Between numbers we don’t recognise, pushy salespeople and phone spam, we often end up not answering even legitimate calls without meaning to. Luckily, our iPhone offers us a very elegant solution: it can automatically answer calls and show us who’s calling and why before the phone even rings. It’s a feature that completely changes the way we manage calls and gives us back control over which ones we want to take.
This is how “Ask Reason for Calling” works
Starting in iOS 26, we find the Ask Reason for Calling feature as an evolution of the classic “Silence Unknown Callers”. Now, every time we receive a call from a number that isn’t in our Contacts, the iPhone answers it automatically and asks the caller to state their name and the reason for the call.
During this brief process, the iPhone transcribes the response in real time and shows it on the screen. From there, we can decide whether we want to accept the call, reject it, or even ask for more information before answering. We’d request that information by typing directly into the transcript, so that the iPhone relays it to the caller and then transcribes their reply for us.
The change is very noticeable, because now important calls can make it through the filter, while most phone spam doesn’t even get a chance to ring. Robots and automated call-centre operators usually hang up when they don’t receive the kind of interaction they expect, which saves us a good number of unnecessary interruptions.
How to enable and set up the feature
Setting up our iPhone to answer calls for us is really easy. The steps are as follows:
- We open the Settings app on our iPhone.
- We go into Apps.
- We tap Phone.
- Under Filter Unknown Callers, we select Ask Reason for Calling.
From that moment on, all calls from numbers we don’t have saved in Contacts will automatically go through the filter, and the phone will only ring if the system detects that we may want to take the call. Of course, calls from numbers that are already in our Contacts will continue to come through normally, without going through any filter.
Other ways to manage unknown calls
Although this new feature is very interesting, our iPhone also offers us a couple of alternatives to choose the level of filtering that best fits our habits:
- Silence: all calls from unknown numbers are sent straight to voicemail. They still appear in the Recents list, but they don’t interrupt us at any time.
- Never: calls ring normally, with no filtering at all. It’s the iPhone’s classic behaviour.
We can switch between these options whenever we want from Settings > Apps > Phone > Filter Unknown Callers.
This interesting feature lets us get our peace of mind back without disconnecting from what really matters. Our iPhone becomes an intelligent filter that politely answers for us and only puts through the calls that deserve our attention. A very convenient way to manage our time and, without unnecessary interruptions, stay available and connected.
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