Call screening availability discrepancy between macOS 26 and iOS 26

Call Screening requires Apple Intelligence on the device. If you have the iPhone 14 Pro shown in your profile, it doesn’t support Apple Intelligence therefore you can’t use the Call Screening feature on it.

KiltedTim wrote:

Interestingly, I can turn on call screening on my iPhone 15 (not pro). In theory, I shouldn't be able to, but I can...

Different feature than the one under discussion. Screening a call is not Call Screening. The former is based on Caller ID (the phone number calling you). The latter is where the device actually answers the call and queries the caller then passes that info to you before the phone rings. Apple Intelligence definitely required for that.

Nope. We're talking about the same thing. Just tested it. had my wife call with caller ID blocked. Call was answered by the phone, which asked her who was calling and why. After she answer, then it rang through and showed me the information to give me the option of answering. My understanding is if the caller doesn't respond, or is obviously a bot, the call will simply be rejected.

daften wrote:

I can enable call screening on macos in the phone app, my language is set to English (US).

On iOS I can't enable it, the same language is set.

See macOS Tahoe - Feature Availability - Apple and iOS and iPadOS 26 - Feature Availability - Apple

And a question: what happens if I enable it on macos but not on my iphone? Will call screening kick in from one device?

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Why is call screening available in the phone app on macos 26 and not ios26 when the language is the same on both devices?

ref: Screen and block calls on iPhone - Apple Support

re: Apple Intelligence - Apple

If you are asking about live voicemail...(?)

With Live Voicemail in iOS 17 and later, you can view a real-time transcription of the message someone is leaving you as they speak.

ref: Use Live Voicemail on your iPhone

ref: Set up your voicemail on iPhone

Interestingly, I can turn on call screening on my iPhone 15 (not pro). In theory, I shouldn't be able to, but I can...

Wife's phone is still updating or I'd have her call me using *67 to block the caller ID and see if it actually works.

KiltedTim wrote:

Interestingly, I can turn on call screening on my iPhone 15 (not pro). In theory, I shouldn't be able to, but I can...

Wife's phone is still updating or I'd have her call me using *67 to block the caller ID and see if it actually works.

It seems better documentation would help here:

Screen and block calls on iPhone - Apple Support

Interesting.... there's nothing on that page indicating that feature requires apps intelligence. I though it did.

Not complaining, mind you... and it wouldn't matter much to me if it did since I'll be picking up a 17 Pro this weekend.

neuroanatomist wrote:

Call Screening requires Apple Intelligence on the device. If you have the iPhone 14 Pro shown in your profile, it doesn’t support Apple Intelligence therefore you can’t use the Call Screening feature on it.

Where did you see that? I don't see it listed on How to get Apple Intelligence - Apple Support under the "Apple Intelligence features" section. And I confirmed that I see the option on some of my older devices after updating to iOS 26 today, including iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 13 mini.

Thanks, you’re right - it’s just built out of plain old, unintelligent Live Voicemail so it should work on most devices.

The info in this article

might be helpful: Make and receive phone calls on Mac, iPad, and Apple Vision Pro - Apple Support

Can u maybe tell me in what country's the call screening is working? Because I have the iPhone 11 updated to iOS 26 and I cant see it in settings.

It depends on what system language you set. The article shared in the original post lists the supported languages - iOS and iPadOS 26 - Feature Availability - Apple