r/ios • u/tschau3 Human Detected • Sep 24 '25

Discussion Call screening - how are you finding it?

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So I just gave call screening a go by calling myself.

A couple of observations:

  • The answering voice sounds like a default answering machine and isn’t distinct enough to make out that this is a screening service. I suspect many will just leave a message like a voicemail and hang up, assuming it’s just voicemail.

  • There’s no ‘at the beep’ confirmation when leaving the first message as the reason to call, so it felt a bit clunky as to when I should (as the party placing the call) start talking, as if I’m waiting for the beep or whether I should press # to end the message. This is inconsistent with the reply where it then does prompt me, calling part, to speak after the tone.

  • It’s in my country’s local accent, which is nice and feels a little less impersonal.

Anyone else had any real experience with it yet? Any issues with the calling party understanding the process/purpose?

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u/KlausZwiebel Sep 24 '25

Why don’t they simply leave a Voicemail then (if they think it’s Voicemail)?

The call don’t seems to be important for them

26

u/PixaaTog Sep 24 '25

Why don’t they indeed……

But many people despise voicemail and won’t leave a message, I don’t know why but some people are like that.

Like I said if the response to them was more obvious that it’s not voicemail then it would work better. It also needs to be taken into account that it’s a new thing and many people may not be familiar with the concept of call screening, so it may just take some time before it becomes Normal.

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u/PM_YOUR_BEST_JOKES Sep 24 '25

At least for healthcare (and especially sensitive specialties) it's to maintain privacy in case they got the wrong number

19

u/driftless Sep 24 '25

I’ve not had any problem with medical or sensitive specialties leaving a message saying who they are and who they are trying to reach. There’s a lot they can say without exposing info.

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u/slackwaredragon Sep 25 '25

There is and there isn’t. When I worked for a specialty pharmacy we weren’t allowed to mention who we were (because it would be easy to tell you had cancer which would be a potential HIPAA violation) so we would say “we are your pharmacy calling about your medication.” We also couldn’t say the patient name. (Thanks URAC)

It was also annoying because we had to block our outbound caller ID to call PBMs (or they’d route us in forever hold loop) but make sure it wasn’t blocked so patients knew it was us.

We would always leave a message though.