New iOS 13 feature uses Siri smarts to thwart spam calls

Apple is looking to combat pesky spam callers in iOS 13 with a new Siri-powered feature that weeds out and silences calls from unknown numbers, sending them directly to voicemail.

Word of the optional setting is secreted away deep within Apple's iOS 13 feature preview webpage, published after the company's Worldwide Developers Conference keynote on Monday.

Aptly named "Silence unknown callers," the feature protects users from spammers, an increasing nuisance to cellphone owners in the U.S. and beyond. A bane for many, spam callers are utilizing increasingly complex methods like number spoofing and automated services to bypass third-party screening tools and trick users into answering.

Apple's solution does not eliminate the annoying calls, but it does offer users some respite.

When enabled, Silence unknown callers "uses Siri intelligence to allow calls to ring your phone from numbers in Contacts, Mail, and Messages," Apple says. Calls from numbers not recognized by Siri are automatically routed to voicemail.

While the brief description fails to detail the feature's mechanics, it is believed that calls from strangers will not prompt an audio alert or trigger a haptic event, allowing users to review voicemails — and voicemail transcripts — at their leisure. The calls are also unlikely to result in an onscreen notification beyond receipt of a voicemail, if one is recorded.

The feature might not be workable for some iPhone owners as it effectively puts a blanket ban on calls from strangers. For users afflicted by serial spam calls, however, the concession might be worth the peace and quiet.

28 Comments

ktappe 824 comments · 16 Years

About 5 years ago

Why would this require Siri? It's simply referencing the incoming # against a database. It's extremely straightforward from an engineering perspective.

flydog 1140 comments · 14 Years

Guess you missed this part:

When enabled, Silence unknown callers "uses Siri intelligence to allow calls to ring your phone from numbers in Contacts, Mail, and Messages.”

EsquireCats 1268 comments · 8 Years

ktappe said:

Why would this require Siri? It's simply referencing the incoming # against a database. It's extremely straightforward from an engineering perspective.

Siri is the name of a variety of AI-based technologies. In iOS12 "siri" reviews your mail and messages for data that looks like phone numbers, email address and the like and presents these to the user as needed. For example when receiving a call from a number not in your contacts, Siri may furnish a message "Maybe: PERSONS NAME", where that name has been automatically gathered from a email/message source. Similarly these contact details can be easily added to existing or new contacts.

This new feature likely takes that existing iOS 12 capability and provides it with the skill to automatically reject unfamiliar numbers/facetimes. There is an expectation that the feature does a little more to thwart spam calls, since Apple would be able to gather a statistical model of spoofed phone numbers.

hagar 132 comments · 16 Years

EsquireCats said:

ktappe said:

Why would this require Siri? It's simply referencing the incoming # against a database. It's extremely straightforward from an engineering perspective.

Siri is the name of a variety of AI-based technologies. In iOS12 "siri" reviews your mail and messages for data that looks like phone numbers, email address and the like and presents these to the user as needed. For example when receiving a call from a number not in your contacts, Siri may furnish a message "Maybe: PERSONS NAME", where that name has been automatically gathered from a email/message source. Similarly these contact details can be easily added to existing or new contacts.

This new feature likely takes that existing iOS 12 capability and provides it with the skill to automatically reject unfamiliar numbers/facetimes. There is an expectation that the feature does a little more to thwart spam calls, since Apple would be able to gather a statistical model of spoofed phone numbers.

Collecting phone numbers from several sources and reference that list when a call comes in. Not sure if that counts as AI, seems more like a marketing gimmick to call it Siri.

kevin kee 1289 comments · 10 Years

I would call the ability to distinguish a certain pattern (in this case phone numbers and its related references as opposed to any random numbers) an AI since it requires a neural logic learning.