9. Make and Receive Calls with an iPhone

Although your iPhone is capable of handling a wide range of tasks, one of its core purposes is to serve as a feature-packed cell phone. Your iPhone makes and receives voice calls using a cellular network that’s operated by the service provider you selected when the phone was activated. The Phone app that comes preinstalled on your iPhone offers a vast selection of calling features that make it easy to stay in touch with people.

After you set up and activate your new iPhone with a cellular service provider and choose a calling plan, the iPhone is capable of receiving incoming calls and enables you to make outgoing calls using the Phone app.

In the United States, a growing number of popular cellular service providers offer iPhone compatibility. When you purchase an iPhone, you must decide in advance which wireless service provider to sign up with (a two-year service agreement with a hefty early termination fee is typically involved). You can, however, purchase an “unlocked” iPhone with no service contract, and then pay a month-to-month fee for service. This requires you to pay an unsubsidized price for the iPhone and then pay between $30 and $120 per month for voice, data, and text services.

Choose a wireless service provider that offers the best coverage in your area, the most competitively priced calling plan based on your needs, and the extra features you want or need. When looking at coverage area maps for various service providers, focus on 4G LTE coverage, as opposed to 3G or plain 4G service.

Not all wireless service providers enable iPhone users to talk and surf the Web at the same time. Likewise, some offer better international roaming coverage than others, while some are more generous when it comes to monthly wireless data allocation.

Keep in mind that the iPhone hardware is slightly different based on which wireless service provider you choose, so you typically can’t switch providers after you’ve acquired the iPhone.

To control the volume of the ringer, press the Volume Up or Volume Down buttons on the side of your iPhone; or to turn off the ringer (which causes the phone to vibrate when an incoming call is received), turn on the Mute button on the side of the iPhone.

There are several ways to answer an incoming call. If you’re doing something else on your iPhone and it starts to ring, the caller ID for the incoming caller appears, along with a green-and-white Accept button and a red-and-white Decline icon (as shown in Figure 9.1). Tap the Accept button to answer the call. If you tap Decline or wait too long to answer, the call automatically goes to voicemail.

If you’re using your iPhone with EarPods, ear buds, or a headset with a built-in microphone, you can answer an incoming call by pressing the Accept button on the headset.

If the iPhone is in Sleep mode (or on the Lock screen and locked) when an incoming call is received, unlock the phone by swiping your finger from left to right on the Slide to Answer slider, which automatically takes the phone out of Sleep mode, unlocks it, and answers the incoming call (shown in Figure 9.2). Notice that the iPhone’s Lock screen displays the Remind Me and Message icons but does not display an Accept or Decline button.

After you answer an incoming call, you have a few additional options. You can hold the iPhone up to your ear and start talking, or you can tap the Speaker icon to use your iPhone as a speakerphone. You can also use the phone with a wired or Bluetooth (wireless) headset, which offers hands-free operation. The headset option is ideal when you’re driving, plus it offers privacy (versus using the iPhone’s speakerphone option).

When using a Bluetooth headset, you don’t need to hold the phone up to your ear to carry on a conversation. If you’re using a headset, tap on the headset’s answer button when you receive an incoming call to answer it. There’s no need to do anything on your iPhone.

When you’re in a compatible car (or in a vehicle equipped with an iPhone Hands-Free Kit), take advantage of the vehicle’s CarPlay or Hands-Free compatibility. This enables your phone to link to your vehicle and use the in-dash infotainment system or stereo system to make and receive calls, utilizing your vehicle’s built-in microphone and stereo system speakers to interact with the other party. The call is still handled by your iPhone, but the iPhone is operated hands-free (and eyes-free).

To set up this feature, launch Settings, tap on the General option, and then tap on the Handoff & Suggested Apps option. From the Handoff & Suggested Apps submenu, turn on the virtual switch that’s associated with the Handoff option. Next, repeat this process on your iPad.

When the feature is turned on, your iPhone automatically maintains a wireless link to your iPad and/or Mac. When an incoming call is received, all connected devices ring, Caller ID information is displayed, and you can Accept or Decline the call from any connected device.

