Spam calls are annoying, and annoyingly abundant. But Apple is making a change to the phone app that aims to help with that.
At this year’s WWDC, Apple confirmed a change to the phone app in iOS 13 aimed at reducing the instances someone might have to experience a spam call. It’s an opt-in sort of situation, letting the user decide if they want to turn the feature on or not.
Here’s what to expect when the feature goes live later this year.
Silence unknown callers
The new setting is meant to protect the iOS 13 user from spam calls and calls from unknown numbers. When it is activated, iOS 13 will use Siri intelligence to filter the incoming calls. If the number is recognized from Messages, Contacts, or Mail, then the call will come through as it normally would.
However, if the phone number is unrecognized based on the information available to Siri, then the software will automatically send the call to voicemail. That means the phone won’t ring, and the call should only be viewable as a missed call within the phone app. Or as a voicemail if the caller leaves one.
A small but powerful change
This sort of feature is only as exciting and important as the individual decides. On a grand scale, the ability to quickly and easily silence calls from unknown and/or spam sources is a nice addition. However, if someone has been lucky enough to never really suffer through a flood of spam calls, it’s a feature they might not ever need to switch on.
That doesn’t make the ability to silence unknown calls using Siri intelligence an unnecessary one, though. In fact, for some, it might be one of the first new features of iOS 13 they switch on or interact with.
What about you? Is this one feature you’re excited about in iOS 13?