Phone App on the iPhone

This app is mainly to manage your phone messages in five main areas. They are: Favorites, Recent, Contacts, Key Pad, and Voicemail. Whichever tab is selected will stay there the next time you open the app.

Let’s take each one of those one at a time. Before we do that, open the Phone app by asking SIRI to open Phone.

Favorites

This is the first tab on the bottom left of the screen when you are in the Phone app. You can add various phone numbers in there for easy access if you need to call someone quickly. It is also a place where others can go to find those contacts if they need to contact someone for you if you are unable at the time. Double tapping on that will let you see those listings.

Recent

This is the main area that lists all your incoming and outgoing phone messages. They are listed from newest to oldest, top to bottom. You will hear Voice Over give the name, date and time of call, and how many times that person called you or you called them.

If you just double tap on that person’s name or business, it will call that person or business back.

Contacts

This is a direct link to the Contacts folder where you have added all your contacts that SIRI uses to make calls for you. You can arrow down and find the contact you are looking for and press Enter. This will show you all the information about that person, mainly their name, number, and other information like email, address, notes, and more. Double tapping on any one of those options will access them.

You will need to close that app in order to go back to the Phone app.

Key Pad

All this does is give you a number pad so you can type the number out manually. Also, this is important when you need to press numbers if you call a business and have to press various numbers that represent certain menu choices. Remember that this will stay in focus the next time you open the app. Press one of the other tabs that you prefer to have open each time you open it.

Voicemail

This is the most complicated menu area because there is so much to do here. But SIRI can read to you your most recent voicemail messages if you ask it. Otherwise, let’s navigate through the basic layout.

The first thing you will see is a list of the voicemail messages that have been saved in your voicemail. You can swipe to the right and hear one at a time or you can slowly drag down the screen to hear each one spoken out as your finger makes contact.

If you want to hear that message, just double tap right there. You may need to put the phone to your ear to hear the message.

If you move the phone away from your ear, the message will stop. You then can swipe right until you get to the Delete button and double tap to remove it from your voicemail messages. The next voicemail will then be spoken and gain focus under the cursor.

Repeat the steps above as many times as you need to delete the ones you don’t want.

At the end of this list is the Deleted Voicemails list. There is where you can retrieve a deleted voicemail that you didn’t mean to delete. I think you have about 30 days before they are deleted completely.

This concludes the lesson on how to navigate the Phone app on your iPhone.