What Gets Filtered in Anonymous Messages? Our Data
Of 11,032 anonymous messages on our site, 54 (0.5%) were filtered and 31 (0.3%) reported. What gets caught, why, and when messages arrive.
If you are about to share an anonymous message link, you may be wondering what will show up in your inbox. We looked at the counts behind 11,032 messages received on our site, from links created between 2026-04-30 and 2026-10-19. Very few of them were caught by the automatic checks. 54 messages (0.5%) were moved to the Filtered folder, and link owners reported 31 messages (0.3%). Below we explain why messages get filtered, what the filter cannot catch, and at what hours messages tend to arrive.
The numbers at a glance
All counts come from links created between 2026-04-30 and 2026-10-19. We only read totals. We did not read any message text for this analysis.
| What we counted | Count |
|---|---|
| Links created | 3,765 |
| Messages received | 11,032 |
| Moved to the Filtered folder | 54 (0.5%) |
| Reported by link owners | 31 (0.3%) |
Small percentages are easy to misread. These figures show what the checks caught and what owners chose to report. They do not prove that everything else was kind. A mean message with no obvious pattern can slip through. An owner may also just delete something unpleasant instead of reporting it.
Why a message ends up in the Filtered folder
Our checks look for patterns in the text, such as certain words or something shaped like a phone number. When a message matches, it goes into a separate Filtered folder instead of your main inbox. The most common reasons were:
- Profanity: 21 messages
- Hate or slurs: 18 messages
- A phone number: 12 messages
One message can be flagged for more than one reason, so these numbers overlap and should not be added together.
There is also a stricter layer. Some content, such as sexual content involving minors, is blocked outright and never stored at all. Because those messages are never saved, none of the counts in this article include them.
Why a phone number gets filtered
A phone number may not look harmful, and it may be meant in a friendly way, like text me. But in an anonymous message, a number is personal data, and you cannot tell whose it is.
- It could be the sender's own number. Sharing it would undo their anonymity and put their contact details in someone else's hands.
- It could belong to someone else entirely and be shared without their knowledge, as a prank or to cause trouble.
- Any message can become a Story image. If it contains a number, that number could end up in front of everyone who follows you.
Moving these messages to the Filtered folder makes it less likely that a phone number travels any further by accident, though the check will not catch every number.
What the filter misses, and what you can do about it
Pattern matching is not perfect. It reacts to words and formats, not to meaning. It can miss:
- Insults that use no rude words at all
- Misspelled or disguised words
- Hints or inside jokes that only hurt because of something you and the sender both know
- A series of small, unpleasant messages that each look harmless on their own
Think of the Filtered folder as a safety net that catches some things, not as a judge.
For anything that gets through, you have your own tools:
- Mute keywords for words or names you never want to see.
- Block a sender. Blocking works by network connection, so it is tied to a connection, not to a person.
- Report a message that crosses a line.
- Delete a single message, or delete the whole board if you want to stop completely.
You can read more about these options on our safety page.
Reports were rare: 31 messages, or 0.3% of everything received. One possible reason is that owners handle unwanted messages by deleting or muting instead of reporting, but our counts cannot show that. If a message makes you feel unsafe, report it.
When messages come in
Across the site, the busiest hour was 20:00-20:59 UTC, with 983 messages, followed by 19:00-19:59 UTC, with 970 messages. Together those two hours made up 17.7% of all messages. The quietest hour was 07:00-07:59 UTC, with 242 messages.
Keep in mind that the people using the site live in many time zones. The same UTC hour is evening for some of them and morning or the middle of the night for others. These figures give a rough picture of the whole site. They are not a schedule for your own friends.
How to use this when you set up your own link
- Know what the Filtered folder is for. It holds messages that matched patterns such as profanity, hate or slurs, or personal data like phone numbers. If you open it, expect that kind of content.
- Ask friends to leave phone numbers out. If someone wants to talk to you directly, they can reach you another way. Mentioning this in your Story can save everyone some trouble.
- Use muted keywords. If there is a nickname, a name or a topic you do not want to see, add it to your muted keywords.
- Do not rely on the filter alone. Use block, report and delete whenever something gets through that should not have.
- Check before you share a message as a Story. Make sure it does not name or point to anyone who did not agree to be shown.
- Post your link when your friends are actually online. Evening hours in UTC were busiest site-wide, but your own friends may keep a different schedule. A clear prompt helps too. Our Instagram Story prompts for anonymous Q&A have some ideas.
Curious how many messages a typical link gets? That question is covered in our earlier look at how many anonymous messages a link gets. When you are ready, create your own anonymous message link. You type a name and get a link plus a 4-digit recovery PIN, with no email, password or download needed.
About these numbers
This data covers links (boards) created on secretmessageonline.com between 2026-04-30 and 2026-10-19, from a database snapshot taken on 2026-10-19 21:01 UTC. It includes 3,765 links and 11,032 messages received in that period. For this analysis we only read counts. We did not look at any message text, names or IP addresses.
- Filtered counts show what the automatic checks matched. Pattern matching misses things, so these numbers do not measure how many unkind messages were sent.
- A message can have more than one filter reason, so the counts for each reason overlap.
- Messages blocked outright, for example sexual content involving minors, are never stored and are not included in any count.
- Report counts show only what owners chose to report, not how many messages they disliked.
- Hours are given in UTC. People using the site live in many time zones, so the hourly figures are only a rough guide.