I can’t tell you how often I see a post in a comment section or on reddit where people share the reasons they choose Google’s Pixel and they mention call screening. It’s got to be one of the top reasons people continue to stick with Google’s phones, because it does such an incredible job of filtering out all of the spam calls that flood our devices.
Today, as a part of Apple’s reveal of iOS 26, they’ve decided it’s time to copy one of Google’s best features, a feature that Google introduced as far back as 2018. Actually, they are copying two of them, as they are also poaching Google’s “Hold For Me” and calling it “Hold Assist.”
During the WWDC keynote, Apple executives walked through a number of new features related to the Phone app. The first was a reorganized or unified layout for the app itself, with featured contacts at the top, above the list of calls and voicemails. But after discussing the app’s new layout, they dove into “Call Screening” and “Hold Assist,” which again, are exact replicas of Google’s Call Screen and Hold For Me.
Apple showed off a way to have calls be automatically screened and it forcing the caller to state their name and reason for calling. With that information presented, a user could decide if the call is something to take or ignore. It’s such a powerful feature, that we suggested in 2021 that it was worth buying a Pixel phone for.
They then showed off “Hold Assist,” which is their version of Google’s “Hold For Me” that allows you to call numbers that typically require you to wait on hold and then notify you when a support representative picks up the phone. While not quite as useful in every day life as Call Screen, it’s a powerful tool if you are busy and don’t have time to sit on hold for 30 minutes and constantly pay attention.
Look, Google and Apple and Samsung constantly rip features from each other. Their acknowledgement of each other’s ideas has made our experiences in our tech bubbles better without having to switch platforms or devices. And to be honest, these are great features that Apple users will truly love and it’ll help them save time and avoid the never-ending flood of scams in our lives. But damn, this is a blatant one.
Hey, enjoy, Apple friends.
