Silence unwanted calls on your iPhone
Are you bothered by annoying spam numbers or people who try to sell you something unsolicited? Then you can silence these types of numbers and immediately forward them to voicemail. The iPhone has a special switch for this. That saves time and energy. In this tip you can read how this works on the iPhone.
- Forward unknown numbers
- Keep spam quiet with apps
- Privacy aspects of apps
Forward unknown callers
People in your address book can always call you, unless you have blocked the telephone number or you have set the device to Do Not Disturb. In principle, unknown callers can always reach you, but you don’t want that.
You can set people who are not in your address book and who you have never contacted before to be forwarded to voicemail by default.
This is how you enable it:
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone. You need at least iOS 13.
- Scroll to Phone.
- Go to Silence unknown callers and turn on the switch.
Unknown callers now immediately receive voicemail, so you won’t be bothered anymore. The feature is actually smarter than you think. According to Apple, artificial intelligence is used to recognize numbers in your Mail and Messages apps, not just the people in your contact list.
This ensures that people you know can still reach you. If all goes well, you will no longer miss important calls, while unwanted callers will no longer bother you. If you want to take a more thorough approach, choose to block phone numbers on the iPhone.
Keep spam quiet with apps
It is also possible to catch spam numbers with apps. Apps that support this feature are actually using CallKit. These apps contain a database of numbers known to be spam or from telemarketers. What these apps do is look at the number and compare it to their internal list. So this works a little differently than Apple’s own app.
Thanks to CallKit, the lock screen indicates that it is probably a spam number. The number can also be automatically blocked by these types of apps. Unfortunately, it does not work for call centers or people who call anonymously.
Many of these apps work on a subscription model, but there are also some free options. Below you will find apps that support this feature:
- Unfortunately we cannot show the correct data at the moment, Download – Free to use, but you must register with your own telephone number. Please note the privacy aspects (see below)!
- Unfortunately we cannot show the correct data at the moment, Download – Hiya is also free, but requires registration with your phone number. You can also create your own list of blocked numbers here.
- Unfortunately we cannot show the correct data at the moment, Download – Free use for one month, then €10.49 per year. Please note: paid subscription is automatically extended after the first free month.
If you have one of these apps installed, you’ll need to enable the feature in your device settings:
- Go to Settings > Phone.
- Choose Block and identify callers. This option is only visible if you have installed a suitable app.
- Turn on the switch for the relevant app. Via the Change button you can determine the order of the apps for which it must be checked whether the incoming telephone number appears in the database.
Privacy of anti-spam apps
It’s important to realize that apps that block spam calls also have some disadvantages. It turns out that TrueCaller collects all kinds of data from address books, both yours and others’. As a result, your data including name and photos can end up in the TrueCaller database. Therefore, by using TrueCaller and agreeing to its terms of use, you are also giving away the private information of all contacts in your address book, thereby compromising their privacy.
Unfortunately, you have little control over it if others install the app and upload your private information to the TrueCaller database. This is an aspect to take into account.
More articles about blocking unwanted people:
- Block phone numbers and anonymous callers on iPhone
- Block contacts in iMessage and FaceTime
- Block, mute, and mute Twitter accounts and messages
- Block contacts in WhatsApp for iPhone
