> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.aisync.link/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# iPhone & Carrier Screening

> What call screening is, why it is not voicemail, how AI Sync detects it, and what to record so screened leads still convert.

A growing share of the phones you dial answer **on the lead's behalf**. iPhone
Call Screening, Google Call Screen and carrier screening services all pick up,
play a recorded prompt, and ask who is calling.

To a dialer this looks like an answer. It is not a person.

## 🤔 Why it is its own outcome

<CardGroup cols={3}>
  <Card title="📼 Voicemail" icon="voicemail">
    A machine took a message. The lead may never hear it.
  </Card>

  <Card title="🛡️ Screened" icon="shield-halved">
    The handset is asking who you are. **The lead is often standing right there**,
    deciding whether to pick up.
  </Card>

  <Card title="🧑 Person" icon="user">
    A human answered and can talk.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>

<Note>
  Screening sits between the other two, which is exactly why it gets its own
  category. Counting it as voicemail hides a lead who is about to answer.
  Counting it as a connect inflates your rate with conversations that never
  happened.
</Note>

## 🔬 How detection works

```mermaid theme={null}
graph TB
    A[📞 Call answered] --> B[🎧 Audio streamed live]
    B --> C[📝 Transcribed as it arrives]
    C --> D{What was said?}
    D -->|Screening phrases| E[🛡️ Screened]
    D -->|Greeting patterns| F[📼 Voicemail]
    D -->|Natural conversation| G[🧑 Person → rep]

    style E fill:#6b3fa0,color:#fff
    style F fill:#b4531f,color:#fff
    style G fill:#1f7a4d,color:#fff
```

AI Sync listens to the **words**, not just the rhythm of the audio. That
distinction matters: a screening prompt sounds acoustically like a recorded
greeting, so systems that judge cadence alone routinely call it an answering
machine.

<Warning>
  If screening is misread as a machine, the call is dropped and you lose a lead
  who was about to answer. If it is misread as a person, a rep is connected to a
  recording. Both are expensive, which is why this is detected on words.
</Warning>

## 🎙️ Set up your screening script

When a handset screens your call, it asks who is calling. Whatever you record
here is what the lead sees or hears before deciding.

<Steps>
  <Step title="Open the dialer settings">
    Find **iPhone Script** in the dialer's left-hand panel.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Pick or record a script">
    Keep it short, human, and specific. A name and a reason beats a pitch.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Turn iPhone Screening on">
    The toggle sits beside Local Presence and Detect Voicemail.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Test it on your own phone">
    Dial yourself from a screened iPhone and listen to what plays. This is the only
    way to hear what your leads hear.
  </Step>
</Steps>

<Tip>
  A good script sounds like a person leaving a doorstep message: *"Hi, this is a
  real person calling. Please say your name and reason for your call and I will
  connect you right now."* A script that sounds like an advert gets declined.
</Tip>

## 📊 Where screened calls appear

Screened calls show up in two places on the
[Dialer Performance dashboard](/dashboard/dialer-performance):

* As **Screened** in the outcome bar, so you can see what share of your list is
  screening you.
* As **Handset screened it** in *Who actually picked up*, beside machines and
  real people.

They are never counted as connects, and never counted toward your connect rate
as successes.

<Note>
  A rising screened share is a signal about your caller ID, not your reps. See
  [Caller ID and numbers](/dialer/caller-id-and-numbers).
</Note>

## ➡️ Where to go next

<CardGroup cols={2}>
  <Card title="How calls actually work" icon="diagram-project" href="/dialer/how-calls-work">
    Every outcome in one place.
  </Card>

  <Card title="Caller ID and numbers" icon="hashtag" href="/dialer/caller-id-and-numbers">
    Why screening rises when your numbers get tired.
  </Card>
</CardGroup>