iOS 13 Lets You Send Unknown Callers Straight to Voicemail

[nicho]

Huawei has something like this (in China at least) but way smarter. People report the kind of phone call it is (things like, delivery, spam, scam, estate agents) and you can block different types of calls with different confidence levels.

 

[MoreRumors?]

OK, if you’re blocking the number, then it’s likely a scam call, which was likely using a spoofed number anyways, by blocking your the phone number really doesn’t do much in terms of stopping those types of calls today, unless it’s someone _specifically_ you’re blocking. That said, I would rather have a call go straight to voicemail, because I don’t want to be interrupted during my time, during my day having these uneducated morons trying to steal my information (Which will never happen, because I’m smarter than they are.).

I don't give out my cell number to businesses and only to family and friends so most, if not all, calls are spam. If I don't recognize a number or it doesn't show who it is, I don't answer and let it go to voicemail. If it is important the person will leave a voicemail. If no voicemail is left, then I block the number afterwards. I have received calls that IDs as Unknown with no number so it can not be blocked and this IS a problem. My family member received an international call but accidentally picked it up and got billed just for that split second. As per my cell carrier, there is really no way to stop it other than to block it and I don't care nor to allow it to go to voicemail. The new feature will most likely work well for those who use cell as their primary and gave up their landline phone.

 

[peterh988]

If only Apple made a landline phone. Our home is in sight of the Apple spaceship but cable is not available and reliable cell service is not available from any carrier so I’m stuck with copper. I get 2-5 spam calls / day.

I'm the other way round, if only Apple adopted my landline system.

On my landline handset (a BT8500 in the UK)

1. Whitelisted numbers get straight through

2. Numbers not on the whitelist get asked to leave a short message to identify themselves. If they don't, my phone doesn't ring. If they leave a message "Hi, it's your dentist" my phone rings and I get the option to answer once only, answer and whitelist, blacklist.

3. Blacklisted numbers don't get through, nor do any 'no caller ID' numbers (They get a message saying withheld numbers are blocked on this line)

Result, no sales/spam calls for months, every genuine call gets through, all the first time numbers get an option to prove themselves, so none get missed.

Really wish Apple would adopt this, or buy in the tech. (Known as TruCall in the UK)

 

[rocknblogger]

Wow for me not usable at all. How do couriers contact you guys? In my country by phone. Also for example when an Uber calls you it will too send it to voice mail. ..food delivery? Same thing.

Thank you. I forgot about these things. Our food delivery guys always call when they pull up to the house and if we use Door Dash or Uber Eats it’s always a different driver. I don’t know if they can figure out how to get around this.

 

[macguru212]

I receive a lot of calls from fake numbers, not "unknown" or blocked numbers, so until we can block these turkeys color me unimpressed. harumpf!

 

[Kramerjn]

Love this! And I hope they mean exactly what you say (if # is not in contacts list)... not just the caller ID displaying "unknown caller". Since telemarketers mostly use fake phone numbers, caller ID won't appear as "unknown".

Hopefully that makes sense, I've been waiting for the option to only allow contact list calls forever!

I enabled this the other day. Yesterday my phone screen lit up with an alert that said "Missed call from XXXXXXX" and that was it. No ring, no having to silence it. It was wonderful!
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Still wish they made incoming calls not take over the ENTIRE screen when I’m actively using my device... give me a banner to interact with or ignore so I can continue with what I’m doing without having to send the call directly to voicemail (people can tell if you send them to voicemail or not) or wait for the call to ring through...

Lol one of the first things I did after installing the beta was have my wife call me while my phone was open, just to see if they finally did this but just didn't mention it. I was sad when the call took over my screen..
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huh? big whoop, this is not new, lol,
I have already been doing this in iOS 12 using Do Not Disturb.
You just have Do Not Disturb turned on with Silence Always and Allow Calls From set to All Contacts.
That does the same thing!
So they added a toggle, but can you set that toggle to be off during certain times of the day? if not then it's actually less of a feature than what I'm doing. I leave a couple hours completely open after 9pm.

Not impressed.

Doesn't that also silence all of your notifications?

 

[richardsonrs]

I can confirm that you are incorrect.

I can confirm that he IS correct and you aren’t. Scroll down to the bottom of your VM and you’ll see a section for blocked messages. If you tap it you’ll see all the blocked numbers VMs to you, if they chose to leave one.

