You should just call people on the phone

"It's 2026, and I say it's time to bring call just calling people. No calendar appointment, no text first. Just pick up the phone and call. We must do this to save the very fabric of our society. It's time to take back what was promised to us. It's time to reach and out touch someone. It's time to raw dial."

"Right now, the beautiful art of the phone call is under attack. It's being threatened with extinction. Those ancient skills that made us great - prank calling, having a clever outgoing answering machine message, knowing how to answer an unknown caller - those things are already gone. Big Tech is driving this ruinous change. But we have the power to reverse course and resist. All you have to do is pick up the phone."

"The latest iPhone iOS 26 update has a new feature: unknown call screening. This means that when it's turned on, callers who aren't saved in your contacts will either be sent straight to voicemail or asked their reason for calling before your phone rings. (They record their reason for calling, and then it's spirited to you for review to make the choice whether to answer the call.)"

Unknown call screening in iOS 26 routes unsaved-number callers to voicemail or requires a recorded reason before ringing. The feature targets non-spam unknown calls such as doctor offices, schools, friends with new numbers, or colleagues. Separate spam filters continue to identify junk calls. Social etiquette has shifted toward texting before calling, reducing spontaneous dialing and eroding phone-call skills like prank calls, creative answering messages, and confidently answering unknown numbers. Big Tech and passive screening features are accelerating that change. A cultural push toward picking up the phone and calling without prior texts or calendar invites aims to revive direct personal connection.

Read at Business Insider