With iOS 26, Apple is lastly taking the iPhone's telephone app severely

Abstract

iOS 26 will introduce two main enhancements to the Telephone app: Name Screening and Maintain Help.
Name Screening asks unknown callers for information earlier than ringing your iPhone, whereas Maintain Help retains your house in automated telephone strains till a human agent can reply.
These updates ought to hopefully strike a blow in opposition to telephone spam and inefficient assist strains, and would possibly probably give Apple a aggressive edge over Google.

Apple has finally unveiled iOS 26, its subsequent main software program replace for the iPhone, attributable to arrive this fall in time for the iPhone 17. Throughout its WWDC 2025 keynote, the corporate was eager to attract consideration to a wide range of new options — above all its “Liquid Glass” aesthetics for icons, menus, and lockscreens. I am going to admit, it is one of many issues I am most trying ahead to, even when it will not make a major distinction in my day-to-day life. I am sucker for something that will increase telephone customization.

One factor that ought to have a sensible influence for many individuals is a pair of updates to the Telephone app: Name Screening and Maintain Help. There’s virtually no have to say something extra, primarily based on their names, however I am going to clarify them in slightly extra element anyway, together with why they matter a lot — each for customers and Apple as a enterprise. There is a sure rival that may very well be left scrambling to catch up, given its legacy of preferring a specific telephone model within the US.

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What are iOS 26’s Name Screening and Maintain Help?

How the brand new options work

ios-26-call-screening-2 — Apple / Pocket-lint

Apple / Pocket-lint

Regardless of what you is perhaps considering, Name Screening is not some type of blocking, which iOS has already supported for a number of years now. As a substitute, when the characteristic is energetic, an automatic voice asks unknown callers for his or her identify and motive for calling with out ringing your iPhone. You may select to view this course of whereas it is occurring, presumably providing you with the possibility to intervene if it is pressing.

In any other case, although, you will get an alert with the caller’s data, and the possibility to simply accept or ignore them relying on what they are saying. You may see the individual’s quantity at each level whereas this is happening, in addition to a guess at their identification if it matches acquainted data. Apple has even included the power to ship a textual content reply, within the occasion that you’ve sufficient time for that however not sufficient to speak.

Maintain Help solves one of many banes of recent existence: telephone assist strains.

Maintain Help solves one of many banes of recent existence: telephone assist strains. If you end up caught in an automatic queue, a Maintain button ought to seem within the name interface. Faucet this and iOS will maintain your place in line, notifying you when a reside human is lastly accessible. You might must be fast, thoughts — Apple’s wait detection system relies on maintain music, which tends to finish fairly abruptly. It may very well be that the human agent will lose endurance should you do not reply inside a number of seconds, on condition that their bosses are inevitably grading their efficiency.

There are another caveats to those options. The primary is that iOS 26 requires not less than an iPhone 11 or a second technology iPhone SE, so that you’re out of luck should you’re utilizing something older, like an iPhone XS.

Apple can be limiting language assist. For Name Screening, these are the supported languages and areas:

English (Australia, Canada, India, Eire, New Zealand, Puerto Rico, Singapore, South Africa, UK, US)
Cantonese (Hong Kong, Macao, mainland China)
French (Canada, France)
German (Germany)
Japanese
Korean
Mandarin (Taiwan, Macao, mainland China)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Spanish (Mexico, Puerto Rico, Spain, US)

These are the languages and areas for Maintain Help:

English (Australia, Canada, India, Singapore, UK, US),
French (France)
Spanish (Mexico, Spain, US)
German (Germany)
Portuguese (Brazil)
Japanese
Mandarin (mainland China)

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Why is all of this such a giant deal?

The Terrifying World Telephone Hellscape

A man taking a phone call on a Pixel 9. — Google

Google

Carriers and telephone makers are engaged in a unending conflict with telemarketers and different telephone spammers. There was progress, however spammers will exploit any vulnerabilities they will — hoping to catch somebody who’s gullible sufficient to simply accept a name and never instantly cling up. Relying on the place you reside, you might be bombarded with these calls a number of instances a month or a number of instances a day.

At greatest, this tends to make folks suspicious of unknown callers, and at worst, it is simple to mute professional calls in a bid to keep away from distractions by accident. There was some extent when my very own iPhone was being focused by Chinese language robocalls a number of instances per week, and I am fairly certain I muted a name from a house restore crew because of this.

With a bit of luck, Name Screening is not going to solely silence most robocalls, however most human telemarketers too. We’ll see — telemarketers can all the time lie, with robocalls, it may very well be doable to begin messages with one thing that fools iOS.

Ideally, options like Name Display and Maintain Help can be on each telephone world wide.

Maintain Help issues due to the decaying state of telephone assist strains. Many companies intentionally understaff them, hoping that sufficient calls will be dealt with by automated techniques — they by no means can. The result’s that individuals typically wait 15 to 45 minutes or extra earlier than speaking to a human, which will be an eternity should you’ve bought work, errands, or household to handle. It is a scenario that I doubt most CEOs can be prepared to place up with in the event that they did not have secretaries and private assistants.

For Apple, there’s additionally a aggressive significance to this. Google has lengthy supplied related options for Pixel house owners, dubbed Name Display and Maintain for Me. However the totally automated model of Name Display is barely accessible within the US, and Maintain for Me is restricted to the US, Australia, Canada, Japan, and the UK. Except Google will get its act collectively, that might improve the enchantment of iPhones in essential markets. And naturally, folks already within the huge iPhone person base could also be much less prone to swap to a Pixel because of this.

Ideally, options like Name Display and Maintain Help can be accessible on each telephone worldwide

Who is aware of how lengthy that can final, although. Google is usually higher at speedy iteration than Apple, so by the point iOS 26 launches (largely doubtless in mid-September), its assist may very well be on par or much more superior. Which will rely on who it is most fascinated with competing with: Apple, or just different Android telephone makers like Samsung and Motorola.

Ideally, options like Name Display and Maintain Help can be accessible on each telephone worldwide. In that sense, it will likely be some time earlier than both firm steps up its sport.