What is Call Screening? How to Screen Call on Android & iPhone

Call screening is the latest hit in the telecommunication industry. It lets you filter out people that you want to avoid communicating with on the phone like telemarketers and scam callers. Call screening allows you to accept, block, or turn down specific contacts. Not only this, but these applications also keep spam or robocalls at bay. Also, call screening software can pick up real person calls or send them to voicemail automatically.

How does call screening work?

In its basic form, call screening displays a caller ID on your phone. The ID typically includes the caller’s name and phone number. Sometimes, it may also show the contact as unknown or blocked. Based on that information, you can decide whether you want to accept/decline a call or send it to voicemail.

In its advanced form, a call screening app will let you define a set of rules to manage all the incoming calls before they even make it to your phone. For example, advance call screening features lets you receive calls only from a specific locality and send all the other calls to voicemail.

For the uninitiated, all this is only possible through CNAM (“Caller Name”) databases. These databases contain phone numbers and network information of their registered members. Every time a call is made, the contact details of the caller are cross-referenced between the CNAM databases of both the caller and callee.

Next, the phone network of the person receiving the call will run the incoming call through a CNAM database and perform their desired operation on it (accept, decline, or send to voicemail).

At present, Google Pixel 1, 2, 3, iPhone iOS 13+, and all Android phones support call screening.

How to Screen Calls on Your Android Phone

Note: To use Google Phone app’s call screening, make sure third party call or screen recording apps are off.

1. Open the Phone app. Make sure it’s the latest version.

2. Tap the More icon on top right corner>Settings>Spam and Call Screen

3.Check to see that See caller and spam ID is on.

4. Tap Call Screen

5. In the Unknown call settings page, choose the types of calls to call screen.

6. Select the options that apply to you:

• Automatically screen. Decline robocalls.
• Ring phone
• Silently decline.

The automatically screen selection will notify you when the app is screening a call.

• Google Assistant will answer the call and ask who’s calling and why. If Google Assistant determines the call is a spam or robocall, it will hand up the call for you.
• If it is not a spam or robocall, your phone will ring and show you the caller’s response to the Assistant.
• After that, your GA will create an actual transcript of the caller’s response.
• Based on that response, you can choose whether you want to accept/decline the call or send it to voicemail.

How to screen calls on an iPhone?

Here are the instructions below for iPhones with iOS 13 or higher:

1. Go to Settings>Phone
2. Scroll down, tap Silence Unknown Callers
3. Turn on the feature by sliding the toggle

Or, you can download an app to filter out spam calls. Here’s the steps:

1. Find an app that detects and blocks spam phone calls in the App Store. Download the app.
2. Go to Settings>Phone
3. Go to Call Blocking and Identification
4. In Allow These Apps to Block Calls and Provide Caller ID, turn on the app you’ve downloaded in step 1.

Calls from unknown numbers will not ring and will go to your voicemail in your recent calls list. Only numbers in your contacts list, recent calls list, and Siri suggestions can call you.

What are the benefits of call screening?

There are a myriad of benefits of using call screening software. Below we will discuss the most useful ones:

Customer Retention

Call screening is directly linked with increased customer retention. This is because it provides quick responses to client queries and eliminates delays. This ultimately builds their trust in your service.

Time Efficient

Call screening apps offer a range of handy features to take pressure off the agents. For example, they direct the calls to the right departments, removing the possibility of misplaced calls. This saves a lot of your precious time which can you can focus on other valuable activities.

Low Call Center Abandonment Rate

The auto-attendant feature of these applications can respond to calls 24/7. This results in improved agent performance and reduced call center abandonment rates.

Fewer Spam Calls

Because call screening apps can identify spam calls, you will hardly receive these annoying calls. Instead, only genuine callers that you want to talk with will make it through the program.

Enhanced Privacy and Security

Call screening apps offer increased privacy and security. These apps use the latest technology to ensure privacy of your calls and to keep the phone conversation only between you and the caller.

What are some useful call screening features for businesses to look for?

Picking the right call screening software can be a draining task. Yet, if you know what features to look for, finding the best one takes minimal effort. Below, we discuss the top features that set apart elite call screening software from ordinary ones to help you make the right purchase. Let’s dive in.

Caller ID

Caller ID is the first thing to look for in call screening software. This is because it lets you know who is calling you right away. Based on the caller’s ID, you can decide whether you want to take the call or send it to voicemail.

Robocalls

Robocalls are annoying and often come at the wrong time. And this isn’t even the worst part. The majority of robocalls are backed by phone carriers which makes them unavoidable. They are a massive headache. Thus, your call screening software must be able to identify and block robocalls before they even reach your phone.

Call Routing

Call routing is another significant feature of these apps. It eliminates the need of putting incoming callers on hold and connects them instantly to the right agent or department.

Remote Call Forwarding

RCF is a revolutionary feature which makes life easy for both agents and the callers. It gives you the freedom to connect incoming calls to other phone numbers if your call center representatives are away from their phones.

For example, if an agent is away from their desk and a phone call hits their office phone, RCF enables you to transfer this call to their personal phone after a few phone rings.

Call Blocking

Call blocking lets you block unwanted calls. Additionally, you can play a recorded message to the blocked callers to prevent them from calling again.

Do Not Disturb

When an agent is unavailable or can’t receive calls for some reason, then Do Not Disturb mode will pass the callers to voicemail automatically. You can turn this mode off when your agents are back available.

Text to speech messaging

This is an important feature for businesses to manage incoming calls when the agents are away. Using this feature, you can send customized voice messages to the callers with the relevant information they need to hear.

Automatic Call Screening/Auto Attendant

According to a study, about 80% of business take place on the phone. Also, 8 out of 10 callers will hang up and move to somewhere else if no-one answers their calls. With that said, it’s impossible to have an agent available 24/7 as it’s impractical and costly. But you can solve this problem through automatic call screening or auto attendant.

