iOS 26: Make Your iPhone Wait on Hold for You

[MacRumors]

If you make a call and are placed on hold, a new feature in ‌iOS 26‌ will do the waiting for you so you can do other things. Hold Assist listens for hold music playing, and then alerts you when a person comes on the line so you can pick up the call.

Hold Assist is available on any iPhone that supports iOS 26 (i.e. it's not an Apple Intelligence feature). The feature works automatically on demand – there are no settings to toggle and no setup required. Still, there are a few things worth knowing. Here's what to expect when the time comes to use it.

Enabling Hold Assist on a Call

When you're placed on hold during a phone call, Hold Assist will launch automatically after 10 to 15 seconds. You'll know about it when a notification appears on your screen asking "Hold this Call?" Tap the Hold button to activate Hold Assist, or tap the X to dismiss the notification and stay on the line yourself.

While Hold Assist Is Active

Once you tap Hold, you'll return to your iPhone's Home screen. A notification will appear briefly, confirming that you're on hold and that you'll be alerted when it's time to pick up the call.

You can continue with whatever else you were doing on your iPhone, and the call will continue in the background. On iPhones with a Dynamic Island, you'll see this as a Live Activity. On other models, the time in the upper left corner appears in a green bubble, which is also what you see when you exit the Phone app during calls.

When Hold Assist detects that a live person has answered, you'll receive a notification. Simply tap it to return to the call.

Hold Assist displays on macOS Tahoe, too.​

Note that Hold Assist works by detecting hold music, so it may struggle with voice-based automated messages or music with distinct lyrics. You'll see a transcript of any spoken words, so this should help you know when an actual person is on the line.

Manually Activating Hold Assist

If you initially dismissed the Hold Assist notification and now want to activate it, you can do so manually. During an active call where you're on hold, simply tap the More button (three dots), then tap Hold Assist from the menu.

Article Link: iOS 26: Make Your iPhone Wait on Hold for You

 

[spartan1967]

Having the company's customer service call me back would be a better option for me. Keep in mind you are burning battery with this iPhone que feature, especially in times of longer waits.

 

[NightFox]

I get that it shows a transcript, but I'd imagine that on a long-hold there'd be that many "Your call is important to us, please continue to hold" messages that I'd start ignoring them, and/or when somebody did finally pick-up I'd be too slow to respond and they'd terminate the call.

 

[Rachid Vàzquez]

Note that Hold Assist works by detecting hold music, so it may struggle with voice-based automated messages or music with distinct lyrics. You'll see a transcript of any spoken words, so this should help you know when an actual person is on the line.

That’s precisely why the feature is unusable. I strongly recommend everyone avoid using it, it’s extremely frustrating...

 

[lazygolfer666]

Tried the other day in the UK.. it was useful for around 27 min.. as soon as someone replied the screen got frozen and I wouldn't be able to pick up the call! 🤣

 

[KRiWOLF]

I really like this feature, with the exception of the automated hold messages problem.. It would be great if you could optionally use Siri to 'listen' and detect an actual person speaking, and then verbally letting the person know they are going to alert the user. I have seen that sort of tech for accessibility, so it just makes sense for mainstream lines that don't offer a call back option.

 

[Tiger_Stud]

It was useless when I used it the other day. It rang me every 2 minutes whenever a voice told me which number I was in line.

 

[Prince Akeem]

NOT available everywhere outside the US. For EU people: interesting iOS 26 features like Call Screening and Hold Assist are only available in a select few countries.

 

[iMac The Knife]

This feature has been around for what, half a decade now. #courage

 

[CapitalIdea]

This feature has been around for what, half a decade now. #courage

What are you innovating?

 

[iMac The Knife]

What are you innovating?

The article isn't about me, it is about Apple/iPhone.

 

[CEleven]

NOT available everywhere outside the US. For EU people: interesting iOS 26 features like Call Screening and Hold Assist are only available in a select few countries.

This list of features NOT available outside the US (and a few selected marktets) is getting frustratingly long.

 

[Flamingdeathbolts]

Wish they would address being stuck on hold while using CarPlay in the vehicle. Has anybody tried it while driving. Does it allow you to go back and listen to your music or podcast while on hold?

