How to stop calls on iPhone without blocking

There may be some situations where you don’t want incoming calls coming through to your phone, and obviously the easiest way to do this is to block the number from calling you.

However, not everyone wants to block the number completely. Fortunately, there are things you can do to stop calls on your iPhone without blocking the number.

Enable Airplane Mode

Airplane Mode on iPhones can be used to stop incoming phone calls and text messages coming through to your device without relying on iOS blocked contacts lists.

This is probably the easiest way to stop calls – this feature shuts off the iPhones cell phone capability, so whilst airplane mode is enabled, you stop incoming calls coming through.

All people attempting to contact you during this time will go straight through to your voicemail without ringing.

Airplane mode also disables Bluetooth and WiFi radio on your device too, though you can re-enable them individually after.

Is this an effective solution to stop incoming calls on iPhone without blocking a number? Yes, this is probably your best bet.

In contrast to other modes like Focus mode, you are not allowing for any contact whatsoever.

To turn off the Airplane mode on the iPhone, navigate to the Control Centre. Tap on Airplane Mode.

You can also do this within your Settings app too if you want to temporarily block incoming calls.

Activate Focus Mode

Focus helps block unwanted calls on iPhones, and it was added in previous iOS options to help users reduce overall distractions.

Currently, Focus contains Do Not Disturb, Personal, Sleep and other options too, as the app also provides these various pre-determined focus settings.

Focus blocks all calls to your phone’s mobile via cellular or FaceTime messaging, though this excludes any calls you receive via WhatsApp – you will need to do this manually within the WhatsApp app.

To activate Focus, you can use the Control Panel by swiping down on your display and then selecting the Focus icon.

Alternatively, you can also turn Focus on by going into your iPhone settings app – here, you can also adjust your settings too.

Silence Unknown callers

What happens when someone you don’t know calls you? Typically, you’ll get a call on your phone saying Unknown Caller.

However in newer releases of iOS, you have the ability to enable an optional feature called Silence Unknown Callers to deal with this problem.

You can set this up pretty easily;

First, open the settings app.

Tap the Phone option.

Scroll down to Silence Unknown Callers and switch the toggle on.

This is a great way to immediately block unknown callers on your phone – if you’ve been getting a ton of annoying spam calls, this will resolve the problem and ensure you stop calls on iPhone devices.

Set Do Not Disturb for one specific contact

Many users don’t know about the DND settings on the iPhone because it’s not that visible, but fortunately it is pretty easy to configure.

You can simply enable Do Not Disturb on specific contacts that you don’t want to receive calls from.

You can do this from within your Settings app – this will send busy signals to the selected person that calls your phone.

Conclusion

We sometimes hear calls that you need to block a number to stop them calling you on your iPhone. And it’s true, this is definitely the easiest way to get someone else to stop calling you on the phone.

Fortunately, there are ways that you can stop calls on your iPhone without having to block the caller. Hopefully, the methods above can help you do this without having to resort to blocking the other person.