Alongside macOS 26 Tahoe, I decided to take the risk and install iOS 26 Developer Beta 1 on my iPhone 16 Pro Max. It generally works well, and the big feature that works right out of the box that I love to bits is call screening.
When activated, call screening answers any incoming calls and prompts the caller to leave their name and the reason for calling. Assuming it’s not an autodialler and somebody actually does leave their name/reason for calling, it’ll then start ringing the iPhone whilst displaying a transcription of what the caller has just said. You can then choose to pick up the call or send it to voicemail (where it’ll also be transcribed).
I’ve bemoaned for YEARS that the iPhone’s greatest weakness was that as a phone, it just wasn’t as good as its Android counterparts when it came to handling nuisance calls. But now that Apple has implemented call screening and on-hold waiting (e.g., it listens for on-hold music so that you can put the phone down and do other things – once it detects the other end is talking, the phone will notify you), it has fulfilled its duties in the one thing it should have done all along. This is especially true in the telecoms sector, which is so far behind in combating scam, phishing, and other nuisance calls.