Apple’s Best New iOS 26 Feature Has Been on Pixel Phones for Years

Ever since I was a child, I’ve despised answering nan telephone erstwhile an chartless number calls. Who could beryllium connected nan different end? Literally anyone: an acquaintance, a telemarketer, a serial slayer who’s menacingly breathing into nan mouthpiece.

While Apple’s upcoming Liquid Glass refresh successful iOS 26 is apt to beryllium nan astir instantly noticeable facet of nan package update arsenic it starts rolling retired to nan nationalist connected September 15, I judge a smaller summation successful iOS 26 mightiness moreover person a bigger effect connected really iPhone owners usage their devices.

The iPhone is yet getting telephone screening. Hallelujah. At launch, nan characteristic will support calls coming successful from 9 languages, including English, Spanish, and Japanese.

Once your iPhone updates to iOS 26, you tin opt successful and person nan package automatically surface calls that travel from chartless numbers. In this case, an chartless number is immoderate telephone number you haven’t interacted pinch before.

When your telephone automatically picks up nan call, a robotic voice asks nan caller for their sanction arsenic good arsenic why they want to get successful interaction pinch you. Only aft that accusation is collected, nan iPhone will ringing and show you these specifications successful a notification bubble truthful you tin determine whether to answer.

I was ecstatic to spot this caller action arsenic I experimented pinch a beta type of iOS 26. I’m perpetually getting calls from truthful galore chartless numbers that I’ve wholly fixed up answering nan telephone for anyone not saved successful my contacts list.

With nan imminent merchandise of iOS 26, I tin make informed decisions to disregard aliases reply these calls. And while astir of nan calls will still beryllium ignored, I nary longer person to hold until nan caller starts leaving a voicemail and nan unrecorded transcription appears connected nan surface to make a decision.

Call screening will beryllium caller for iPhones owners this fall, but users of immoderate Android smartphones, for illustration Google’s Pixel, person had a type of this tool, named Call Screen, disposable to them for years. Lyubov Farafonova, a merchandise head astatine Google, says successful a connection emailed to WIRED that millions of Pixel users are utilizing nan characteristic successful nan US alone. “It is 1 of our instrumentality favourite features,” she says.

Since its merchandise of telephone screening successful 2018, Google has worked to make nan synthetic sound sound much earthy for incoming callers. It’s besides started showing applicable replies arsenic tappable options while nan screening is successful advancement truthful users tin easy pass pinch chartless callers without really answering nan phone. Further leaning into this feature, Google plans to rotation retired telephone screening to further markets this fall.

“Pixel 10 owners successful India tin commencement experimenting pinch nan beta type of manual Call Screen. This characteristic will beryllium initially moving successful English and Hindi, pinch much languages and dialects connected nan way,” Farafonova says. “It will person a functionality to not only transcribe but besides construe what nan caller says to nan Call Screen bot, to make life easier for those who don’t speak nan aforesaid connection arsenic nan caller.” Options for telephone screenings, manual aliases automatic, are coming soon to Pixel owners successful Australia, Canada, Ireland, and nan UK arsenic well.