iPhone fun.

July 7, 2010 10:49 AM

Is it possible to use call forwarding on the iPhone (3G) to route calls from specific known phone numbers straight to voicemail? If so, how?

I know how to forward all calls to voicemail, but wondered if there is a way to route specific programmed numbers in this manner without using the Decline button, or any of the current shortcuts that you can use to ignore a call when the phone rings/vibrates. Written instructions or links welcome and appreciated, thanks all!

posted by Asherah to Technology (4 answers total)

No. For jailbroken phones there are call-blacklist apps , and apps that will schedule call-forwarding on/off, but that's as close as you'll get, as far as I know.

I'm shaky on this, but I suspect that what you want is not technically possible, since the call would need to ring once on your iPhone before the phone could get the caller ID data, and that is incompatible with forwarding. As I understand it.
posted by adamrice at 11:05 AM on July 7, 2010

Best answer: One thing you might be able to do is add a new ringtone to your phone that is just silence, and then assign that as a custom ringtone to a contact for that number. It wouldn't forward immediately, but you wouldn't hear it ring before it rolled over.
posted by Good Brain at 11:11 AM on July 7, 2010 [3 favorites]

if you're not willing to jailbreak, and you're OK with changing your phone number, sign up for a Google Voice account. you can set it up so that specific numbers go straight to voicemail. calls that are made to that number will automatically ring your iPhone (and whatever other phones you have, too). caveats: you can't port your existing number to Google, and you have to be careful about calling people back so it looks like you called them with your GV number.
posted by mrg at 11:55 AM on July 7, 2010 [1 favorite]

Google Voice will do this for you, even letting you specify certain times of day for the rules and all that jazz. Problem is getting those unknown numbers to call your Google Voice number, not your cell number.
posted by komara at 11:56 AM on July 7, 2010