How to silence every single spam call on your iPhone, forever

The deluge of spam calls that many people receive every single week is absolutely maddening. Even more frustrating is that the folks behind these seemingly endless calls are getting tricker. As a prime example, many spam calls now show up from numbers that look remarkably similar to the recipient’s number. This makes it seem that the incoming call is actually legitimate.

The good news, though, is that it’s possible to adjust a few settings on your iPhone and prevent spam calls from interrupting your day.

How iPhone users can prevent spam calls

The ability for iPhone users to silence unknown calls has been around for a few years. It originally debuted with iOS 13 but is still not as widely known as it should be. Before getting into how to activate the feature to block spam calls, here’s how it works.

As Apple details, the Silence Unknown Callers feature prevents calls from numbers that aren’t in your list of contacts. If an unknown number tries to reach you, it will go straight to voicemail. You’ll see a voicemail notification if you look, but you won’t see a call-incoming notification.

However, Apple also notes the following about preventing spam calls: “If you’ve previously texted with someone using their phone number or if a person has shared their phone number with you in an email, a phone call from that number will go through.”

Image source: Zach Epstein for BGR

Additionally, if a user makes an emergency call, the feature will temporarily turn itself off for 24 hours to make sure that incoming calls go through. This is a great instance of Apple paying attention to the details.

To activate the feature, open the Settings app. Next, scroll down a bit until you see the Phone preferences pane. Once there, all you have to do is toggle the Silence Unknown Callers into the on position.

And from there, you can go about your day and use your iPhone in peace without having to worry about frustrating interruptions. Lastly, we recently compiled a list of 12 iPhone tricks you might not be aware of. If you’re looking to get the most out of your iPhone, it’s definitely worth checking out.