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How to silence iPhone calls without sending directly to voicemail

Do you ever find yourself in a situation where you want to silence an incoming call on your iPhone but you don’t want to send the person directly to voicemail? Read on for the difference between silencing and declining calls on iPhone.

There are several ways to decline an iPhone call, but if you want (or need) to be a bit more subtle about how you handle things, you can silence a call without sending it directly to voicemail.

Declining a call is the easy option to reach for, but it means ending the call and sending it directly to voicemail. Silencing a call will let it ring through — the same as if you couldn’t make it to the phone — before sending a caller to voicemail.

How to silence iPhone calls without sending directly to voicemail

  1. Press the volume up or volume down button once
  2. Alternately, you can press the Side button (or Sleep/Wake button) once
  3. After you silence a call it will continue to ring (silently) and you can answer if you change your mind

If you want to check out three ways to decline iPhone calls, read our tutorial on that here.

For more help getting the most out of your Apple devices, check out our How-to guide as well as the following articles:

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