So you can see the messages from unknown senders, but only if, and when, you desire.

Messages in both lists are retained for 30 days, 1 year, or forever (see Settings > Messages > Keep Messages) or until manually deleted.

NOTE: Your screens might be slightly different because I am running iOS 15.0.

Last edited by joemikeb; 07/30/21 05:14 PM. Reason: Note
If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein