You often receive calls from unknown numbers, either from marketers or government bodies that want to give or ask for important information. While you don’t want to miss these calls, there is a possibility that you end up picking up sales calls that are not only annoying but a waste of time! To counteract this issue, call screening is a great option!
In the contemporary world, mobile calls have inadvertently become an important part of our lives. We call to say “Happy Birthday”, “I’ve just reached”, or “Hope to see you soon”. These personal numbers have become a part of our identity. But unfortunately, this data is being misused by telemarketers for promotional messages. As a result, our privacy is being infringed.
This is where call screening plays an integral role and how it can help us stay away from unwanted calls. To make the best use of this feature, we’ll understand:
- What is called screening and how does it work?
- What are the benefits of call screening?
- How do you set up call screening on your phone?
- Is call screening and caller ID the same thing?
Without further ado, let’s get started.
Table of Contents
What is Call Screening?
We wouldn’t be wrong if we say that nobody likes receiving a spam call! It is not only annoying but a waste of time, which is precious in today’s competitive world. According to an article published in Forbes, every day, approximately 84% of businesses receive spam calls; each incident costs them $9.46 during lost time! The issue is not as small as it seems, hence, you need to pay attention to this matter.
Call screening is the process of screening or vetting out the calls before answering them. The process involves identifying the phone numbers and deciding the course of action using this information. Through screening, you can view the caller’s name and number before picking up the call.
There are two types of screening – basic and advanced.
Basic Call Screening
In basic screening, you can see the caller’s name and number on your phone or collaboration app. Sometimes, you can see the caller’s name; at other times, it may be seen as an unknown caller or blocked; hence, you can decide whether to take the call or not!
Advanced Call Screening
With the advanced call screen option, you can set and decide what calls you would pick. For instance, you can set up options and pick calls from local area code or unknown calls while the rest of the calls can be forwarded to voicemail.
How Does it Work?
The primary role of this feature is to identify unknown callers and initiate the response, like sending it to the voicemail, blocking the call, displaying the caller’s name, or receiving the call. Here is the breakdown of the steps that the process of Android and iPhone call screen takes-
Step 1: Receive the Caller’s Number
The first step is getting the caller’s name whenever you receive a call. You can have a third-party app installed on your phone that also gives you the caller’s name after searching it from their database.
Step 2: Identify the Caller’s Name
As the caller ID information is retrieved from the CNAM (Caller Name) service, it is easy to retrieve the complete information. When a call is received from an unknown number, the receiver’s CNAM service contacts the caller’s CNAM service, and the number is automatically searched in the CNAM database.
Step 3: Prompt For the Caller’s Name
If your CNAM service has identified the caller’s name, it will be displayed; however, if it is unable to do so, as some callers may be using VOIP wherein they can edit their details, the system will send IVR prompts before you receive the call and can act accordingly.
Step 4: Identify Spam Status
Once the call forwarding service is activated, any spam calls can be detected easily in the robocall database. This way, you can know beforehand if the number is spam or if it is blocked!
Step 5: Automated Action
If you have a phone call screen feature on and have set automatic restrictions, half of your stress will vanish. In case of unknown calls, your phone will reject the call, forward it to the IVR, send a text message, or forward it to another number.
Step 6: Forward to Live Agents
In case the call gets forwarded to the live agents, the system will showcase the caller ID so that you can choose what action needs to be taken.
What Are the Benefits of Call Screening in Today’s World?
Apart from saving you from the hassle of taking unwanted calls, call screening has immense benefits, which includes-
- Timesaving: The call screen features automatically block unwanted calls like spam and blocked numbers, which saves a lot of time to focus on calls that you are waiting for!
- Enhances Efficiency: Using this feature, the calls are reached directly to the intended receiver; for instance, the calls are forwarded to IVR in case of advanced call screening.
- Reduces Spam: This is one of the best ways to reduce spam. With call forwarding, calls are already filtered and save a lot of time and energy.
- High Security: With this feature, the annoying spammers and unknown callers are reduced, which elevates the security and saves you from fraud.
How to Setup Call Screening?
It is an important feature that allows you to maintain privacy, ensure safety, and saves you from annoying, unwanted calls. It is easy to set up call screening on your Android and iPhone. Just follow these steps, and voila!
Android Phone
– Open the ‘Phone’ app.
– Go to ‘Settings’
– Choose ‘Spam and Call Screen’.
– Tap on ‘See Caller and Spam ID’
– Select the ‘Call Screen’ option.
– Choose the ‘Unknown Call Settings’; here, you can choose the calls you want to block/screen.
– You can also select ‘Automatically Screen’
iPhone Method
If you want to set up call screening on your iPhone or iPad, follow these simple steps and get started!
- Open ‘Voice App’ on your device.
- Tap ‘Menu’ on the top left corner.
- Go to ‘Settings’.
- Choose ‘Calls’, select ‘Screen Calls’, and turn it ‘on’.
In case you don’t want to screen your calls, you can turn it ‘off’.
Optional Responses When Screening Calls
- People whose contacts are not saved on your Google contact list are asked to state their names before they are connected to your phone. This way, you can hear their names when they call; once you save this contact in the Google contact list, this issue will vanish automatically.
- Those businesses that are present on Google are not asked to give their names as the names are recognized easily and will be revealed on the screen every time, they call you.
Conclusion
Call screening is an important feature that lets you filter your calls and eliminate unwanted calls from marketers and spammers. Calls from unknown callers become an issue if you are engaged in an important task and have to leave your work to attend calls that aren’t even related to your business. In this case, call screening on Android and iPhone is a perfect solution to screen all the annoying unwanted calls.
We understood that there are two types of call screening, i.e., basic call screening and advanced call screening. While basic call screening informs you about the name and phone number of the caller, the advanced call screening allows you to set options to receive calls from certain areas or people so that calls can forwarded to voicemail.
Call screening not only saves your time and enhances your efficiency, but also protects you from spam calls and helps maintain your safety from fraud. The feature saves you time by screening entertaining calls from marketers. The feature is available on Android and iPhone and can be activated easily.
In the case of an Android phone, go to ‘Settings’ > ‘Spam and Call Screen’ > ‘Caller and Spam ID’ > ‘Call Screen’ > ‘Unknown Call Settings’. In the case of an iPhone or iPad, go to ‘Voice App’ > ‘Menu’ > ‘Settings’ > ‘Calls’ > ‘Screen Calls’.
Call screening is a great option if you are looking for an effective way to vet unwanted calls. It is right on your phone and must be used efficiently to get rid of nuisance calls from unknown numbers.
In case you have other options to filter calls from unwanted numbers, let us know.
