Making Calls with the iPhone

There are several ways to make a call. You can go old-school and dial manually using the keypad , start the call from your contacts , or summon Siri and have her do the work. You can even assign familial relationships (son, spouse, etc.) to contacts and use voice commands to call them by saying, “call wife”, for instance.

Dial using the dial pad

1. From your Home page, tap Phone .
2. Tap Keypad .
3. Enter the number, then tap to place the call.

Dialing with Siri

Summon Siri to dial or connect with contacts. Summon Siri and do one of the following:

• If the person you want to call is in Contacts, say “call” followed by the person’s name. If you have multiple numbers stored for that contact, tell Siri which number to call— work, home, or mobile.
• You can also have Siri dial a number for you. Say, “Dial,” and speak the digits of the number you want to call. For instance, you can say, “Siri Dial 5205551211.” If Siri doesn’t have enough information to complete the command, she’ll ask for clarification.

Voice dialing a contact with a relationship

You can use statements like “call wife,” “call son,” or “call mother” if you have those relationships defined. If Siri doesn’t know who you mean, she will ask you to associate a contact with that relationship. The next time you ask her to call them, she will remember.

Handling incoming calls

You can answer, silence, or decline incoming calls and send them to voice mail. You don’t have to unlock your iPhone to handle calls.

Answering an incoming call

• Tap Accept to answer a call.
• Drag the slider if the phone is locked.

Silencing a call

You can silence the ring on an incoming call. The call will continue until you either answer or it goes to voice mail. You can answer the call until it goes to voicemail.

• Press the Sleep/Wake (side) button or either volume button once to silence the call.

Decline a call

You can decline a call and send it directly to voice mail.

• Tap .
• Press the side button twice quickly.
• Swipe up on the call banner.

Swipe down on the call banner for more options.

• Tap Remind Me to choose a reminder time to return the call.
• Tap Message to send the caller to voicemail and send them a text message. In addition to the preset messages, you can create custom text messages in Settings > Phone > Respond with Text. You are allowed up to three saved responses.

Responding to a second call

If you are already on a call when a second call comes in:

• Tap Ignore to send it to voicemail.
• Tap Hold + Accept to place the first call on hold and answer the incoming call.

Ending the current call and accept the incoming call, you will either (depending on your carrier):

• Tap End + Accept.
• Tap End, then touch Accept when the phone rings to connect to the second caller.

Ending a call

• End a call by tapping End .

Other call options

• Mute . Mutes your phone’s microphone. You will still hear the other person, but they won’t be able to hear you.
• Keypad . Displays the keypad. This is helpful if you need to select options when using an automated system.
• Audio  . Use a connected Bluetooth headset for audio or activate the speakerphone.
• Add Call +. Adds another person to your current call. In this way, three or more people can speak with one another from three or more different phones.
• Facetime   . Turns your current call into a Facetime call (between iPhone users only).
• Contacts . Accesses your list of contacts while you are making a call

Customizing how your iPhone treats specific contacts

Not all contacts are the same. You may want to allow a vulnerable family member to ring your phone no matter the time of day, or give a special ringtone to someone so you know immediately when they call.

Customizing rings for contacts

To customize rings for people in your Contacts app

1. Open Phone  .
2. Touch Contacts  and select the contact you wish to set a ring tone for.
3. Touch Edit in the top right-hand corner of the screen.
4. Scroll down and touch Ringtone.
5. Select the tone that you’d like to use.

Announcing calls

You can choose to have callers announced by name if they are in Contacts or by the number if they are not. Go to Settings > Phone  > Announce Calls and choose when you want callers announced.

Blocking callers

You can block calls, texts, and Facetime calls from your contacts list or from unknown phone numbers.

After you get a call from a number that you wish to block:

1. Open Phone .
2. Tap Recents.
3. Tap the Info  button next to the caller you want to block.
4. Tap Block this Caller.

Send unknown and spam callers to voicemail

Automated spam calls are a big problem all over the world. iPhone gives you some options to reduce the amount that gets through to you. Go to Settings > Phone, then tap any of the following:

• Silence Unknown Callers: People in your contacts, recent outgoing calls, and Siri Suggestions will ring as normal. Unknown numbers are sent to voicemail.
• Call Blocking & Identification: Turn on Silence Junk Callers (available with certain carriers) to silence calls identified by your carrier as potential spam or fraud.

Blocking a caller in your contacts

You can also block contacts.

1. Open Phone .
2. Tap Contacts  and select the contact that you wish to block.
3. Tap Block this Caller.