 

[Rastapopoulos]

What is this depending on to work? It''s not available in my country nor other countries where I've been or calling to or from since iOS 26 came out.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

The one time I tried it, I lost the call on hold. I guess maybe the rep came on line and no one was there so they hung up. FAILURE!

 

[Abantos1]

Hold Assist is available on any iPhone that supports iOS 26 (i.e. it's not an Apple Intelligence feature).

No it isnt: iPhone 13 Pro here, French region/Spanish language, no hold assist. iPad Pro m2 (with Apple Intelligence), French region/Spanish language, works fine. Hold assist remains a half-baked feature: some very simple tricks would have made it a lot more usable (including in case of a voiced ad interrupting music, [eg if you’ve silenced the call to hold assist with the same spoken words three times, which is easy to detect, perhaps ringing up on hearing the same phrase again isnt best behaviour]). Shame they couldn’t make it work.

 

[spunkybart]

The one time I tried it, I lost the call on hold. I guess maybe the rep came on line and no one was there so they hung up. FAILURE!

Could be exactly what happened. I'm sure if I were a call agent, if I said "how may I help you..." and I didn't get a pretty immediate response, I'd disconnect and go to the customer next in queue.

I'm assuming call agents are monitored with statistics collected, so it would be in their best interest to move on quickly.

 

[ignatius345]

I get that it shows a transcript, but I'd imagine that on a long-hold there'd be that many "Your call is important to us, please continue to hold" messages that I'd start ignoring them, and/or when somebody did finally pick-up I'd be too slow to respond and they'd terminate the call.

This is what I worry about. When you spend 45 minutes on hold (sadly, not uncommon in these days of "unusually high call volume" lol), the very last thing you want to do is accidentally miss the operator.

 

[Agile55]

It was useless when I used it the other day. It rang me every 2 minutes whenever a voice told me which number I was in line.

Same result here this wknd, waiting for an update/tweak as it’s not usable for me in this iteration.

 

[Corpuscle]

It was useless when I used it the other day. It rang me every 2 minutes whenever a voice told me which number I was in line.

OMG. It's not going to work in every situation. Here's an idea. For situations where it doesn't work as you'd like it to, then just don't use it for that call. Or, help Apple refine the feature by giving Apple some realistic suggestions instead of what has become the MO here, ie bitchin' and moaning and complaining about almost everything.

 

[Corpuscle]

I get that it shows a transcript, but I'd imagine that on a long-hold there'd be that many "Your call is important to us, please continue to hold" messages that I'd start ignoring them, and/or when somebody did finally pick-up I'd be too slow to respond and they'd terminate the call.

Sounds like the failures you describe are on you and your phone habits. Don't blame Apple for them.

 

[AbSoluTc]

I get that it shows a transcript, but I'd imagine that on a long-hold there'd be that many "Your call is important to us, please continue to hold" messages that I'd start ignoring them, and/or when somebody did finally pick-up I'd be too slow to respond and they'd terminate the call.

Yup. I used it once and this is exactly what happened. Made the feature useless if it can't determine real from recording. Had to keep it on speaker and wait. Not a good feature as of right now

 

[AbSoluTc]

Sounds like the failures you describe are on you and your phone habits. Don't blame Apple for them.

How is this on the poster? It's CLEARLY a half baked feature. MANY hold calls say "you're number blah blah in line" or "please continue to hold, your blah blah is important to us". The feature notifies you that someone is there when they're not, it's just a message. The feature is USELESS in it's current state. Stop apologizing for a trillion dollar companies half baked feature.

 

[Corpuscle]

Having the company's customer service call me back would be a better option for me.

And just how would you do this? You are aware that many companies already do this and it has nothing to do with Apple. This "suggestion" is useless given the subject of this thread.

Keep in mind you are burning battery with this iPhone que feature, especially in times of longer waits.

Really? Are you saying that using the phone for this feature "burns" the battery as opposed to every other thing you use a phone for? Is this why iPhone batteries have to be charged periodically? Interestingly, I had a two hour phone call the other day, and the battery percentage dropped. OMG. I'll show them and stop making phone calls.

 

[ignatius345]

Sounds like the failures you describe are on you and your phone habits. Don't blame Apple for them.

All people are saying is that the feature seems to only work for hold situations without spoken messages, which throw it off. Chill.