While the iPhone is definitely a great smartphone, and above the norm in many respects, there’s still one big thing it can’t do: block calls. I can’t be the only one who wishes that Apple would allow you to screen certain callers on the iPhone – annoying friends, your nagging neighbor, etc.
Although it’s uncertain that Apple will ever allow the iPhone to block specific callers, Mike Beasley shared a tip on Twitter that allows you to do the next best thing: assign a blank ringtone to “mute” certain contacts and prevent your iPhone from ringing when they call!
Here’s how it’s done:
1. Download and extract this file.
2. Add “Blank.m4r” to your iTunes library. It will appear in the Tones section.
3. Make sure your iPhone is set to sync ringtones by selecting your device from the left-hand column in iTunes, selecting the Tones section, and make sure the “Sync Tones” box is checked. Sync your iPhone.
4. If the unwanted caller isn’t already a contact in your phone, create a contact with the unwanted caller’s phone number.
5. Pull up the contact in Contacts.app, tap the “edit” button, tap the “ringtone” field, and then select “Blank” from the list of tones. Tap “Save.
That’s all there is to it! Do this for each number you wish to ignore, and your phone will no longer audibly ring when they call. Unfortunately, this won’t prevent the call screen from appearing when they ring you, however, so they’ll still be able to interrupt your game of Angry Birds…
You can also mute annoying texters by setting the text tone to the same blank audio file.
