- iOS 26 provides the brand new Call Screening function to iPhone
- The new function routinely asks callers for a reputation and motive for calling, and supplies a real-time transcript
- New information suggests greater than 1 billion hoax calls might be intercepted
A brand new function in iOS 26 may block greater than a billion spam calls every year, based on new information.
Apple is including a brand new Call Screening function to iPhone with iOS 26, and with Call Screening enabled, your iPhone will ask for a reputation and motive for calling earlier than sending the decision by means of, constructing on the Live Voicemail function added with iOS 17.
Similarly to Live Voicemail, Call Screening supplies a real-time transcription of the caller’s response to these preliminary questions, after which offers the consumer the selection to select up or ignore the decision.
The function may also be out there within the Wi-Fi calling-enabled Phone apps coming with iPadOS 26 and macOS Tahoe 26.
A billion blocked calls
Analysis by second-hand cellphone market Compare and Recycle means that this might block greater than a billion rip-off calls every year within the UK alone.
Though the report supplied by Compare and Recycle is UK-specific, it tracks that this determine may improve fairly considerably with different nations factored in.
The report estimates that the typical particular person within the UK will get 4 spam calls monthly. The report additionally estimates that simply shy of 24 million individuals within the UK will get entry to Call Screening, understanding to greater than 1.1 billion intercepted calls every year.
Personally, I can’t stand spam calls, and there have been days – and even entire months – the place I appear to get far more than the estimated 4 calls.
Additionally, I get loads of calls that drop as quickly as I decide up, or as quickly as I say one thing. It’s by no means good to think about that my quantity’s been scraped or marked as ‘energetic’ in a database for scammers.
To be sincere, the difficulty is so prevalent that I generally don’t decide up the cellphone in any respect, as an alternative ready for a voicemail or follow-up electronic mail to know precisely who’s making an attempt to succeed in me.
The addition of Call Screening may see me pop the SIM card out of my trusty Oppo Find X8 Pro and again into the most effective iPhones, for the sake of utilizing my cellphone as an precise cellphone once more.
With that stated, the official Apple press launch for iOS 26 does not make it clear whether or not Call Screening is an Apple Intelligence function, during which case my iPhone 15 can be out of luck.
WWDC noticed the announcement of loads extra options for iPhone, iPad, and Mac – head over to our WWDC2025 recap for a full rundown.
And be sure you tell us whether or not you’re trying ahead to utilizing Call Screening in your iPhone within the feedback beneath.
