Making a call in CarPlay with secondary iPhone without SIM

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Making a call in CarPlay with secondary iPhone without SIM

Hi, so I have a setup where I ise my old iPhone to solely be used for CarPlay and nothing else in between.

So when Im receiving calls I can answer them normally through the car steering wheel controls, and it works as expected, however, when I try and make a call, the call is failed as it’s trying to dial from a phone without SIM, but then my Mac also doesn’t have a SIM but I can make calls from it without problems, so what’s the issue here?

Why a secondary iPhone can receive calls(when in close proximity to the main iPhone) but can’t make calls?

Wifi calling is NOT enabled on the main iPhone, but it doesn’t need to be enabled because as I said, my Mac is not having any problems calling and receiving calls, it’s just that secondary SIM-less iPhone that seems to be able to only accept, but not make the calls, and this makes zero sense.

iPhone SE

Posted on Jun 11, 2025 5:55 AM

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Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

IdrisSeabright

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188,883 points

Jun 11, 2025 7:31 AM in response to kaloyan17

kaloyan17 wrote:

Ok but why?

This makes absolutely zero sense…

I mean, a Mac has no issues making calls, an iWatch is also capable to do so, as well as even an AppleTV…

So basically everything else, literally, EXCEPT iPhone… Sorry but this is beyond nonsense.

Different devices have different capabilities. The Watch technically has an eSIM. It uses the same one as the iPhone it's connected to.

An iPhone with a SIM can route calls to other devices on the same Apple ID. It can route them to Macs (which never have SIMs) and iPads even if they don't. It can't route them to other iPhones that don't have a SIM.

You can certainly let Apple know what you'd like to see here:

Product Feedback - Apple

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Answer 2

muguy

Level 10

92,000 points

Jun 11, 2025 6:33 AM in response to kaloyan17

You cannot make a call using the phone with no sim. connected to your CarPlay. Your Mac makes calls using your iPhone. That's not possible using a different iPhone.

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Answer 3

kaloyan17 Author

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4 points

Jun 11, 2025 7:18 AM in response to muguy

Ok but why?

This makes absolutely zero sense…

I mean, a Mac has no issues making calls, an iWatch is also capable to do so, as well as even an AppleTV…

So basically everything else, literally, EXCEPT iPhone… Sorry but this is beyond nonsense.

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Answer 4

kaloyan17 Author

Level 1

4 points

Jun 11, 2025 7:27 AM in response to muguy

Please elaborate a bit.

Lets look at how these things actually work.

A Mac can make calls because of the following reasons:

They are on the same network, and with the same iCloud account.
They are in close proximity of each other.

All of this is also true when you want to make a call from your iWatch too.

All of this is also true when the 2 iPhone are right next to each other.

Do you see how it makes zero sense now?

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Answer 5

Jun 11, 2025 10:33 AM in response to kaloyan17

kaloyan17 wrote:

I did just that. Thank you.

And I understand everything you saying.

What I don’t understand is the actual technical reason for that, hence I’ve send the feedback to Apple.

There may or may not be an actual technical reason. It might (or might not) be simply a design decision on Apple's part.

Note that you will not get a reply to your feedback.

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Answer 6

kaloyan17 Author

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4 points

Jun 11, 2025 7:42 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

I did just that. Thank you.

And I understand everything you saying.

What I don’t understand is the actual technical reason for that, hence I’ve send the feedback to Apple.

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Making a call in CarPlay with secondary iPhone without SIM

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