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Your logic makes no sense at all. It's a call screening feature. If normal people aren't saved as contacts then they get call screened as any random number calling you.
Work associates who aren't saved in my phone get call screened.
Spam & Telemarketers who aren't saved in my phone bypass the call screening. So the spam and Telemarketers figured out how to bypass - What doesn't make sense?
 
This feature has made life a bit more tolerable…but the "Business Loan Division" calls (my current #1 annoyance) respond to the screening and my phone rings. Though, come to think of it, I haven't had one of those calls in several days, where I used to get 2-5 daily.

Yes, I probably just jinxed myself.
 
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This needs to be tied to focus modes. While i'm at work, i want unknown callers to pass through, once i'm in personal focus i want them to be questioned. Super simple.
 
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- Hi, who's calling?
- Yes
- Who?
- Yes
- Sorry, but who is calling?
- Yes!
- Sir, yes is calling, would you take the call?
- Who?
- Yes
- fkn Siri !!!
 
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It sounds like a great idea, I turned it on as soon as I updated to iOS26.

Then, I had some job interviews, Iforgot that it was on. The recruiter, thought it was voicemail and hung up twice. He emailed, me, turned it off and I had the call.

So, even though it is good on paper, in real life, it's a hit and miss.
Why couldn't he have left a voicemail instead of emailing?
 
Work associates who aren't saved in my phone get call screened.
Spam & Telemarketers who aren't saved in my phone bypass the call screening. So the spam and Telemarketers figured out how to bypass - What doesn't make sense?
Telemarketers and Spam can't bypass call screening for my phone.
 
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This feature has made life a bit more tolerable…but the "Business Loan Division" calls (my current #1 annoyance) respond to the screening and my phone rings. Though, come to think of it, I haven't had one of those calls in several days, where I used to get 2-5 daily.

Yes, I probably just jinxed myself.
THIS! I get at least one a day and they are processing my application and I can get anywhere from $150k-$250k so far. Fraudsters.
 
I don't understand why Apple/the phone companies don't attack spam calls with a much easier process:

  1. When I get a likely Spam call, AT&T tells me it's Spam Alert and 99% of the time it's correct
  2. I block the number (yes, I know there are tens of thousands of phone number combinations spammers can use)
  3. Apple should communicate to AT&T that I want this number blocked because it's spam
  4. AT&T should do a daily or weekly lookup and if they see 203-123-4567 blocked more than 200 times, AT&T as a company should somehow block that number from dialing in the first place
I know there are other ways spammers get around the phone companies (or at least used to get around them decades ago), but at the end of the day, it's the PHONE COMPANY that is providing me phone service and should be responsible for annoying spammers. It's harassment plain and simple.
The challenge is once AT&T works on a technology solution to "block or prevent" the calls, the spammers develop a work around. It just becomes a circular game...

I remember when "Do not call" list came out, I never got calls. Now, even though I am on the list, I get at least 10 calls a day. I will say, this new feature has eliminated calls.
 
I'm waiting until the general public is more aware of the feature before I enable it.
I have a VTech landline phone with a similar smart blocking system and in the four years I have had it, nobody has had trouble getting through to me. People seems to understand how it works pretty well.
 
one of the first things I did when I got 26
the Indian spammers havent worked it out yet and keep telling it they want to talk to me about a job and that they are from Indeed HR team. idiots.. it's only a shame that there's no way to stop it recording a voicemail at the moment
 
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I turned it off. While it did reduce spam calls, I found I would miss a lot of other calls. I would not be aware of calls unless I happened to look at recent calls or voicemails.
 
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one of the first things I did when I got 26
the Indian spammers havent worked it out yet and keep telling it they want to talk to me about a job and that they are from Indeed HR team. idiots.. it's only a shame that there's no way to stop it recording a voicemail at the moment
While the call screening is in progress and the phone telling them "Your correspondant is busy please leave a voicemail" you can press the "X" button and the call will be terminated immediately. Just let the phone say the first part of the message then press the button; voilà : they can't leave a voicemail.
 
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