If you’ve noticed that fewer candidates are picking up your calls lately it’s not just you. Apple and Android have introduced new call screening and silencing features that automatically block, send to voicemail or silence calls from numbers not saved in a person’s contacts.
ℹ️ What This Means for Your Recruiting Calls
Even if your number isn’t “blocked,” if it’s not in the recipient’s contact list, the call may never ring — it’ll go straight to voicemail (or be screened).
The recipient sees no actual ringing, so your call is invisible unless they check voicemail or see a missed call in recent calls.
If you don’t leave a voicemail, there’s zero prompt for them to call you back.
If they later save your number, future calls will bypass the filter and ring normally.
ℹ️ US based candidates are more likely to have these features turned on by default as they tend to get a lot more spam and robocalls that a UK based candidate.
✅ What You Should Do
Always leave a voicemail If your call goes straight to voicemail, don’t hang up — leave a short, friendly message explaining who you are, the company, and what the call is about.
Follow up with a quick text or email A short message like “Hi, this is Sarah from Acme Recruiting — just tried giving you a call about a new opportunity!” can prompt them to call back.
Ask candidates to save your number Once you’ve made contact, remind them to add your number to their phone so future calls ring through normally.
Stick to one outbound number Frequent number changes can trigger spam filters and make it harder for candidates to recognise you.
Avoid calling from an “Anonymous” number The likelihood of your call getting blocked before even reaching the voicemail is much higher if you call from a withheld/anonymous number so it’s best to avoid this entirely.
Open your Dialler and click the Settings icon. At the top, you are able to change your caller ID to any other number assigned to your account.
Alternatively, you can change the caller ID from the Smart Inbox, right hand side, just below the contact name.
⛔ What if the contact blocked my number?
There’s always a chance that someone has blocked your number, especially if they got the impression that you’re calling them insistently and don’t leave any voicemails or follow-up with an SMS or email explaining why you’re calling.
In these cases we recommend more caution as you don’t want to appear very insistent. For the cases where you think they might have mistakenly blocked your number try the following:
Change your caller ID so you can call from a different, non-blocked number
Try to call from an “Anonymous” number, but keep in mind this might not yield a response at all or the contact could just block all “anonymous” calls by default
Always respect people’s privacy. If you think someone doesn’t want to be contacted it’s best to leave them alone 🙂
These smartphone updates were designed to protect users from spam — but a few small habits will help ensure your legitimate recruiting calls still get through.
If you want to understand exactly what these features look like on each platform keep reading 🤓
What’s Changed on iPhones
Recent iOS versions give users more control over who can reach them. These settings affect recruiters in particular, since most first calls come from numbers the candidate doesn’t know.
Screen or Silence Unknown Callers: When enabled, iPhones can ask the caller to state their reason for calling before the phone rings — or silence the call entirely and send it straight to voicemail.
Filter Unknown Callers: Calls and voicemails from numbers not saved in contacts go into a special “Unknown Callers” list instead of the main call log.
Silence Spam Callers: If a carrier flags your number as potential spam, the call will be silenced and moved to a “Spam” list automatically.
What’s Changed on Android phones
Google / Pixel phones (Phone by Google app):
Pixels have a built-in “Call Screen” feature. The phone can answer unknown or suspicious calls on behalf of the user, ask who’s calling and why, transcribe that live, and decide whether to let it ring through.
Users can also choose levels of screening (e.g. screen “all unknown numbers,” or just “suspicious” ones) and review transcripts later.
Samsung / Galaxy phones:
Samsung offers features under names like “Smart Call,” “Caller ID & Spam Protection,” or “Block calls from unknown numbers.”
You can enable a switch to block or silence calls from numbers not in the user’s contacts.
Samsung also has a “Text Call” (Bixby) feature that lets the phone answer calls and transcribe them.
Other Android phones / generic Android (varies by manufacturer):
Most Android phones support caller ID & spam protection, manual blocking of unknown numbers, or toggles to block calls from “unknown” or “private” numbers.
Some third-party apps (e.g. Truecaller, known call-filtering apps) also give more aggressive screening options.
There are also services like YouMail that allow Android users to require unknown callers to go through a screening step (e.g. entering digits) before ringing through.
Sources
Apple Support — Manage unknown callers on iPhone
Google Support — Filter and block spam calls on Android
Samsung Support — Block calls and messages on Galaxy phones
Android Official Blog — How to stop spam calls on Android
YouMail Support — Call Screening on Android