[abalone]

I've found that it's pretty easy to get people to inadvertently accept FaceTime calls if you continuously spam them. (I was on the receiving end of this attack.) Here's how it works.

1- It's very easy and instantaneous to redial someone on FaceTime if they decline your call. You can just spam the call button and the target will get a continuous ring, basically.

2- Even if they turn on Do Not Disturb, many people have "Repeated Calls" enabled, which lets repeat FaceTime calls break through Do Not Disturb. Neat!

3- Now they are frustrated and want to throw their phone in a bucket of water to shut it up. The only way to block you is now to get your "info" in the recent callers list, scroll down and hit the "Block this caller" option. However the constant stream of incoming FaceTime calls takes over the UI every couple seconds.

As they fiddle with their phone trying to navigate to your info and/or hit decline, eventually they inadvertently hit accept, and you see their face.

[snarf21]

Absolutely. There needs to be a block this user right on the accept/cancel screen. Apple also needs to track who is doing this and repeat offenders lose access to FT in general or that iTunes account.

I really don't understand why calls and texts don't have a default mode to only ring or pass through if they are from a contact. Depending on the government to prevent robo calling seems foolish. We need technology built into the device.

[nvrspyx]

They also need to change it so that an incoming call doesn’t takes over the entire screen of your phone. I could be doing something on my phone like typing this comment and next thing I know, I’ve answered a call.

[mcintyre1994]

This is still the stupidest thing having moved from Android to iOS. Why would anybody want incoming calls to block the entire UI?

[anticensor]

Because it is a telephone first and portable computer second.

[nvrspyx]

Except that it’s not...not anymore. It’s primarily a computer that can take phone calls. How many people are still taking phone calls instead of texting, messaging, emailing, or connecting in other ways via social networks? How long is the Phone app used compared to Safari on your phone’s battery settings? For how many people is Phone at the bottom of that list? On mine it is.

Finally, your point is still completely irrelevant to why it needs to take over the entirety of the screen. It could still primarily be a phone without being intrusive when you’re doing “secondary” tasks.

[andrewaylett]

But when I'm using it as a portable computer, the portable computer paradigm should prevail, which is what happens on Android: if my screen was off, I get a full-screen notification to swipe up on. If my screen was on, I get a notification at the top of the screen with buttons to accept or decline.

[merpnderp]

I'd bet money that by average customer use, the classic telephony functionality of iOS phones accounts for less than 1% of phone usage. They're used as computers first, second, and third and as a phone a distant last.

[bobbylarrybobby]

Says who?

[wlesieutre]

iOS 13 adds this for phone calls: https://www.macrumors.com/2019/06/06/ios-13-silence-unknown-...

Don't know about FaceTime, it's not mentioned so I'm guessing no change on that front.

[abalone]

This is a nice option but a totally different problem. It basically turns incoming calls from strangers into texts. It's for the "millennial" phone user that rarely takes calls and then only from friends. Wouldn't work with FaceTime since there is no mailbox for FaceTime (might be cool if there were though...)

No, the problem here is much simpler. iOS has features for Do Not Disturb as well as blocking spammy callers which both should help here. The problem is they just aren't implemented quite right for this scenario.

[asveikau]

> There needs to be a block this user right on the accept/cancel screen

Personally I hope I don't end up blocking a family member or someone else important because my phone is slipping around in my pocket when they happen to call.

[abalone]

Exactly. iOS does something like this with notifications where it added an super easy button right next to them on the lock screen for silencing / delivering them quietly. You just swipe left. Neat, right?

Except I accidentally hit it on an iMessage notification somehow without realizing and silenced all messages for a couple days without realizing it. Missed an important one too. Was kind of hard to undo that too.

It’s a tough UI problem.

[mathieuh]

I’m pretty sure the proximity sensor activates as soon as the call comes in, so the screen would be disabled until you take it out of your pocket.

[asveikau]

You seem pretty confident that this will work as opposed to occasionally falling in the wrong state and, a rare instance multiplied by a large number of uses, happen to somebody.

Somehow despite this pocket dialing still happens.

[thepangolino]

For me the most annoying bit is how it’s impossible to do any action others than accepting or declining the call on the iPhone. It’s basicall a phone DOS.

[unnawut]

This happens to me on Android as well and it has always been like this. Would love to know why a phone call needs to block all other actions except accept/reject a call.

[ViViDboarder]

Huh. What manufacturer? When unlocked, stock Android has had incoming calls as a notification rather than whole screen for years.

When screen is locked it is probably still full screen.

[Avamander]

Many crap reskins (Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei) break the ability to hide call notifications. It's absolutely awful.

[gowld]

This is one of the problems of Android's model. By being so open to customization, any branch's weirdness gets mixed in with "Android", because there are too many variations and not enough linguistic ability to name them all clearly and consistently in conversation.

[anchpop]

If I'm getting a call while using my Pixel, I just get a notification with quick-action button for accept, deny, and screen.

[thfuran]

To be fair, the device is nominally a telephone with a few extra bells and whistles.

[gowld]

I didn't pay $1000 for a "telephone with a few extra bells and whistles"

[Phenomenit]

Airplane mode in quick action bar to the rescue!

[Blackstone4]

Are you doing this to your friends or strangers? The attack requires plenty of effort and an Apple iCloud account so not the eeasiest thing to scale.

[cma]

Still had if it doesn't scale. The people who are going to want a quick peek at camera are stalkers, political opponents (get a view of compromising activities or visitors) , drug dealer conflict retribution (get location), etc.

[bb123]

Couldn't you just put the phone into Airplane Mode while you block the caller? This would be my first action.

[gowld]

People who pay the Apple tax don't accept "couldn't you just" as a reasonably solution.

[Razengan]

• Go into Airplane mode.

• Tweak whatever settings you need (like disabling DND Repeated Calls) to let you block that person.

[rickyc091]

Even worse, FaceTime calls get routed to your desktop so as you're typing a message or an email, you can easily hit enter or spacebar to accept it accidentally.

[dijit]

there's a block caller option in the contact area/recently called, someone did this to me before and it wasn't frequent enough to prevent me using the phone.

Even if it was, enable airplane mode, block caller, then disable airplane mode.

[VvR-Ox]

Just wrap your phone into some tinfoil and it's over ;-)

[dewey]

Luckily that feature was built in on the iPhone 4 ;)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone_4#Antenna