Call Screener is a Premium feature that protects you from spam calls and voicemails using two layers:
Voicemail screening — routes unanswered calls through Hiya Spam Blocker. Spam callers get hung up on; legitimate callers can leave a voicemail in the app
Real-time screening — prompts unknown callers to state their name and reason for calling before your phone rings
If your iPhone has iOS 17 or later, you may have Apple’s Live Voicemail feature turned on. Call Screener and Live Voicemail cannot run at the same time — Live Voicemail must be turned off before you activate Call Screener, or the setup won’t work.
Open the iPhone Settings app
Tap Phone
Scroll down to Live Voicemail and turn it off
Return to Hiya Spam Blocker to continue
Call Screener is available in the US and Canada. Supported US carriers include AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, Boost Mobile, Cricket, Spectrum, Tracfone, Ultra Mobile, Mint Mobile, and Xfinity Mobile. Major Canadian carriers (Bell, Rogers, Telus) are also supported.
If your carrier isn’t in the list during setup, Call Screener isn’t available on your plan yet.
Open Hiya Spam Blocker and tap Settings
Tap Activate Call Screener
Follow the on-screen prompts — the app will guide you through carrier setup and a test call to verify everything is working
When you see the activation confirmation, setup is complete
Tip: For best results, also enable Silence Unknown Callers in your iPhone Settings.
Tap Activate Call Screener again to retry. If the error persists:
If you see the message “Something went wrong and we were unable to activate Call Screener”, the app will show a number to call to clear any existing call forwarding — dial it, then try activating again.
After activating, you may notice that calls from your saved contacts are being screened. To prevent this, make sure Allow contacts is enabled in the app — this tells Hiya Spam Blocker not to screen or flag anyone already in your contacts list. See How to allow all calls from your contacts for steps.
Open Hiya Spam Blocker → Settings → tap Deactivate Call Screener and follow the on-screen instructions. This removes call forwarding from your carrier line.
You need to disable call forwarding manually. Open your device’s default Phone app and dial:
Verizon: *73
AT&T / T-Mobile: ##004#
Other carriers: Try ##004# or ##21#