On the iPad or Mac, the tablet or computer acts like a speakerphone by taking advantage of the built-in microphone and speaker(s). You can also pair a Bluetooth wireless headset to your iPad and/or Mac.

To initiate a call from your iPad or Mac via your iPhone and the Handoff feature, tap on any displayed phone number from within the Contacts, Calendar, or Safari apps (on your iPad or Mac), for example, to initiate a call to that number using the computer or tablet you’re currently working with.

When turned on, a moon icon is displayed on the iPhone’s or iPad’s status bar, and all calls and alerts are silenced.

This feature can be turned on or off at any time, or you can schedule specific times you want Do Not Disturb to be activated, such as between 11:00 p.m. and 7:00 a.m. on weekdays. From the Do Not Disturb menu in Settings (shown in Figure 9.5), you can also determine whether certain callers are allowed to reach you when the phone is in Do Not Disturb mode.

Keep in mind that when your iPhone is turned off, all incoming calls are forwarded directly to voicemail, and it is not possible to initiate an outgoing call. Likewise, incoming text messages, FaceTime calls, and other communications from the outside world are not accepted when an iPhone is turned off, in Do Not Disturb mode, or in Airplane mode. Instead, notifications for these missed messages are displayed in Notification Center (depending on how you set up Notification Center), within their respective apps, and potentially on the Lock screen when you turn on the device or turn off Airplane mode.

Here’s a summary of the command icons available to you from the Call In Progress screen during a phone conversation:

Mute—Tap on this icon to turn off your iPhone’s microphone. You can still hear what’s being said to you, but the person you’re speaking with cannot hear you. When you’re ready to be heard again, turn off the Mute feature by tapping on this icon again.

Keypad—Replace the current menu screen with the numeric telephone keypad. This is necessary for navigating your way through voicemail trees (for example, when you’re told to press 1 for English, press 2 to speak with an operator, press 3 to track an order, and so on).

Speaker (or Audio Source)—Tap the Speaker icon to switch from Handset mode (in which you hold the iPhone up to your ear to have a phone conversation) to Speaker mode, which turns your iPhone into a speakerphone. If you’re using your iPhone with a Bluetooth headset, a third Headset option (which may be listed as Headset, or the name of your headset) is displayed, and this menu feature is labeled Audio as opposed to Speaker.

Add Call (+)—During a conversation with someone, you can initiate a conference call and bring a third party into the conversation by tapping on Add Call, as described later in this chapter.

FaceTime—If the person to whom you’re talking is also using an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, and both devices have access to an Internet connection, tap on the FaceTime icon to switch from a traditional phone call to a real-time video call using the FaceTime app. This is a free service.

Contacts—While you’re conversing on the phone, you can access your Contacts database and look up someone’s information by tapping on this option.

End—Tap on the large red-and-white End button or tap the end call button on your headset, if applicable, to terminate the call.

When a second call comes in, the caller ID information of the new caller is displayed on the screen, along with several command icons and buttons (shown in Figure 9.7). These commands are End & Accept, Send To Voicemail, or Hold & Accept.

If you place the first call on hold and answer the new incoming call, you have the opportunity to merge the two calls and create a conference call or switch between the two calls and speak with each person individually (while the other is on hold).

While engaged in a conference call on your iPhone, the names of the people with whom you’re engaged in a call are displayed along the top of the screen, along with an Info icon. Tap on the circular “i” icon to the right of this information to reveal a new screen that enables you to manage any of the parties involved with the conference call.

While you’re engaged in a three-way call (with two other parties), you can tap on the Add Call option again to add more parties to the conference call.

On the secondary Conference Call Info screen, associated with each name/Caller ID number is an End button and a Private button. Tap on End to disconnect that party, or tap Private to speak with just that party privately and place the other party (or parties) on hold. You can then reestablish the conference call by tapping on the Back button to return to the previous Conference Call screen, and then tap on the Merge Calls icon again.

Dial a number manually using the keypad.

Access a listing from your Contacts database (from within the Phone app), choose a number, and dial it.

Use Siri (which is explained in Chapter 2, “Using Siri, Dictation, and CarPlay to Interact with Your Mobile Device”). This can be done anytime, regardless of what app is running on your iPhone or whether you’re looking at the Home screen.

