How to Stop Unknown Calls on iPhone with Live Voicemail

Using two iOS 17 features together gives you a great way to stop unknown callers on iPhone. The Live Voicemail feature pairs very well with Silence Unknown Callers. With both of these enabled, unwanted calls will be much less intrusive, but you’ll still be able to answer important calls as soon as they come in.

Here’s how to use live voicemail and silence unknown callers to avoid phone spam and other annoyances without missing crucial calls.

How to Use Live Voicemail and Silence Unknown Callers on iPhone

With Live Voicemail, a new feature in iOS 17, you don’t have to pick up your iPhone mid-call to see who’s calling or what they want. You can see a transcript of their voicemail message as it’s recorded – and you can pick up at any time, if the call is important. This feature proves transformative for introverts who want to answer a phone call only if strictly necessary.

Note: Live Voicemail is a feature in iOS 17. If you bought a new iPhone 15, you already have it. Otherwise, head to Settings > General > Software Update to get the latest version of iOS. The upgrade should take around 20 minutes after downloading, so make sure you don’t start it at the wrong time.

It’s also currently exclusive to the US and Canada, although I expect the feature to roll out to other countries over time.

Table of Contents: How to Use Live Voicemail and Silence Unknown Callers

1. Enable live voicemail in Settings > Phone
2. Send a call to live voicemail
3. Send unknown callers directly to voicemail
4. Search for voicemails in the Phone app

1. Enable live voicemail in Settings > Phone

Live voicemail should be enabled by default in iOS 17. You can make sure it’s enabled by going to Settings > Phone > Live Voicemail.

2. Send an iPhone call to Live Voicemail to help stop unknown callers

When a call comes in, you can press the Voice Messaging to send the caller directly to voicemail. You will see “Waiting…” when the caller decides whether or not to leave a message. Now that live voicemail is enabled, if they leave a message, you’ll see a live transcription as they speak. At any time you can press Accept to answer the call. (If your phone is locked, slide to answer the call.) You can also tap Message to send an SMS to the caller.

3. Send unknown callers directly to voicemail

Enabling Live Voicemail allows me to confidently re-enable Mute Unknown Callers (find it in Settings > Phone). This iPhone feature automatically rejects calls from people outside of your contacts and recent call history. This is a great way to prevent unknown calls from intruding on your quiet time. But I’ve never been comfortable with enabling this feature before because there was always this problem. slim chance that I would miss an important call.

With live voicemail and mute unknown callers enabled, spam calls won’t be as intrusive and you can easily answer calls you don’t want to miss.

4. Find your voicemails in Phone

If you want to listen to the voicemail again or call the caller back, go to Phone > Voicemail. Tap any voice message from the list. You can view a full transcript, read the message, delete it, or press the phone button to call them back.

Once you’ve set up and used Live Voicemail, you’ll want to use it anytime. You can see which calls are worth intruding on before you even pick up. This is the best way to prevent unknown callers from ruining your day.

More tips on iOS 17

Now that you’ve learned how to stop unknown calls on iPhone, do you want even more pro tips? Learn more about other new features in iMessage, FaceTime, and Phone or check out our master list of iOS 17 features.

We originally published this article on how to stop unknown calls on iPhone using live voicemail and silence unknown callers on November 14, 2024. We have updated the content.