Answering a call on the iPhone

By peter, 2 November, 2014

Forum
iOS and iPadOS

I have been having a lot of trouble trying to answer an incoming phone call on my iPhone 4S running iOS 8.1.

When the phone rings, I try to answer by double tapping with two fingers. Often this does not seem to answer the call. If, instead of double tapping twice to anser the call, I try to flick around to find the "Answer" button, it is almost impossible to hear VoiceOver announcing the button lables over the sound of the audio ring tone. The problem is that the audio ring tone is not being ducked when voiceOver is speaking.

A second problem is that if I do manage to successfully answer an incoming phone call using the two finger double tap, this will often not only answer the phone call, but also start playing some music or a podcast from my phone in the background. thus, I'll be hearing both the phone call and some extraneous audio. Now generally the two finger double tap will silence any playing audio from within any app, but this is the same gesture used to hang up a phone call. thus, if I try to quickly silence the audio with a two finger double tap, the phone call is ended!

All of this is making it very difficult to use my iPhone as a phone. Is Apple aware of these issues? Have other people been experiencing such issues with the iOS 8.1 (and previous iOS 8) releases?

If any one has found some workaround for these issues, I would be grateful to hear about them.

thanks.

--Pete

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Comments

By burak on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 17:15

Slide your fingers updwards from the ottom of your screen a bit and you will find the button.

By Justin on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 17:15

Yeah double tapping with two fingers doesn't always work, I just use the answer call button usually, then when I'm done, i just press the power button. Hope this works, the answer call button always works. Also when the phone rings, press the volume button, either works to silence there ringer so that way VO can be heard easier.

Hanging up the phone with the Power Button doesn't always work, either. In fact, you might not want it to work if you're participating in a conference call, have turned the speaker on and then want to lock the phone.

By J.P. on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 17:15

Apple Accessibility is well aware of this bug. When I reported after 8.1 update, many had already reported. It was bumped to critical escalation. I would expect fix next update. I know that doesn't help now, and it is a hassle. Especially when you can't get music to stop. Try to keep music app out of app switcher,it helps.

By Clare Page on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 17:15

Hi! I wish I'd read these tips about answering a call using an iPhone with IOS 8.1 on it earlier. I don't get a huge amount of calls, but I tried to answer one this morning, and when I did so, I remembered that the two-finger double-tap is no longer recommended to answer calls as it can start music or other audio. I couldn't hear VoiceOver at all while the phone was ringing so I couldn't locate any kind of Answer Call button. Do I understand right that such a button is just above the Home button? If not, I'll try pressing one of the volume buttons when the phone is ringing next time. In this particular case, it was an unfamiliar number, so possibly a wrong number or a cold caller, but I don't want to end up getting missed calls and unnecessary voicemail messages because of this answering problem.

By Mister Kayne on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 17:15

This is something really new. I recently bought the iPhone 5S and did find many bugs with accessibility on the phone after updating to IOS 8. Your case is really strange but I have a tip for you that might work. When you get the call, press the sleep/wake button which is also used to lock the phone, press once only. This should silent your ringtone and then you can flick away to the left to get to know who is calling and flick back to the answer button.

Note: Press the sleep/wake button only once. Pressing it twice will reject the call.

I am not sure apple is aware of such a case. If you can please write to them, I am in the process of documenting all accessibility bugs and will write to them soon.

By Troy on Wednesday, November 26, 2014 - 17:15

You could also try to turn up the ringer volume in settings/sound which I find will also turn up vo when a call comes in, or simply get a ringtone that isn't very loud, For example I wouldn't recommend a ringtone with squeeling guitars and loud drums.

By thomas copeland on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - 17:15

i have a 5 idk wat ios ive yet to beable to answer or hangup a call i cant ever find the button on screen i even put bumpdots on the side and bottom they need a button that answers and hangs up

By Justin on Wednesday, April 26, 2017 - 17:15

Naw. If the phone rings, just hit the volume button to silence the ringer, then flick to the answer call button or do a double tap with two fingers. I've never had the two finger double tap not work on my end. Currently running latest version iOS on 6S plus