Apple’s best iOS 26 feature has been on pixels for years

Since me He was a child, I despised answering the phone when an unknown number calls. Who could be at the other end? Literally anyone: an acquaintance, a telemarketer, a serial killer who breathes threateningly in the nozzle.

While the next Apple liquid glass update in iOS 26 is likely to be the most notable aspect of software update as the public begins to be implemented on September 15, I think that a minor addition in iOS 26 could even have a greater impact on how iPhone owners use their devices.

The iPhone is finally receiving a call projection. Alleluia. At the launch, the function will admit calls that arrive from nine languages, including English, Spanish and Japanese.

Once your iPhone is updated to iOS 26, you can choose and make the software automatically calls that come from unknown numbers. In this case, an unknown number is any telephone number with which you have not interacted before.

When your phone automatically collects the call, a robotic voice asks the person who calls your name and why you want to contact you. Only after collecting that information, the iPhone will sound and show you these details in a notification bubble so that you can decide whether to answer.

I was ecstatic to see this new option while experimenting with a beta version of iOS 26. I constantly receive calls from so many unknown numbers that I have left completely answering the phone for anyone who has not saved in my contact list.

With the imminent release of iOS 26, I can make informed decisions to ignore or answer these calls. And although most calls will still be ignored, I no longer have to wait until the person who calls begins to leave a voice email and live transcription appears on the screen to make a decision.

The call detection will be new to the owners of iPhones this fall, but the users of some Android smartphones, such as the Google pixel, have had a version of this tool, called the call screen, available for them for years. Lyubov Farahoneva, a Google product manager, says in a statement sent by email to Wired that millions of pixels are using the function only in the US. “

Since its launch of call detection in 2018, Google has worked to make the synthetic voice more natural for people who call incoming. It has also begun to show relevant responses such as peaceful options while the detection is in progress so that users can easily communicate with people who call unknown without responding to the phone. Including even more to this feature, Google plans to implement the evaluation of calls to additional markets this fall.

“Pixel 10 owners in India can start experimenting with the beta version of the manual call screen. This feature will initially work in English and Hindi, with more languages ​​and dialects on the way,” says Farahoneva. “It will have a functionality not only to transcribe, but also translate what the person who calls says to the call screen, to facilitate the lives of those who do not speak the same language as the person who calls.” Call, manual or automatic projections options will also arrive soon to pixels owners in Australia, Canada, Ireland and the United Kingdom.