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Title: Ask Engadget: How do I answer calls on my iPhone with only my voice?

Date: Fri, 16 May 2025 19:37:07 +0000
Link: https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/a...

Last August, my best friend asked me how she could help her neighbor set her
iPhone so she could answer it without picking it up. The neighbor had
Multiple Sclerosis (MS), and had lost dexterity in both hands over time. Some
Google searches revealed I was far from alone in my confusion. So I asked
Apple for some advice. HereΓÇÖs what I said:

Q: ΓÇ£My friend has advanced MS and has some (very little) control of one of
her hands. She can't really swipe a screen or tap buttons. She wants it so
that when she receives a call, she can just ask Siri or tell her iPhone to
answer or reject it. But based on my research, the only way that's possible
is if a user has AirPods or Apple Watch connected, so Siri can announce
incoming calls and listen for commands like "Answer" or "Dismiss."

I also looked in the accessibility settings for Voice Control and there's a
way to answer all incoming calls after a set amount of time. But due to
privacy concerns and spam calls, that's not an ideal solution.

I was wondering if you knew any way for incoming calls to be answered with a
voice command?ΓÇ¥

A: Apple did respond, but unfortunately the solution is… complicated.
IΓÇÖll lay out the steps on how to use your iPhone with Voice Control first,
since that does provide a somewhat effective workaround. But you should read
past the steps for some of the caveats.

How to use Voice Control on iPhone to answer calls

Before we get started, make sure your phone is running iOS 13 or later. You
can also use Voice Control on iPads or iPod Touch (if you still have one).
When setting up Voice Control, make sure youΓÇÖre connected to the internet
to download the necessary files, and Apple recommends you connect to Wi-Fi
before you turn on Voice Control to use it for the first time. When all that
is done, proceed with the following steps.

Open the Settings app and find the Accessibility settings. This is in the
second group of options just below ΓÇ£General.ΓÇ¥ You can also just search
for ΓÇ£Accessibility.ΓÇ¥

Select ΓÇ£Voice Control,ΓÇ¥ which is listed in the ΓÇ£Physical and motionΓÇ¥
section.

Turn on Voice Control by tapping or sliding the toggle next to it, and, in
some cases, wait for the download to finish. If youΓÇÖve enabled Voice
Control before, you can also just ask Siri to ΓÇ£Turn on voice control.ΓÇ¥

Once the feature is on, youΓÇÖll see little numbers floating around your
screen, next to key elements. Your microphone is now on and your iPhone is
listening for your commands.

Read out the number next to what you want to trigger. If youΓÇÖve been
following this guide, you can say ΓÇ£oneΓÇ¥ to go back to the Accessibility
settings menu.

Say ΓÇ£Show me what to sayΓÇ¥ for a detailed list of things you can do. You
can use commands like ΓÇ£Swipe downΓÇ¥ or ΓÇ£Move downΓÇ¥ to scroll through
pages. Just remember that ΓÇ£Swipe upΓÇ¥ will scroll down and ΓÇ£Swipe
downΓÇ¥ will scroll up. The system will continue to recognize your touch
inputs, too.

When a call comes in, read out the number next to the answer option. From the
lock screen, that was the number ΓÇ£fiveΓÇ¥ in my experience. When my phone
was unlocked, the number to accept the call was ΓÇ£six,ΓÇ¥ while ΓÇ£fiveΓÇ¥
would decline it.

Voice Control isn't perfect

As you can see from that seventh step, Voice Control is complicated. YouΓÇÖll
need to be within view of your screen to see the labels, and saying the wrong
number can cause you to hang up a call by accident. You can say "Show Names"
to display words instead of numbers in the labels, but know that in this case
you'll need to add "Tap" before each label to press it. That means when a
call comes in, you can say "Tap Answer" or the label corresponding to the
action you want.

I want to point out that the numerical labels donΓÇÖt consistently appear in
all apps (the search bar at the top of chats in WhatsApp, for example,
doesnΓÇÖt have a number attached to it in my experience). Occasionally, the
names in the labels are also oddly chosen, like how the word attached to my
widget for my self-care app was just "Image." It also takes time to build
familiarity with Voice Control and learn all the available actions.

