Among the new features in iOS 26, the new AI coming to the iPhone Phone app is definitely something to worry about for companies that practice cold calling. Call Screening, in particular, has all the makings of a real nuclear button capable of suffocating the sector in France.
Are you fed up with these calls from unknown numbers? These interruptions that waste your time on the phone – essentially to offer you services, products, and subscriptions you don't want? For years, legislators have been fighting back against cold calling with fundamentally ineffective tools. For example, there was the Bloctel reporting platform, which was promising, but failed to reduce call volume one iota.
Then a law tightened the screws, proposing increased fines, without much effect. Before another law presented as putting an end to cold calling was passed more recently. This one has not yet come into force, and moreover, it probably still leaves enough loopholes to allow this type of activity to continue in France. The ultimate weapon against these activities, which border on commercial harassment, remains to be found.
You'll love Call Screening and Hold Assist if you hate phone spam
But what Apple has just unveiled among the new features of iOS 26 coming to iPhone – has all the hallmarks of the nuclear button so eagerly awaited by the French. We're talking here in particular about Call Screening, but also about Hold Assist and, more broadly, about what Apple calls the new Unified Layout design that's coming to the Phone app.
Indeed, the first feature allows the iPhone to answer for you without even ringing as soon as it detects a call from an unknown number. Apple Intelligence then asks the caller to introduce themselves and indicate the reason for their call. If they comply with the instruction, Apple Intelligence simply displays a notification on the iPhone, indicating in text form the information transmitted by the caller.
From there, you can answer or hang up with a single gesture. Hold Assist, for its part, allows users to no longer waste time in the event of a callback. Especially when you find yourself with music on hold. When this is detected, you can stop holding the handset. The sound cuts out. And it's only as soon as an operator answers that the iPhone starts ringing again to connect you to the call. While alerting the operator that you're coming.
More broadly, Telephone is changing its presentation and removing the Visual Voicemail voicemail in favor of a "Calls" tab that shows you everything - calls received, missed, made - with a written report of what your caller wanted to communicate to you. So many advantages that will certainly ruin the dropout statistics of canvassing platforms, when iOS 26 is available. The update is compatible with all iPhones since the iPhone 11 released 6 years ago.
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