diff --git a/framework/CHANGELOG.md b/framework/CHANGELOG.md
index 0125a10368..cb25251fa4 100644
--- a/framework/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/framework/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ Yii Framework 2 Change Log
 
 - Bug #7529: Fixed `yii\web\Response::sendContentAsFile()` that was broken in 2.0.3 (samdark)
 - Bug #7603: Fixed escape characters in `FormatConverter` to work with unicode characters (maddoger, cebe)
+- Enh #6895: Added `ignoreCategories` config option for message command to ignore categories specified (samdark)
 - Enh #7488: Added `StringHelper::explode` to perform explode with trimming and skipping of empty elements (SilverFire, nineinchnick, creocoder, samdark)
 - Enh #7562: `yii help` now lists all sub-commands by default (callmez)
 - Enh #7571: HTTP status 500 and "An internal server error occurred." are now returned in case there was an exception in layout and `YII_DEBUG` is false (samdark)
diff --git a/framework/console/controllers/MessageController.php b/framework/console/controllers/MessageController.php
index 60c8db05c4..ddc26d56b1 100644
--- a/framework/console/controllers/MessageController.php
+++ b/framework/console/controllers/MessageController.php
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ class MessageController extends Controller
             'removeUnused' => false,
             'sort' => false,
             'format' => 'php',
+            'ignoreCategories' => [],
         ], require($configFile));
 
         if (!isset($config['sourcePath'], $config['languages'])) {
@@ -117,7 +118,7 @@ class MessageController extends Controller
 
         $messages = [];
         foreach ($files as $file) {
-            $messages = array_merge_recursive($messages, $this->extractMessages($file, $config['translator']));
+            $messages = array_merge_recursive($messages, $this->extractMessages($file, $config['translator'], $config['ignoreCategories']));
         }
         if (in_array($config['format'], ['php', 'po'])) {
             foreach ($config['languages'] as $language) {
@@ -240,9 +241,10 @@ class MessageController extends Controller
      *
      * @param string $fileName name of the file to extract messages from
      * @param string $translator name of the function used to translate messages
+     * @param array $ignoreCategories message categories to ignore
      * @return array
      */
-    protected function extractMessages($fileName, $translator)
+    protected function extractMessages($fileName, $translator, $ignoreCategories = [])
     {
         $coloredFileName = Console::ansiFormat($fileName, [Console::FG_CYAN]);
         $this->stdout("Extracting messages from $coloredFileName...\n");
@@ -276,10 +278,12 @@ class MessageController extends Controller
                             $category = stripcslashes($buffer[0][1]);
                             $category = mb_substr($category, 1, mb_strlen($category) - 2);
 
-                            $message = stripcslashes($buffer[2][1]);
-                            $message = mb_substr($message, 1, mb_strlen($message) - 2);
+                            if (!in_array($category, $ignoreCategories, true)) {
+                                $message = stripcslashes($buffer[2][1]);
+                                $message = mb_substr($message, 1, mb_strlen($message) - 2);
 
-                            $messages[$category][] = $message;
+                                $messages[$category][] = $message;
+                            }
                         } else {
                             // invalid call or dynamic call we can't extract
 
diff --git a/framework/views/messageConfig.php b/framework/views/messageConfig.php
index 206c663ea5..5b8d22e3b6 100644
--- a/framework/views/messageConfig.php
+++ b/framework/views/messageConfig.php
@@ -48,6 +48,12 @@ return [
     // boolean, whether the message file should be overwritten with the merged messages
     'overwrite' => true,
 
+    /*
+    // Message categories to ignore
+    'ignoreCategories' => [
+        'yii',
+    ],
+     */
 
     /*
     // 'db' output format is for saving messages to database.
diff --git a/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/BaseMessageControllerTest.php b/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/BaseMessageControllerTest.php
index 5cc72d55dd..cffc93acdf 100644
--- a/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/BaseMessageControllerTest.php
+++ b/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/BaseMessageControllerTest.php
@@ -99,9 +99,10 @@ abstract class BaseMessageControllerTest extends TestCase
      * Loads messages
      *
      * @param string $category
+     * @param boolean $shouldExist if file should exist
      * @return array
      */
-    abstract protected function loadMessages($category);
+    abstract protected function loadMessages($category, $shouldExist = true);
 
