How to Actually Silence Spam Calls *and* Texts on iPhone

Apple’s “Silence Unknown Callers” Feature Doesn’t Cut the Mustard

It’s 3:12 AM. You are sleeping soundly in your bed. Suddenly, you awake to your iPhone buzzing. Has something gone wrong? Has there been an accident? With growing dread you reach for your phone and read the new text notification:

Congratulations! You are the winner of an Amazon prize drawing! To claim your prize, please click this completely safe and totally not phishing link…

That is obviously one of the least fun times to receive a spam text or call, but they are annoying at any hour of the day. And as cell phones continue to displace landlines, the bombardment of spam has increased dramatically. I get at least half a dozen calls/texts per day now.

Apple responded to this by introducing a feature called “Silence Unknown Callers” in iOS 13. It basically does what it says on the tin, namely sending any caller not in your Contacts directly to voicemail without alerting you (ring or vibrate). But it has two problems, one major and one minor.

Major: It doesn’t silence texts. Technically, it will silence iMessages, but since spammers use automated SMS software, not iPhones, this is useless.

Minor: Sometimes you need to toggle the feature off and on. For example, maybe you are waiting on a call from the auto shop, which is not in your contacts. While it’s not hard to toggle the feature, it is at least three taps and some scrolling (Settings->Phone->Silence Unknown Callers), which is not as handy as it might be.

Fortunately, there is a way to fix both of these issues with a feature that has been around since 2012: Do Not Disturb (DND). It just takes a little extra configuration:

Calls: Go to Settings->Do Not Disturb. Under “Allow Calls From” choose “All Contacts.” At this point, you’ve replicated the Silence Unknown Callers feature. Silenced callers still show up in your Missed calls list and can leave voicemails, but you won’t be see them until you actually look at your phone.

Texts: Unfortunately, there is no blanket option to allow texts from all Contacts. But you can do it on an individual basis. In the Contacts app, tap on the person in question. Scroll down to “Text Tone” and tap on it. Then toggle on “Emergency Bypass.” This allows them to bypass your DND setting.

Obviously, it would be tedious to do this for all your contacts, but realistically you only need to do it for the dozen or so for whom texts are time-sensitive. The other texts will still show up as unread when you look at your phone (which, if you are like most people, is a thousand times per day), they just won’t alert you with a ring or vibration.

Toggle: DND is front and center in the Control Center (same place you access your Flashlight among other items), so you just have to swipe to reveal the Control Center and tap on the big crescent moon icon to toggle DND on or off.

I have been using this setup for years and it works great for me. I don’t know if there is way to do something equivalent in Android, but if any Android-using readers out there have a method they’d like to share, you can reply to this email and I’d be happy to update the post and credit you (or not) as you prefer.