How To Send A Call To Voicemail Iphone

Want to send that incoming phone call directly to voicemail? Can't take a call at the moment and would rather deal with it later? Maybe it's just a number you don't recognize and you'd rather wait to see if someone leaves a message before determining if it's worth dealing with.

Regardless, it's really easy to send any call immediately to your voice mail box on iPhone, even though there's no obvious option to do it directly on the screen when a call comes in.

How to Send iPhone Calls to Voicemail Instantly

Here is how to instantly send an inbound call to voicemail on your iPhone:

With an incoming phone call, quickly double-tap the top power button to send the call to voicemail

The power button is the actual hardware button located on either the side of the iPhone or the top of the iPhone, regardless of the model (it's the same one you use to turn off / sleep the iPhone display, sometimes called the "sleep / wake button").

For example, on iPhone 12, iPhone 11, iPhone XS, iPhone XR, iPhone X, iPhone 8, iPhone 7, iPhone 6, iPhone Plus models, and the newest model iPhone SE, and all the various models in between like the Pro and Max, the power button is the lone button on one side of the iPhone:

Meanwhile, on iPhone SE, iPhone 5, iPhone 4, the power button is on the top of the iPhone.

That's all there is to it. As soon as the double-tap has been registered, the call will send to voicemail instantly. If you manage to do it fast enough, the caller won't even hear a ring and it will go straight to voicemail, much like the effect of having a phone turned off or if it's out of a service area.

This is much faster than silencing the call and waiting for the caller to leave a message, though if you wait too long then it becomes fairly obvious to the caller that they have been sent to voicemail.

Because there isn't really an official way to block calls on the iPhone (the silent block list method does work great however), this can be an effective way to avoid certain individuals that are calling, or if you just don't feel like answering a call at the particular moment, particularly from numbers that are not recognized. It certainly beats keeping your phone on mute all the time.

If you're fielding a ton of calls, you can also use call forwarding to send all calls directly to voicemail automatically by using the trick described here.

Simple and effective, and it works with all iPhone models for all cellular carriers. Give it a try!

Updated 10/27/2020