Fewer than half of the text messages received by UK adults now come from friends and family, as the traditional SMS inbox becomes overwhelmed by automated alerts, marketing and scams.

New research from Uswitch reveals that 24% of the UK public, equivalent to 13 million people, have mistakenly deleted or ignored messages from people they know over the past year after assuming they were junk.

Table: Who is texting you

When examining their last 20 received texts, respondents found that only 49% originated from a known person. The remaining majority comprised verification codes (13%), parcel updates (9%), appointment reminders (6%), marketing (5%), bank alerts (4%) and suspected scams (4%).

Consequently, eight in ten adults (80%) automatically assume an unfamiliar number is spam or a scam, with only 6% considering it might be a friend using a new number.

The findings highlight a shifting digital landscape ahead of Black Friday and upcoming Ofcom regulations requiring mobile networks to block scam texts by January 2027.

Jez Samuel, Uswitch mobiles expert, explains:

“The text message has changed jobs. Most of our chat with friends has moved to WhatsApp, so the text inbox is now where banks, couriers and businesses get in touch, and where scammers go to pose as them.

“A message from a friend is now one voice among many, which is why so many of us treat anything unfamiliar as admin or junk.”

Samuel advises consumers to maintain caution around messages urging immediate action, recommends checking official retail apps and suggests forwarding suspicious texts to 7726 for free.

Discover more from Tech Digest

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.