Does NOT block calls
Response from developer
Actually, this is how Call Blocking works on iPhone, including Apple’s own Blocked Contacts list. On iOS, a blocked call doesn’t ring your phone, doesn’t notify you, and the caller is never told they were blocked. What it does not do is stop the call before it reaches the network — the call is routed to voicemail, and any message lands in a separate Blocked Messages section with no notification. Apple describes exactly this behavior for its own blocking here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111104 Truly preventing a call from ever arriving is something only your carrier can do, which is why carrier-level spam filtering is a good complement if that’s what you’re after. As for the name: Apple provides exactly one mechanism for a third-party app to do this, and Apple is the one that calls it Call Blocking. You’ll see it on your own device under Settings → Apps → Phone → Call Blocking & Identification. The app supplies iOS with a list of numbers matching your patterns; iOS performs the block itself, and iOS decides what happens to the call afterward. Neither I nor any other developer can change that step. Apple’s developer documentation for it: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/callkit/identifying-and-blocking-calls Apple’s user-facing explanation: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111106 So the app isn’t silencing calls in place of blocking them — it’s using the only blocking mechanism iOS makes available, and the voicemail behavior comes from iOS.
Does not "Block", silences only
Response from developer
On iOS, a blocked call doesn’t ring your phone, doesn’t notify you, and the caller is never told they were blocked. What it does not do is stop the call before it reaches the network — the call is routed to voicemail, and any message lands in a separate Blocked Messages section with no notification. Apple describes exactly this behavior for its own blocking here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111104 Truly preventing a call from ever arriving is something only your carrier can do, which is why carrier-level spam filtering is a good complement if that’s what you’re after. As for the name: Apple provides exactly one mechanism for a third-party app to do this, and Apple is the one that calls it Call Blocking. You’ll see it on your own device under Settings → Apps → Phone → Call Blocking & Identification. The app supplies iOS with a list of numbers matching your patterns; iOS performs the block itself, and iOS decides what happens to the call afterward. Neither I nor any other developer can change that step. Apple’s developer documentation for it: https://developer.apple.com/documentation/callkit/identifying-and-blocking-calls Apple’s user-facing explanation: https://support.apple.com/en-us/111106 So the app isn’t silencing calls in place of blocking them — it’s using the only blocking mechanism iOS makes available, and the voicemail behavior comes from iOS.
