Send incoming calls to voicemail

If you’re too busy to answer your iPhone, Michael Connell explains how to divert incoming calls

There are a few ways to send calls straight to voicemail. To start, you can quickly switch your iPhone to Silent Mode by toggling the Ring/Silent switch. That’s the switch on the left-hand side of your iPhone, above the volume

buttons. You’ll see a small red strip next to the switch to indicate when it’s in Silent mode. That way, depending on your settings, you’ll see a call coming in but you won’t hear your ringtone. By default, your phone vibrates when you receive an incoming call, but you can turn that off if it’s too distracting, go to Settings > Sounds & Haptics. Toggle off the Vibrate on Silent switch.

Alternatively, when a call comes in, tap the Sleep/Wake button to silence the ringer and send the call to voicemail.

There are a couple of other tricks, too.

Airplane Mode: Put your phone in Airplane Mode to block all cellular activity. Your calls will go directly to voicemail, but you won’t see who’s calling or even that you got a call until you check. However, you won’t be disturbed while working. To turn this on, swipe up from the bottom of your screen and tap the airplane icon.

Do Not Disturb: With Do Not Disturb, your phone will automatically silence all incoming notifications, but they will still pop up on your display. Incoming calls will appear on your screen, but they won’t make a sound and will go to voicemail if left unanswered. If you’d like to allow certain calls to come through while your phone is in Do Not Disturb mode, you can designate this in the feature’s settings, go to Settings > Do Not Disturb > Allow Calls From. Next, select Everyone, No One, or Favourites. Alternatively, select a group. To turn this feature on, swipe up from the bottom of your screen and tap the crescent moon icon.