 

[ikramerica]

We need an option to block callers with wildcards. There are daily junk calls yelling at me in Chinese coming from the same fake exchange in Los Angeles. 310-195-xxxx. 195 is not a valid exchange and the last four change daily, so its a computer bot spoofing a number. But since exchanges don’t start with 1 in the USA, I would like to blanket block 195.

Give us more options, Apple.

 

[notabadname]

Most excellent!

 

[MisterSavage]

I receive a lot of calls from fake numbers, not "unknown" or blocked numbers, so until we can block these turkeys color me unimpressed. harumpf!

They said in the keynote that they would search for the caller's number in your contacts, email, etc. If they don't find it they would get sent to voicemail. Those fake number would be included in that.

 

[dk001]

Those of you who think Apple should come up with an AI to work out spam callers ... I think this would be really difficult to do. The best people who would have access to enough call info to implement something like this are the network providers themselves. So I suspect it would be better if they put more effort into blocking spam calls. That way one can simply not use the new iOS13 feature.

This does seem to be a particularly US issue as here in Europe we don't get so many spam calls, but instead get unwanted calls from legitimate (or barely legitimate) companies such as insurance sellers or financial product sellers. For me, having the option to send all unknown calls to voicemail is great, as I usually do that manually anyway when an unknown (or "withheld" or "unavailable") number calls me. The fact I can just switch it off when I'm expecting calls is fine.

Here in the US I can get from none to a dozen calls a day from someone unsolicited trying to sell me something; insurance, financial help, siding, etc. - cold calling. For us this is spam as they operate via robocall or human via lists.
Doesn't count the fake "you owe ..." or "we can help ..." or "you have won ..." or .... You get the idea.

 

[drvendit]

what happened to the transcribed voicemail feature. Also why are people still leaving voicemails.

 

[Ronlap]

Love this! And I hope they mean exactly what you say (if # is not in contacts list)... not just the caller ID displaying "unknown caller". Since telemarketers mostly use fake phone numbers, caller ID won't appear as "unknown".

Hopefully that makes sense, I've been waiting for the option to only allow contact list calls forever!

The Palm Treo had this feature in what, 2003? I assume that is will work as detailed (even a valid number which is not in your contact list goes to VM). However, I created an entry called SPAM where I put my most frequent SPAM callers with a ringtone of "silence" so I guess I'll need to erase that entry or all the callers will be recognized on iOS 13.

 

[sk2sep2304]

same

I implemented this feature a long time ago by making a silent ringtone my default ringtone, then giving each person in my contacts I actually want to hear from their own audible ringtone. In the infrequent case I'm waiting to hear from a number I don't know that would otherwise be silenced, I temporarily switch from a silent ringtone to a real ringtone.

The new feature would be a lot simpler though, and would not require me to maintain my silent ringtone file.

 

[radcapper]

Love this! And I hope they mean exactly what you say (if # is not in contacts list)... not just the caller ID displaying "unknown caller". Since telemarketers mostly use fake phone numbers, caller ID won't appear as "unknown".

Hopefully that makes sense, I've been waiting for the option to only allow contact list calls forever!

Yeah I think so. Let’s see. It’s beautiful though to see it after so many years.

 

[dk001]

Judging what I am reading here and elsewhere, sounds like Apple is implementing a half baked solution. Hope it evolves during testing. At this time, this is a completely useless option (for me). Heck, Hiya Free gives me a much better solution.

 

[TrulsZK]

In my opinion all or nothing is too little for me.
Leting through calls Siri finds in mail, etc is not helping as I add the phone number to my contacts immediately when I get contacted via email.
Since I often receive calls from unknown callers, I want to be able to only block caller in such a way I do not miss an important call.

 

[Regbial]

So this is what it's come to... Hope those idiots (the ones in charge of making the spam calls) are pleased.

 

[kironin]

DND silences all alerts not just calls. Secondly, your method means DND is no longer available for any other use, such as overnight or in meetings when you only want calls from a limited number of people to come through.

So it is new.

Until they add each other into their contacts, or the "Siri intelligence" allows calls from people in your recent-calls list, as you suggest. That's a brilliant idea.

If I am in a meeting, I NEVER want a call to come through and interrupt. and I would expect the same courtesy from the person I am meeting with. People need to learn to turn off their phones. Just because in the last 20 years it's become possible to interrupt this way doesn't mean it should happen.
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I do the same. But DND silences calls and notifications, while this feature only applies to calls.