I also found the system to be sluggish, and it sometimes took a noticeable
delay before a command like "Swipe left" was registered and carried out. On
my first few attempts, I thought my iPhone didn't hear me and repeated the
instruction, only for it to swipe through two pages instead. I'm using an
iPhone 16 Pro, which is Apple's latest flagship, so it's not like I'm on an
older, slower device, either.

While we were able to achieve a semi-effective approach with the Voice
Control workaround, it didnΓÇÖt really solve my friendΓÇÖs neighborΓÇÖs
problem.

How to answer or decline calls with Siri

In researching this guide, I've found that either there is now a way to
answer calls with Siri or there was always one that I had missed in August of
2024. Regardless, I was able to test it today in a few different scenarios
and while it's certainly more convenient, it's not without its limitations.

Go to Siri Settings in your phone. You can find this by searching for "Siri"
in your Settings app or just scrolling till you see "Siri" or "Apple
Intelligence & Siri."

Make sure the setting to allow your iPhone to listen for "Siri" or "Hey Siri"
is on. If you're running the latest version of iOS on an iPhone 15 Pro,
iPhone 16 or iPhone 16 Pro, this would be Talk & Type to Siri > "Hey Siri" or
"Siri" or "Hey Siri" (whichever you prefer, as long as it's not "Off". On
older iPhones or versions of iOS, it would be Talk to Siri > "Hey Siri" or
"Siri" or "Hey Siri"

Turn on "Call Hang Up" if you want to be able to end a call with a voice
command during the conversation. Otherwise, you'll have to wait for the other
party to hang up. Note: Call hang up only works on phone and FaceTime calls,
not on those via third-party apps like WhatsApp or Telegram.

When a call comes in, say "Siri, answer" or "Hey Siri, answer" to accept. Say
"Siri, decline the call" to reject it. In my testing, "Siri, decline" did not
work, but "Siri, decline the call" did.

I was able to use this method to answer calls not only through phone or
FaceTime, but via third-party apps too. I enabled "Announce calls," setting
it to do so "Always" rather than only when headphones or CarPlay were
connected. But I never saw or heard alerts when a call came, besides the
actual ringing. When I asked my friend about using this method with their
neighbor, they mentioned that her speech was so affected at that point that
Siri wouldn't always recognize what she was saying.

Accessibility in tech has improved, but needs to get even better

Sadly, that neighbor had passed away before we were able to resolve the
issue. Though I wasn't able to solve her problem, I'm putting the limited
guidance IΓÇÖve been able to compile here in the hope that it might be useful
to someone in a substantially similar situation.

I have yet to properly test the offerings on Android, but on that platform
there are settings for Voice Access to be enabled for incoming calls and to
remain active during calls, indicating there are options to use voice
commands there.

My friend's neighbor's challenges are shared by countless people who are
still struggling with consumer technology tools that rarely meet their full
needs ΓÇö whether they're temporary limitations from injuries or longterm
issues resulting from disability or age. Voice-based interactions that are
meant to help those with physical disabilities need to better recognize
speech impediments at a wider level, and both Google and Apple, along with
other major tech companies, have taken steps toward building better models in
those respects.

The memory of our frustration with voice control felt all the more timely
this week, which marked the 14th annual Global Accessibility Awareness Day
(the third Thursday of each May). We saw Apple and Google announce new
accessibility features, while companies like Amazon, Netflix and Microsoft
reminded us of the assistive tools they recently released.

ItΓÇÖs heartening to see increased development in inclusively designed tech,
but itΓÇÖs also worth considering how complete and useful some of these
"solutions" are. Many of us will either need some form of assistive
technology at some point in our lives or know someone who does and would. In
spite of the continued improvements, thereΓÇÖs still plenty to do to ensure
tech is accessible to all.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at
https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/a...
calls-on-my-iphone-with-only-my-voice-193707009.html?src=rss

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