How to turn on call screening on iPhone

Call screening needs iOS 26 or later. Go to Settings, General, About, and look at the iOS version. If it's 18 or earlier, update under Settings, General, Software Update. iOS 26 runs on iPhone 11 and later; older models can't get the feature.

On iOS 17 and 18 the closest thing is Live Voicemail: send the call to voicemail and watch the transcript as the caller leaves it, picking up mid-message if you want. That's covered at the end of this page.

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps, then Phone.
3. Tap Screen Unknown Callers.
4. Choose Ask Reason for Calling.

That's it. From the next unknown call onward, the caller hears a prompt asking for their name and the reason for the call. When they answer, your phone rings and shows what they said. You can accept, decline, or let it go to voicemail.

The other two options on that screen:

• Never: every call rings normally. This is the default.
• Silence: unknown numbers go straight to voicemail without ringing, the old Silence Unknown Callers behavior from iOS 13. Callers aren't asked anything; the call just never reaches you.

Screening applies only to numbers that are not in your Contacts, not in your recent outgoing calls, and not suggested by Siri from your mail and messages. Anyone you've called or texted recently rings through as normal, and so does anyone whose number appears in an email or text you've received.

This matters if you're waiting on a call from a new doctor's office, a delivery driver, or a job interview. They'll be screened. Either add the number to Contacts in advance, or accept that they'll hear the prompt. Most legitimate callers answer it; some hang up.

Settings, Apps, Phone, Screen Unknown Callers, then choose Never. Calls ring normally again immediately.

If calls still aren't ringing after that, something else is filtering them: a Focus mode, Do Not Disturb, a carrier spam app, or a block list. Work through calls going straight to voicemail for the full checklist.

Since iOS 17, when a call goes to voicemail the iPhone transcribes the message while the caller is leaving it, on the lock screen. If it turns out to be someone you want, tap to pick up mid-message. It's on by default under Settings, Apps, Phone, Live Voicemail.

Live Voicemail and call screening work together: a screened caller who explains themselves rings through; one who doesn't can still leave a message you can watch.

Carefully, if at all. Every unknown number on a business line is a potential customer, and the screening prompt is the first thing they hear from you. Some will explain themselves to the robot. Many will hang up and call the next business on the list, and the iPhone will log them as a caller who didn't respond, the same as a robocall. You never find out.

If spam on the business line is the problem, the better fix is a line that answers every call and only bothers you with the real ones. An AI receptionist does that: it picks up, finds out what the caller needs, books or takes a message, and sends you a summary. Robocalls get nowhere. The what is call screening guide covers the trade-off in more depth.