Redial a number from the Phone app’s Recents call log.

Select and dial a phone number from the Phone app’s Favorites list.

Dial a number displayed in another compatible app or iOS 9 feature, such as Maps, Messages, Mail, Safari, Contacts, or the Notification Center window. When you tap on a displayed phone number, it dials that number and initiates a call using the Phone app.

1. Launch the Phone app from the Home screen.

2. Tap on the Keypad icon displayed at the bottom of the screen.

3. Using the numeric phone keypad, dial the number you want to reach, including the area code. If you’re making an international call, include the country code as well.

4. If you make a mistake when entering a digit, tap the small “X” icon that’s displayed near the top-right corner of the screen.

5. When the phone number is entered and displayed at the top of the screen, tap the green-and-white Call button to initiate the call.

6. The display on the iPhone changes to display a “Calling” message until the call connects, at which time the Call Menu screen is displayed.

1. Launch the Phone app from the Home screen.

2. Tap on the Contacts icon displayed at the bottom of the screen.

3. An alphabetized listing of the contacts stored in the Contacts app is displayed. At the top of the screen is a blank Search field. Using your finger, either scroll through the alphabetized list of contacts or use the iPhone’s virtual keyboard to find a stored listing.

4. Tap on any listing to view its complete Contacts entry. This might include multiple phone numbers, such as Home, Work, and Mobile. Then tap on the phone number you want to dial.

5. The display on the iPhone changes. A “Calling” message is displayed until the call connects, at which time the Call Menu screen is displayed.

To do this from the Home screen, swipe from left to right to access the Spotlight Search screen. Tap on a person’s profile photo/icon, and then tap the appropriate command icon to quickly call or message that person.

For iPhone 6/6 Plus/6s/6s Plus users, once a Wi-Fi call is initiated, if you leave the Wi-Fi hotspot, your call is automatically transferred to the cellular network’s Voice Over LTE feature, if your cellular service supports this option. Likewise, if you’re using the Voice Over LTE feature and a Wi-Fi signal becomes available, the call is seamlessly transferred to the Wi-Fi network; otherwise, the call is dropped if the Wi-Fi signal is lost.

If available, to manually initiate calls using the Call Over Wi-Fi feature, as opposed to a cellular network, launch Settings, tap on the Phone option, and then turn on the virtual switch that’s associated with the Wi-Fi Calling option.

Just as with any voicemail service, you can record your outgoing message, play back missed messages from your iPhone, or call your iPhone’s voicemail service and listen to your calls from another phone.

1. Launch the Phone app from the Home screen.

2. Tap on the Voicemail icon, displayed in the lower-right corner of the screen.

3. In the upper-left corner of the Voicemail screen, tap on the Greeting option.

4. From the Greeting screen (shown in Figure 9.8), tap on the Default option to skip recording a message and have a computer voice use a generic message. Or tap on the Custom option to record your own outgoing voicemail message.

5. After you tap the Custom option, tap on the Record option that’s also displayed on the Greeting screen. Hold the phone up to your mouth and begin recording your message.

6. When you’re finished recording, tap on the Stop option. You can now play back your message by tapping on the Play option, or tap on the Save option to save your message and activate it.

1. Launch the Phone app from the Home screen, or by swiping on a voicemail notification appearing on the Notification Center screen, for example.

2. Tap on the Voicemail icon that’s displayed in the bottom-right corner of the screen.

3. Under the Voicemail heading seen at the top of the screen is a listing of missed voicemail messages. Tap on a message to highlight it.

4. After a message is highlighted, tap on the small play/pause icon (shown in Figure 9.9). The message begins playing. It might, however, take a few seconds for the message to load. A brief pause should be expected.

5. Near the bottom of the voicemail listing is a slider that depicts the length of the message, along with Speaker, Call Back, and Delete options. As your message plays, the timer slider moves to the right. You can listen to parts of the message again by moving this slider around with your finger.

6. When you’re finished listening to the message, you can leave the listing alone (which keeps the message saved on your phone) or tap the Delete option to erase it. You also have the option of calling back the person who left the message by tapping on the Call Back option.