I have most notifications turned off anyway. It's not much different for me. I get more work done uninterrupted that way. I don't need the phone dinging from texts or emails or apps. I can always periodically check texts apps screen for badges or the email screen for badges, if there is a real need to outside of normal times when I review communications.

If it's an emergency, I will get a phone call because those that would make an emergency call are certainly in my contacts.

It's actually a lot better than having to flip the mechanical silent switch on the side of the iphone because I'm in a meeting or trying to get something done, and somebody has included me in a group text. Then I won't hear emergency calls.

 

[LovingTeddy]

LOL... Apple fan is celebrating festure that being available with competing platform for years now. Not only my 200 dollar Redmi Note 5 can block stranger calls, it also can block all SMS message from unknown phone numbers.

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A ton of valuable features throughout all the releases this year. I don’t understand the mindset that Apple isn’t innovating or making their products better, I see it every day.

Because lots of features I see with iOS 13 has been in Android or Windows for long time. Like this fall blocking features, like the ability to attach external storage, like the Bluetooth mice support, like the file browsers, like multitasking. LOL... Apple is only catching up on software features

LOL... Looks like Apple even copied the battery optimization features available on Android. And it even copies the long screenshoot features... I can do full webpage screenshoot for almost over 5 years now. Poor Apple users, thinking iOS 13 is innovation...

 

[DNichter]

LOL... Apple fan is celebrating festure that being available with competing platform for years now. Not only my 200 dollar Redmi Note 5 can block stranger calls, it also can block all SMS message from unknown phone numbers.

[doublepost=1559933032][/doublepost]

Because lots of features I see with iOS 13 has been in Android or Windows for long time. Like this fall blocking features, like the ability to attach external storage, like the Bluetooth mice support, like the file browsers, like multitasking. LOL... Apple is only catching up on software features

LOL... Looks like Apple even copied the battery optimization features available on Android. And it even copies the long screenshoot features... I can do full webpage screenshoot for almost over 5 years now. Poor Apple users, thinking iOS 13 is innovation...

That's fair, but Huawei phones or even Android to an extent just isn't an option for a lot of people. iOS 13 will expand the number of people who can use the tablet as their every day machine with these new features. Android may have had them, but what good is it when their tablet offerings aren't very good and have no app support, along with the rest of the issues with Android. I think you make a fair point, but innovation is different than invention also - they didn't come up with these ideas, but many of them are implemented in a better way. The new multitasking gestures are an example of that.

 

[LovingTeddy]

That's fair, but Huawei phones or even Android to an extent just isn't an option for a lot of people. iOS 13 will expand the number of people who can use the tablet as their every day machine with these new features. Android may have had them, but what good is it when their tablet offerings aren't very good and have no app support, along with the rest of the issues with Android. I think you make a fair point, but innovation is different than invention also - they didn't come up with these ideas, but many of them are implemented in a better way. The new multitasking gestures are an example of that.

I am also the one of any got excited with all the iOS 13 features. I don't use iPhone as my primary daily driver, I am using Huawei P30 right now.

However, I got multiple iPads at my household. I also excited about the external storage alone with nice support. Makes my life much easier.

 

[DNichter]

I am also the one of any got excited with all the iOS 13 features. I don't use iPhone as my primary daily driver, I am using Huawei P30 right now.

However, I got multiple iPads at my household. I also excited about the external storage alone with nice support. Makes my life much easier.

Yea it's a great update. I have it running on my iPad Pro and it's been really solid for a first beta. I think I just see a ton of little features being added, and while they are catching up with some, it's all new to me. There is some truth to some of them being rehashed ideas, but just implemented well.

 

[LovingTeddy]

So this is what it's come to... Hope those idiots (the ones in charge of making the spam calls) are pleased.

One thing for sure. They aren’t gonna stop. Not everybody gonna have iOS 13 and not everybody know this feature exists.

In fact, this feature has been with Android for very long time, and it didn’t stop scammers trying

 

[tizeye]

While I travel quite a bit and T-Mobile has great (i.e. free to plan limit - unlimted) cellular wifi, email and data. Talking and even checking voicemail which is considered a call has international charges so I don't answer the phone or check voicemail - or even have the ringer turned on. By message I tell the caller to either email me @, or text the number they just called. Spammers rarely do either. If I absolutely NEED to talk to them, then will arrange a Facetime or Skype for android users.