[austinl]

In the US, I used to receive multiple spam calls a day. A few years ago, I turned on the iOS setting that sends all phone numbers not in my contacts straight to voicemail and haven't looked back.

It's occasionally inconvenient—maybe once or twice a year I deal with a company that needs to call me. But if it's a call from a real person, I can always listen to the voicemail and call them back. Most spam calls either don't leave voicemail, or leave 1 second message that I can bulk delete every few months.

[windowsrookie]

I work part time at a pizzeria. If you do this try to remember when you order food for delivery. It has become a problem with our drivers. The customer doesn’t answer the phone and our drivers spend 10 minutes trying to contact the customer (delaying the next customers order). Eventually, our drivers give up and the customer (now angry) calls back an hour later demanding their food.

[WinstonSmith84]

I suppose they could communicate through the app which was used to order the food and/or using whatsapp.

[lxgr]

Some people still order by calling a regular phone number, and I don‘t think forcing more centralization in the industry is a good solution.

The industry stakeholders and FCC should get together and fix caller ID authentication; the rest will follow from there.

[im3w1l]

Allowing inbounds call from numbers with a recent outbound call sounds like a low-hanging fruit heuristic.

[windowsrookie]

My pizzeria does not use an App. We have an online ordering webpage, or you can order through a traditional phone call.

[withinboredom]

Who orders pizza through an overpriced app?

[jazzyjackson]

Imagine my shock when I found out that in the year 2023 there's still only so much room in my voicemail box and I wasn't receiving new voicemails because I never deleted any...

[khazhoux]

> I turned on the iOS setting that sends all phone numbers not in my contacts straight to voicemail and haven't looked back.

And the real-life version of this: you're not morally required to open the front door (or even acknowledge) if you don't knock the person ringing your doorbell. You can actually just... ignore them.

[shanebellone]

"> I turned on the iOS setting that sends all phone numbers not in my contacts straight to voicemail and haven't looked back.

And the real-life version of this: you're not morally required to open the front door (or even acknowledge) if you don't knock the person ringing your doorbell. You can actually just... ignore them."

I do both and keep my phone on do not disturb with a few bypasses (starred contacts). Neither technology nor people should be able to demand my attention and unilaterally dictate the terms.

[neeleshs]

100%. I use this great strategy as well, but on Android. I just don't pick up any calls that's not in my contacts list. Works out great.

[agildehaus]

Google Assistant answers all my calls from unknown numbers and asks them to state what they're calling about. It transcribes the text in real time for me, and if I don't answer it saves that conversation for me to review later. Perfect.

[ithkuil]

If I silence calls from unknown numbers I would get most deliveries since the couriers often ask for help finding the house or just won't bother coming unless they verify somebody is at home

[maroonblazer]

Had no idea this setting existed despite being an iPhone user for years. Thank you!

Settings->General->Phone->Silence Unknown Callers

[WinstonSmith84]

For Android, it's directly in the Phone App. Then, the 3 dots menu top right > Settings > Blocked Numbers > Block calls from unidentified callers

[victor106]

On my version it’s here

Settings->Phone->Silence Unknown Callers

[mrbombastic]

Yeah it is a shame that it is has come to this but I do the same.