iOS 26: Why Call Identification and Hold Music Assistant Fail
Apple has implemented two useful new telephony features in iOS 26. However, under certain circumstances, they may not appear.
Telephony (symbolic image).
(Image: Daniel AJ Sokolov)
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced several new features for the Phone app. On the one hand, they are intended to improve the handling of the increasing problem of junk calls and telephone spam, and on the other hand, to at least partially bypass annoying hold music. The problem: Under certain circumstances, the functions may not appear at all if you operate your device with certain settings.
What the new telephony functions can do
Apple has also introduced the so-called Anrufidentifizierung to the German market immediately with iOS 26. The idea behind it: If an unknown number calls, the caller is first asked by the iPhone itself who they are. "Calls from unknown numbers are asked for more information before the iPhone rings," Apple describes it. However, you can see that the process is currently running on a display. The user then receives a written form of the answer ("MĂĽller here from the property management") and can then decide whether to answer or not. This is supplemented by further filtering options that automatically mute unknown numbers and forward them to voicemail.
Potentially equally useful is the so-called Hold Music Assistant. This is intended to help you continue to work normally while you are on hold. Using on-device speech recognition, the iPhone is supposed to detect as soon as the hold music is over and a real person is on the other end of the line. "Use the Hold Music Assistant feature to avoid waiting on hold yourself and get notified when it's time to return to the call," says Apple. In practice, both functions work quite well with limitations: with Call Identification, speech recognition is sometimes inaccurate; with Hold Music Assistant, it sometimes happens that the user is referred back too early because a voice was played in the hold music.
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Language settings must be observed
However, it also happens that both features do not appear in the Phone app at all. This can be seen in the system settings under "Apps" and "Phone". Both must be configurable there (see screenshot for Call Identification), because only then are they active. However, this only works if the language settings are correct – both system language and region.
In practice, this means: If you operate your iPhone in the system language "English (US)" but at the same time use a different region (e.g., Germany, to get the correct number formats and units of measurement), you can use neither Call Identification nor Hold Music Assistant. If everything is set to Germany, it works – just as if "English (US)" is linked to the region "United States". However, the iPhone then apparently reacts in the respective language: depending on the country setting, the voice asks who is calling – and the Hold Music Assistant is also likely to be tailored to the respective market. The results can therefore vary in quality.
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