iOS has two settings that sound similar but behave very differently. Knowing the difference saves you from losing customer calls.
Option 1: Silence Unknown Callers
Settings → Phone → Silence Unknown Callers
When on: any number not in your contacts, not in recent outgoing calls, and not in Siri Suggestions (learned from Mail / Messages) is sent directly to voicemail. Your phone never rings, vibrates, or shows a notification.
Problem: legitimate new customers are unknown by definition. A homeowner who finds you on Google is going straight to voicemail - and she's calling the next plumber on the list ten seconds later.
Option 2: Focus mode with Contacts Only
Settings → Focus → [your Focus] → Allow Calls From → Contacts Only
When on + Focus active: the phone silences the ringer for non-contacts. The call still rings - you just don't hear it. After ~20-24 seconds of silent ring it goes to voicemail (or forwards, if you've set that up).
Less blunt than Silence Unknown Callers, but still kills emergency calls because you don't know they're happening.
The real fix: forward to a screening service
Neither iOS setting solves the actual problem: you want unknown callers screened, not silenced. The only way to do that is conditional call forwarding at the carrier level - unknown → screener → you-or-voicemail depending on what they say.
Our recommended iPhone setup
- Enable Silence Unknown Callers (Settings → Phone)
- Dial these three carrier codes to forward silenced calls to VettedCalls:
**61*YOUR_VETTEDCALLS_NUMBER#**62*YOUR_VETTEDCALLS_NUMBER#**67*YOUR_VETTEDCALLS_NUMBER#
*71and*90instead - see the full list) - Save your VettedCalls number as a contact named "📞 VettedCalls - DO NOT BLOCK" so it never hits its own filter
- Import your existing customer contacts so known callers bypass the screener entirely
Total setup time: ~10 minutes. Get started - 50% off →