     /**
      * @return array default config
@@ -340,6 +341,43 @@ abstract class BaseMessageControllerTest extends TestCase
         $this->assertArrayHasKey($message3, $messages2, "message3 not found in category2. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
         $this->assertArrayNotHasKey($message2, $messages2, "message2 found in category2. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
     }
+
+    public function testIgnoreCategories()
+    {
+        $category1 = 'category1';
+        $category2 = 'category2';
+
+        $message1 = 'message1';
+        $message2 = 'message2';
+        $message3 = 'message3';
+
+        $this->saveConfigFile($this->getConfig(['ignoreCategories' => ['category2']]));
+
+        // Generate initial translation
+        $sourceFileContent = "Yii::t('{$category1}', '{$message1}'); Yii::t('{$category2}', '{$message2}');";
+        $source = $this->createSourceFile($sourceFileContent);
+        $out = $this->runMessageControllerAction('extract', [$this->configFileName]);
+        unlink($source);
+
+        $messages1 = $this->loadMessages($category1);
+        $messages2 = $this->loadMessages($category2, false);
+
+        $this->assertArrayHasKey($message1, $messages1, "message1 not found in category1. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
+        $this->assertArrayNotHasKey($message2, $messages2, "message2 found in category2. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
+        $this->assertArrayNotHasKey($message3, $messages2, "message3 found in category2. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
+
+        // Change source code, run translation again
+        $sourceFileContent = "Yii::t('{$category1}', '{$message1}'); Yii::t('{$category2}', '{$message3}');";
+        $source = $this->createSourceFile($sourceFileContent);
+        $out .= "\n" . $this->runMessageControllerAction('extract', [$this->configFileName]);
+        unlink($source);
+
+        $messages1 = $this->loadMessages($category1);
+        $messages2 = $this->loadMessages($category2, false);
+        $this->assertArrayHasKey($message1, $messages1, "message1 not found in category1. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
+        $this->assertArrayNotHasKey($message3, $messages2, "message3 not found in category2. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
+        $this->assertArrayNotHasKey($message2, $messages2, "message2 found in category2. Command output:\n\n" . $out);
+    }
 }
 
 class MessageControllerMock extends MessageController
diff --git a/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/PHPMessageControllerTest.php b/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/PHPMessageControllerTest.php
index 20ddf1d78a..9f4e47175c 100644
--- a/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/PHPMessageControllerTest.php
+++ b/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/PHPMessageControllerTest.php
@@ -70,15 +70,21 @@ class PHPMessageControllerTest extends BaseMessageControllerTest
     /**
      * @inheritdoc
      */
-    protected function loadMessages($category)
+    protected function loadMessages($category, $shouldExist = true)
     {
         if (defined('HHVM_VERSION')) {
             // https://github.com/facebook/hhvm/issues/1447
-            $this->markTestSkipped('Can not test on HHVM because require is cached.');
+            static::markTestSkipped('Can not test on HHVM because require is cached.');
         }
 
         $messageFilePath = $this->getMessageFilePath($category);
-        $this->assertTrue(file_exists($messageFilePath), "There's no message file $messageFilePath!");
+
+        if ($shouldExist) {
+            static::assertTrue(file_exists($messageFilePath), "There's no message file $messageFilePath that should exist!");
+        } else {
+            static::assertFalse(file_exists($messageFilePath), "There's message file $messageFilePath that should not exist!");
+            return [];
+        }
         return require $messageFilePath;
     }
 }
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/POMessageControllerTest.php b/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/POMessageControllerTest.php
index a02a13a68b..1ed97fbcf6 100644
--- a/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/POMessageControllerTest.php
+++ b/tests/unit/framework/console/controllers/POMessageControllerTest.php
@@ -74,10 +74,15 @@ class POMessageControllerTest extends BaseMessageControllerTest
     /**
      * @inheritdoc
      */
-    protected function loadMessages($category)
+    protected function loadMessages($category, $shouldExist = true)
     {
         $messageFilePath = $this->getMessageFilePath();
-        $this->assertTrue(file_exists($messageFilePath), "There's no message file $messageFilePath!");
+        if ($shouldExist) {
+            static::assertTrue(file_exists($messageFilePath), "There's no message file $messageFilePath that should exist!");
+        } else {
+            static::assertFalse(file_exists($messageFilePath), "There's message file $messageFilePath that should not exist!");
+            return [];
+        }
 
         $gettext = new GettextPoFile();
         return $gettext->load($messageFilePath, $category);