Apple has introduced a new feature in iOS 26 that helps combat the growing problem of robocalls. The “Ask Reason for Calling” feature acts like a personal receptionist, intercepting calls from unknown numbers and asking the caller to identify themselves before the iPhone even rings. When someone who isn’t in your Contacts calls, your iPhone automatically answers with a polite automated message asking for their name and reason for calling.
The caller’s response is transcribed to text and displayed on your screen, allowing you to decide whether to accept, decline, or ask for more information. This is an upgrade from the existing “Silence Unknown Callers” option, which sends all unrecognized numbers straight to voicemail. With the new approach, legitimate callers like doctors or delivery services can identify themselves, while robocallers and spammers are likely to hang up when greeted by the automated response.
To enable “Ask Reason for Calling,” go to Settings, scroll down to “Phone,” and under the “Screen Unknown Callers” section, tap “Ask Reason for Calling.”
iOS 26 also offers two alternative approaches for handling unknown numbers:
1. Send to Voicemail: This option automatically sends all calls from unsaved numbers to voicemail. The calls still appear in your Recents list, and you’ll receive the voicemail if the caller leaves one.
2.
New call screening tools
Allow to Ring: With this setting, calls from unknown numbers ring normally, just like calls from saved contacts.
Missed calls appear in your Recents list as usual. To switch between these options, go to Settings ➝ Phone, and select your preferred option under “Screen Unknown Callers.”
The “Ask Reason for Calling” feature works best when you maintain an up-to-date Contacts list. Any number saved in Contacts will ring through normally without triggering the screening process, so make sure to add the details of legitimate contacts as soon as you know them.
While the call-screening tool is a moderate approach that should be useful for most people, there were some hiccups and awkward situations during testing. For example, some callers found it off-putting that a robot answered the phone and hung up. Apple said it was aware that it could take time for people to adapt to call-screening technology, which is why it gave users the option to turn on the feature rather than activating it by default.
As people are getting more potent tools to combat robocalls, scammers have shifted toward using text messages to impersonate job recruiters, banks, shipping companies, and old friends. To address this, Apple and Google offer tools that automatically detect and filter scam texts into a folder labeled spam. Apple users can activate the text-filtering tool inside the settings for the Messages app, while for Android users with Google Messages, the spam filter is turned on by default.
