Hacker News Reader

Comment by MR4D | Hacker News Reader

Select "Silence unknown callers" and you're done.

Last month I had a flurry of spam texts and calls. I moved the slider to the "enable" side a few weeks ago and have had zero issues since.

View on HN

I would have this on if it wasn't for the fact that I get calls from delivery drivers, who all have unknown numbers, and for whom the notification must be immediate.

I'm always paranoid that I'm going to miss a call from one of the million numbers that come from my kiddo's school.

That and our doctors' offices are starting to call from random numbers. Sigh

Buy a Twilio number that forwards to your real number. Then whoever has that number can call it, and it will ring you from the known Twilio number. Add to address book and voila!

This is a simple and neat idea. I'll try it on the weekend.

Do spammers not call Twilio numbers?

I assume the spammers buy "known active real person phone numbers" from somewhere (probably the awful carriers themselves), so it might be less likely for them to find a new Twilio number. But as soon as you give the phone number to some company that sells (or accidentally leaks) their customer data, that number will be burned too.

I don't know about calls, but I definitely get spam SMSes on my persistent Twilio SMS numbers.

It's strange they don't have some API that would let Lyft or Doordash or whoever provide caller ID for this use case.

My carrier has an option that forces unknown callers to enter a 2 digit number to proceed with call. I add known contacts to my list online and they don't get the prompt. Works well, however I now get a lot of spam texts which it doesn't work for.

This is a great feature but it's a huge double-edged sword. I need to remember to turn it off when I'm expecting a call from an unpredictable number, and then I need to remember to turn it back on again after I receive the call. It would be great if I could turn it off for some number of hours or days.

I've had the same issue if I am expecting a call but not sure what number it will ne. But iIf you already know the number, adding that to contacts will solve the problem ?

Numbers I didn’t know and had to turn off “silence unknown callers”… recruiters/hiring managers, freight deliveries, doctors, pharmacy.

The feature mostly works, but needing to remember to disable it when a call is expected is annoying.

I use a Google Voice number for all of my delivery, business, etc phone calls. It has built in verbal call screening and the smarter spam filtering, and thus my personal iPhone # can be exclusive for my white listed personal calls.

Sadly, soo many services refuse to accept Voice numbers. Most recent example: I tried to submit positive feedback to an airline and their form rejects any Google Voice numbers, mandating a "real" phone number instead.

True. Would they accept Ooma number? Wish I could pay like $5/month for a forward only number that worked everywhere.

I use GV also and use call screening. But it still rings through for me quite a bit with spam, so I now keep DND turned on, and if I get VMs then I return the call. Not ideal, but better than giving out my real phone number.

My strategy is to have my voicemail say that I don't get calls from unknown numbers and to text or call again if it is urgent.

I think this strategy would be a winner if I thought that most people would bother listening to my mailbox message.

I do this.

I missed a hospital calling about a family member. They should have left a voicemail, but they didn't.

People always say this but if this is true:

1) You have a kid AND 2) You're not currently looking right at that kid

Then you need to pick up calls from random numbers basically every time. Just the way life is.

For those of you that want to learn more about this feature, Apple has a page describing how it works as well as how calls get through.

It’s a simple read and worth the minute or so if you use the feature.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32757077

Hospitals and MDs often use unrecognizable phone numbers, you may want to receive those.

What is unknown? Someone not in your contacts? That’s just not feasible, I receive a lot of first time callers especially from work.

Be sure to turn it back off when you're waiting for a call to come in from the plumber, A/C tech, etc.

I forgot this was turned on and missed a call from a recruiter once.

They didn't leave a voicemail? Weird of them to leave money on the table like that for the sake of a few extra seconds.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com