Stop unwanted promotional messages on your phone, with TDRA's guide for UAE residents
TDRA allows users to block groups of senders - here's how
Dubai: If you are tired of getting promotional messages on your phone and blocking them one by one, here’s some good news – you can now block an entire sector if you do not wish to receive promotional messages from them.
For example, if you are not interested in property and housing offers that are being sent to you, you can block all messages from the real estate sector. Similarly, you can choose to block retail, tourism, or health.
In an awareness message on its social media channels, the Telecommunications and Digital Government Regulatory Authority (TDRA) outlined a straightforward guide to manage promotional messages, regardless of your service provider - Etisalat, du, or Virgin mobile.
Here's a quick guide.
How to block specific categories:
Text ‘B<space>category’ to 7726. For example, ‘B Banking’, ‘B Realestate’ or ‘B Retail’
How to unblock a category:
If you want to unblock a particular category in the future, all you need to do is text ‘U<space> category’ to 7726.
Block a specific sender:
When you receive an advertisement via SMS, you will notice how it always has the word ‘AD’ before the sender’s name. This is a requirement as per TDRA. After the word AD, you will see a name, not a number. This is the registered name of the company that is sending you the promotional message.
If you want to specifically block one of these senders, simple text ‘B<space>AD-xxxx’ to 7726, where xxx is the name of the sender. You can find this name at the start of the text message that you have received.
Unblock a specific sender:
Similarly, if you want to unblock a specific sender, text ‘U<space>AD-xxxx’ to 7726.
Block all promotional messages:
If you do not wish to receive any promotional messages at all, text ‘BALL’ for Block all, to 7726. Similarly, if you want to unblock messages in the future, simply send a text with ‘UALL’ to 7726.
Who have I blocked? How to view blocked senders
If you want to track the numbers and senders that you have blocked, you can also request for a list of these blocked senders from TDRA. Simply text ‘Get’ to 7726.
If you need assistance related to blocking or unblocking numbers, you can also text ‘HELP’ to 7726.
By following these steps, you can effectively manage promotional messages and reduce unwanted clutter in your inbox.