An auto attendant responds to the callers according to their needs and makes up for the absence of the agents.

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How to Screen Calls on Your Android Phone

Note: To use Google Phone app’s call screening, make sure third party call or screen recording apps are off.

1. Open the Phone app. Make sure it’s the latest version.

2. Tap the More icon on top right corner>Settings>Spam and Call Screen

3.Check to see that See caller and spam ID is on.

4. Tap Call Screen

5. In the Unknown call settings page, choose the types of calls to call screen.

6. Select the options that apply to you:

• Automatically screen. Decline robocalls.
• Ring phone
• Silently decline.

The automatically screen selection will notify you when the app is screening a call.

• Google Assistant will answer the call and ask who’s calling and why. If Google Assistant determines the call is a spam or robocall, it will hand up the call for you.
• If it is not a spam or robocall, your phone will ring and show you the caller’s response to the Assistant.
• After that, your GA will create an actual transcript of the caller’s response.
• Based on that response, you can choose whether you want to accept/decline the call or send it to voicemail.

How to screen calls on an iPhone?

Here are the instructions below for iPhones with iOS 13 or higher:

1. Go to Settings>Phone
2. Scroll down, tap Silence Unknown Callers
3. Turn on the feature by sliding the toggle

Or, you can download an app to filter out spam calls. Here’s the steps:

1. Find an app that detects and blocks spam phone calls in the App Store. Download the app.
2. Go to Settings>Phone
3. Go to Call Blocking and Identification
4. In Allow These Apps to Block Calls and Provide Caller ID, turn on the app you’ve downloaded in step 1.

Calls from unknown numbers will not ring and will go to your voicemail in your recent calls list. Only numbers in your contacts list, recent calls list, and Siri suggestions can call you.

What are the benefits of call screening?

There are a myriad of benefits of using call screening software. Below we will discuss the most useful ones:

Customer Retention

Call screening is directly linked with increased customer retention. This is because it provides quick responses to client queries and eliminates delays. This ultimately builds their trust in your service.

Time Efficient

Call screening apps offer a range of handy features to take pressure off the agents. For example, they direct the calls to the right departments, removing the possibility of misplaced calls. This saves a lot of your precious time which can you can focus on other valuable activities.

Low Call Center Abandonment Rate

The auto-attendant feature of these applications can respond to calls 24/7. This results in improved agent performance and reduced call center abandonment rates.

Fewer Spam Calls

Because call screening apps can identify spam calls, you will hardly receive these annoying calls. Instead, only genuine callers that you want to talk with will make it through the program.

Enhanced Privacy and Security

Call screening apps offer increased privacy and security. These apps use the latest technology to ensure privacy of your calls and to keep the phone conversation only between you and the caller.

What are some useful call screening features for businesses to look for?

Picking the right call screening software can be a draining task. Yet, if you know what features to look for, finding the best one takes minimal effort. Below, we discuss the top features that set apart elite call screening software from ordinary ones to help you make the right purchase. Let’s dive in.

Caller ID

Caller ID is the first thing to look for in call screening software. This is because it lets you know who is calling you right away. Based on the caller’s ID, you can decide whether you want to take the call or send it to voicemail.

Robocalls

Robocalls are annoying and often come at the wrong time. And this isn’t even the worst part. The majority of robocalls are backed by phone carriers which makes them unavoidable. They are a massive headache. Thus, your call screening software must be able to identify and block robocalls before they even reach your phone.

Call Routing

Call routing is another significant feature of these apps. It eliminates the need of putting incoming callers on hold and connects them instantly to the right agent or department.

Remote Call Forwarding

RCF is a revolutionary feature which makes life easy for both agents and the callers. It gives you the freedom to connect incoming calls to other phone numbers if your call center representatives are away from their phones.

For example, if an agent is away from their desk and a phone call hits their office phone, RCF enables you to transfer this call to their personal phone after a few phone rings.

Call Blocking

Call blocking lets you block unwanted calls. Additionally, you can play a recorded message to the blocked callers to prevent them from calling again.

Do Not Disturb

When an agent is unavailable or can’t receive calls for some reason, then Do Not Disturb mode will pass the callers to voicemail automatically. You can turn this mode off when your agents are back available.

Text to speech messaging

This is an important feature for businesses to manage incoming calls when the agents are away. Using this feature, you can send customized voice messages to the callers with the relevant information they need to hear.

Automatic Call Screening/Auto Attendant

According to a study, about 80% of business take place on the phone. Also, 8 out of 10 callers will hang up and move to somewhere else if no-one answers their calls. With that said, it’s impossible to have an agent available 24/7 as it’s impractical and costly. But you can solve this problem through automatic call screening or auto attendant.

An auto attendant responds to the callers according to their needs and makes up for the absence of the agents.

Call screening for businesses with Textr

We will soon release Textr with call screening features for small businesses. It will be a VoIP business texting app that will allow businesses to send texts to their customers. The app will revolutionize the way businesses communicate with customers and call screening is a feature we look forward to implementing soon!

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Is there any call screening app with a text message feature for businesses?

Currently, there are business phone system apps like RingCentral, HeyMarket, and Openphone that have call screening. Using these apps, businesses are able to send unknown callers a text, asking them to identify who they are.

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Is call screening compatible with Google Voice?

Yes, call screening is compatible with not only Google Voice but also Google Assistant, Google Call, and Google phone. When you receive a call on Google supported devices, Google Voice will read the caller’s name out loud.

After hearing the name, you can either accept the call by pressing 1 or send it to voicemail by pressing 2. Now the caller will leave a message. If the message is important and you want to talk to them, then proceed by pressing star (*) symbol.

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