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Allow-list (whitelist) for keyword-based message blocking

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  • Is something wrong?
#807 1 comment 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

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Nobody has claimed this yet.

  • #848 by @imyoga — closed without merging

Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
30/100
Issue type
Feature
Clarity
Mostly clear
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
android, kotlin
Domain
mobile

Research direction

Start by reading the existing keyword-blocking implementation and tracing where incoming messages are checked against the blacklist. The issue does not name files or tests, so locate those entry points in the repository first. Done means allow-list matches bypass the blacklist and are delivered normally, including when they also match a blocked keyword.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

feature request needs triage
Checklist
  • I made sure that there are no existing issues - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
  • I made sure that there are no existing discussions - open or closed - to which I could contribute my information.
  • I have read the FAQs inside the app (Menu -> About -> FAQs) and my problem isn't listed.
  • I have taken the time to fill in all the required details. I understand that the request will be dismissed otherwise.
  • This issue contains only one feature request.
  • I have read and understood the contribution guidelines.
Feature description

The app currently supports blocking messages that contain specific keywords, but there's no way to define exceptions. If a legitimate message happens to contain a blocked keyword (for example, a bank notification that includes a word also used by spam messages), it gets blocked along with the actual spam, with no way to let it through.

Why do you want this feature?

Add a second list of keywords/phrases that work as a whitelist. When an incoming message matches an allow-list entry, it should bypass the keyword blacklist check entirely and be delivered normally, even if it also matches a blacklisted keyword. This would let users write broader, more effective blacklist rules (e.g. regex-based) without worrying about false positives on messages they actually want to receive.

Additional information

Some other SMS filtering tools (e.g. NekoSMS, CC SMS Blocker) implement this blacklist + whitelist combination, with whitelist rules taking priority over blacklist rules. Happy to attempt a PR for this once the direction is agreed on.

Dominant language
Kotlin
Stars
1.6k
Forks
187
Avg merge
2d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
20

Getting set up

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

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