Silence unwanted calls on your iPhone
Are you bothered by annoying spam numbers or people trying to sell you something unsolicited? Then you can silence these kinds of numbers and send them straight to voicemail. There is a special switch on the iPhone for this. That saves time and energy. In this tip you can read how this works on the iPhone.
- Forward unknown numbers
- Silence spam with apps
- Privacy aspects of apps
Forward unknown callers
People in your address book can always call you, unless you have blocked the phone number or 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 aren’t in your address book and who you’ve never had contact with before, to be sent 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 get voicemail immediately, so you won’t be harassed anymore. The feature is actually smarter than you think. According to Apple, artificial intelligence is used to recognize numbers in your Mail and Messages app, not just the people in your contact list.
This ensures that people you know can still reach you. You should no longer miss important calls, while unwanted callers will no longer bother you. If you want to take a more thorough approach, choose blocking phone numbers on iPhone.
Silence spam with apps
It is also possible to catch spam numbers with apps. Apps that support this feature actually use CallKit. These apps contain a database of numbers that are known to be spam or come from telemarketers. What these apps do is look at the number and compare it to their internal list. So this works slightly differently than Apple’s own app.
Thanks to CallKit, the access 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 operate on a subscription model, but there are also some free options. Below you will find apps that support this feature:
-
Truecaller: Caller ID & Block (Free, iPhone + IAP, iOS 15.0+) – Free to use, but you need to register with your own phone number. Pay attention to the privacy aspects (see below)!
-
Hiya: Spam Blocker & Caller ID (Free, iPhone/Watch + IAP, iOS 13.0+) – Hiya is also free, but requires registration with your phone number. You can also create your own list of blocked numbers here.
-
Numbo: Scam Shield & Caller ID (Free, iPhone + IAP, iOS 13.0+) – One month free to use, then €10.49 per year. Note: paid subscription is automatically renewed after the first free month.
If you have installed one of these apps, you must enable the feature in your device’s 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 of the relevant app. Via the Change button you can determine the order of the apps for which it should be checked whether the incoming telephone number is present in the database.
Privacy of anti-spam apps
It is important to realize that apps that block spam calls also have some drawbacks. For example, it appears that TrueCaller collects all kinds of data from address books, both from yourself and from others. As a result, your data with name and photos can end up in TrueCaller’s database. Therefore, by using TrueCaller and agreeing to the terms of use, you are also giving away the private information of all contacts in your address book, 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 on blocking unwanted people:
- Block phone numbers and anonymous callers on iPhone
- Block contacts in iMessage and FaceTime
- Block, ignore and mute Twitter accounts and messages
- Block contacts in WhatsApp for iPhone