7. To exit the voicemail options, tap on any of the other command icons displayed at the bottom of the Phone app’s screen, or press the Home button on your iPhone.

To add a contact to the Favorites list, tap on the plus-sign (+) icon that you see in the upper-right corner of the screen. Select any listing from your Contacts database and tap on it. When the complete listing for that entry appears, tap on the specific phone number you want listed in your Favorites list. The newly created Favorites listing appears at the end of your Favorites list.

To edit the contacts already listed in your Favorites list, tap on the Edit option in the upper-left corner of the screen. After tapping Edit, change the order of your Favorites list by holding your finger on the rightmost icon next to a listing, and then dragging it upward or downward to the desired location. Or delete a listing by tapping on the red-and-white negative-sign icon displayed to the left of a listing. When you’re finished making changes, tap on the Done icon that’s displayed in the upper-left corner of the screen.

To dial a phone number listed in your Favorites list, simply tap on its listing. The Phone app automatically dials the number and initiates a call.

At the top of the Recents screen are two command tabs, labeled All and Missed, along with an Edit option. Tap on the All tab to view a detailed listing of all incoming and outgoing calls, displayed in reverse-chronological order. Missed incoming calls are displayed in red. Tap on the Missed tab to see a listing of calls you didn’t answer. Tap on the Edit option to delete specific calls from this listing, or tap on the Info (“i”) icon to view more details about that caller, including their recent call history with you.

Each listing in the Recents call log displays the name of the person you spoke with (based on data from your Contacts database or the Caller ID feature) or their phone number. If it’s someone from your Contacts database, information about which phone number (home, work, mobile, or such) the caller used appears below the name.

If the same person called you, or you called that person, multiple times in a row, a number in parentheses indicates how many calls were made to or from that person. This is displayed to the right of the name or phone number.

On the right side of the screen, with each Recents listing, is the time the call was made or received. To view the Contacts entry related to that person, tap on the right-pointing blue-and-white arrow icon associated with the listing. At the top of a contact’s entry screen are details about the call itself, including its time and date, whether it was an incoming or outgoing call, and its duration.

To call someone back who is listed in the Recents list, tap anywhere on that listing except for on the blue-and-white arrow icon.

If your plan does have a monthly allocation for talk minutes, if you go over your monthly minute allocation, you may be charged a hefty surcharge for each additional minute used.

To choose a default ringtone for all your incoming calls, launch Settings and select the Sounds option. From the Sounds menu screen, scroll down to the Ringtone option and tap on it. A complete listing of ringtones stored on your iPhone is displayed.

1. Launch the Contacts app from the iPhone’s Home screen.

2. From the All Contacts screen, find the specific contact with whom you want to link a custom ringtone. You can scroll through the listing or use the Search field to find a contact.

3. When the contact is selected and you’re looking at that Contacts entry, tap the Edit option that’s displayed in the upper-right corner of the screen.

4. From the Info screen that displays that contact entry’s data, scroll down to the Ringtone field and tap on it (shown in Figure 9.10).

5. When the Ringtone screen appears, select a specific ringtone from the list that you want to assign to the contact and tap on it. You can choose a specific song (purchased from iTunes) or ringer sound that reminds you of that person.

6. Tap on the Done icon to save your selection and return to the contact’s Info screen.

7. When that contact calls you, you will hear the ringtone you just linked to that contact (as opposed to the default ringtone).

Not only can you use a wireless Bluetooth headset while driving, but you can keep it on your person throughout the day and use it whenever you make or receive calls using your iPhone.

Using a headset enables you to keep your hands free while you’re talking so you can easily access other apps or iPhone features during a phone conversation. If you invest in only one accessory for your iPhone, and you plan to use the iPhone to make and receive phone calls, a wireless Bluetooth headset is a worthwhile investment (although a good-quality iPhone case is also highly recommended).

Bluetooth wireless headsets are priced as low as $20 but can cost as much as $200. If you want to ensure the highest-quality phone conversations possible, so that people can hear you and you can hear them, even if there’s background noise present, invest in a good-quality Bluetooth wireless headset that includes a noise-canceling microphone and a good-quality speaker. Plus, choose a headset that’s comfortable to wear and has a long battery life.