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Silence phone call notifications except from contacts?

A

Aragornii

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jun 25, 2010
521
148
I get multiple junk calls a day, and I don't want my phone to ring (or vibrate) any time someone calls who's not in my contacts.

I'm aware that you can silence notifications except when from specific contacts, but is there a way you can set that to allowing notifications if it is anyone in your contacts?
 
Settings>Phone>Silence Unknown Callers. This will silence calls from anybody not in your Contact list. If you are expecting a call from an unknown caller (like a delivery update) you can simply turn it off until you get the call and then turn it back on. I have used it since its inception and love it!
 
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webbga said:
Settings>Phone>Silence Unknown Callers. This will silence calls from anybody not in your Contact list. If you are expecting a call from an unknown caller (like a delivery update) you can simply turn it off until you get the call and then turn it back on. I have used it since its inception and love it!
Click to expand...
i wish you could set this up as a quick action or quick toggle as someone who gets calls from various offices/places from time to time.
 
+1 Shortcut.

Can be a Home Screen icon, Widget, back tap action. Action Button on 15s. To name a few options.
 
Use a focus mode. In the setup screen for the focus mode, there is a panel for "Allow Notifications". Tap on "People" and then on the next screen scroll down to "Phone Calls". Under "Allow From," tap on the selector and then select "Contacts Only." Voila!
 
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webbga said:
Settings>Phone>Silence Unknown Callers. This will silence calls from anybody not in your Contact list. If you are expecting a call from an unknown caller (like a delivery update) you can simply turn it off until you get the call and then turn it back on. I have used it since its inception and love it!
Click to expand...

Thank you so much, that's exactly what I was looking for! Right in front of me and I didn't see it.
 
gwhizkids said:
Use a focus mode. In the setup screen for the focus mode, there is a panel for "Allow Notifications". Tap on "People" and then on the next screen scroll down to "Phone Calls". Under "Allow From," tap on the selector and then select "Contacts Only." Voila!
Click to expand...

That is a really cool option. I like that it can be customized.
 
gwhizkids said:
US presidential election-related robocallers.
Click to expand...

For me it was that I bought a house, and unbeknownst to me the bank has the right to sell you cell phone number to every mortgage spammer in the universe. Will never give my cell number to a bank again. I was getting sales calls non-stop for days. Literally every few minutes.
 
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Aragornii said:
For me it was that I bought a house, and unbeknownst to me the bank has the right to sell you cell phone number to every mortgage spammer in the universe. Will never give my cell number to a bank again. I was getting sales calls non-stop for days. Literally every few minutes.
Click to expand...
Being a senior and retired I was getting calls from every Medicare insurance company, scams, etc. The "silence Unknown Caller" feature premiered a few years ago and I have been a fan from the beginning.
 
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There are some calls which if blocked are impossible to return. A doctor calls me from an unknown number and the call is blocked. I have to call the general number and they aren't reachable by phone since they are always with another patient. They do calls in the few moments when they have spare time.
 
Aragornii said:
For me it was that I bought a house, and unbeknownst to me the bank has the right to sell you cell phone number to every mortgage spammer in the universe. Will never give my cell number to a bank again.
Click to expand...

Google Voice has been a godsend for me for this type of thing. Friends, family, “important” (read: doctors, financial, etc) get cell, everyone else is given GV which has do not disturb turned on 24/7. Got rid of land line 12+ years ago for GV and have never looked back.

This with Silence Unknown Callers and a call blocker app, my spam call level has trickled down to almost none. Think STIR/SHAKEN is also working well enough. So, guess I’m tagged “why bother” in spammer databases.
 
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NoBoMac said:
This with Silence Unknown Callers and a call blocker app, my spam call level has trickled down to almost none. Think STIR/SHAKEN is also working well enough. So, guess I’m tagged “why bother” in spammer databases.
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Can you say more about your call blocker app? I find a few of them in the app store. Which one are you using?
 
I'm on ATT so I'm using their free call blocker app. Last I heard, it's using Hiya on the back-end.

Though guessing a good deal in my drop-off has been that STIR/SHAKEN has worked well and telcos' delays to implement have expired.
 
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Thanks for that, I'll check out Hiya. Sometimes I have to temporarily turn off Silence Unknown Callers, and although I too have been getting fewer spam calls, I do continue to get them.
 
HDFan said:
There are some calls which if blocked are impossible to return. A doctor calls me from an unknown number and the call is blocked. I have to call the general number and they aren't reachable by phone since they are always with another patient. They do calls in the few moments when they have spare time.
Click to expand...
If I am waiting for just such a call I switch the feature off until I get the call and then switch it back on. That is the nice thing about it. IT is easy to enable and disable.
 
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