New features on my iPhone rarely impress me, but my work iPhone automatically updated to iOS version 26 and I’m loving the new call screening feature. Because 99% of the calls to my work phone are from sales people, I turned on the new “silence unknown calls” feature and now every call has been going straight to voicemail.
Android users might recognize a similar tool with Google’s “Call Screen”. But now Apple users can enjoy this built-in protection without downloading a third-party app.
I checked why I haven’t seen this update on my personal iPhone and it’s because Apple isn’t automatically updating all phones yet. When you do get an update to your iPhone, now you’ll know whether you want to turn on their free call screening feature designed to filter out unwanted calls and protect your time (and your patience).
Here’s how it works: once you enable the “Ask Reason for Calling” option, Apple’s Siri becomes your personal gatekeeper. When someone not in your contacts calls, Siri will ask who’s calling and why. You’ll see the response as a live text transcript, giving you the choice to answer, send to voicemail, or block. No more awkward “Who is this?” moments or wasting time with scammers pretending to be your bank. Unfortunately you won’t be able to hear the caller and they can simply say “hello” and not answer the question.
To activate the new feature (if you didn’t do it when the phone update asked):
- If you aren’t on the latest operating system version, update to iOS 26 (Settings → General → Software Update).
- Go to Settings → Apps → Phone → Screen Unknown Callers.
- Choose your preferred level:
- Never: Regular ringing for unknown numbers.
- Ask Reason for Calling: Siri screens unknown callers for you.
- Silence: Sends unknown calls straight to voicemail.
I looked at my recent calls in my phone call history and feel comfortable with setting “Silence” mainly because my doctors all use text messaging services or I have them saved into my contacts address book with my family and friends. For anything else I’ll go through the effort to call the person back, rather than manually rejecting the potential spam calls I receive daily.
This simple iPhone setting can help cut down on robocalls, phishing attempts, and time-wasting spam. Now I wish they could figure out how to do this with text messages!