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Calls: who may ring, and when

On an Android phone, Sioul can screen your calls. A call from someone who may not reach you now is declined plainly, as you would by hand, and your operator sends it to your voicemail: nothing rings, nothing shows meanwhile. Afterwards the Porch says who called, at a time they may reach you.

Setting it up

  1. Settings ▸ This phone (on the phone) says what Sioul does with calls, what it never does, and what always rings.
  2. Let Sioul screen calls: Android asks "Set Sioul as your default caller ID & spam app?". Say yes. It gives Sioul no other permission. To stop later, Android's default apps on the same page, then "None".
  3. Allow reading contacts, if Android has not been asked yet: without it, Android rings your contacts' calls without asking Sioul, and Sioul screens the others only.
  4. Who may call you, and when: Settings ▸ What reaches you ▸ By person ▸ Calls (What reaches you, and when). Each row (your safe, neutral and restricted contacts, numbers not in your contacts, hidden numbers) rings at the times its row says, across work, admin, leisure, meals, sleep, the pause, Free time, and the two layers, time for you and do-not-disturb. The others go to voicemail.
  5. The people who must always get through (a carer, your doctor's office): put them on your Always through list, in What reaches you ▸ Exceptions, or from their card, How … reaches you (A person's sheet). Their calls ring at any time, sleep and pauses included, unless you blocked them.
  6. Where declined calls go: Check *#67# and Check *#61# open the phone app with the code typed in; you press call. Most operators send declined calls to voicemail.

Your voicemail greeting can ask callers to send a text instead.

Android 9 lets no app screen calls, and Sioul cannot silence it either: that takes Android 10. Android's own do-not-disturb, set in its settings, can keep calls quiet there (Do not disturb on every device).

What always rings

  • Emergency numbers, and emergency services calling back (in France from 0 800 112 112, or the emergency number itself).
  • Every call for a day after you call an emergency number, if Android shows Sioul your outgoing call (this cannot be tried without calling one).
  • A second call from the same number within 15 minutes, unless you blocked it.
  • Your Always through people, unless you blocked them.
  • Every call while Let every call through is on, but the numbers you blocked.
  • Any call Sioul cannot decide in time.

Do-not-disturb comes after: while one of Sioul's modes is on (a pause, Free time, its switch), the calls Sioul lets ring ring through it, your contacts' while this phone screens calls, and a second call within 15 minutes. Your own do-not-disturb, set in Android, lets through whom you set there (What each system does).

Let every call through

When you expect a call. On Sioul's quiet notification on the phone, the one that says what now is for (its channel: "Devices in step"): Let calls ring, 1 h, or Let calls ring until you turn it off; Screen calls again ends it. In the window, the phone button in the status line, on any of your devices: a click lets every call ring for an hour; a right click, or a long press, chooses until when.

Afterwards, on the Porch

"While you slept, a number not in your contacts called at 09:30." Each call waits until its caller's Calls row lets them reach you, or until your work and admin time for a row that never rings; never counted, no badge, never a notification. Under it: Text back, Call back and Seen; its ⋮ (or a long press, a right click, the Menu key) holds Add to contacts, Block, How they reach you… and Why?. When the same number called again and that call rang, the line says so: you may have spoken already. Sioul cannot see your voicemail, so it says: "They may have left a message." The phone's own call history lists every declined call too, with Sioul's name.

If your operator can mail you each message with its sound (Free can: your subscriber area, Messagerie vocale ▸ Notification, with the audio file), name the domain its mail comes from in Settings ▸ Words ▸ Voicemail by mail (Settings): the line then says "They left a message (0:42)." with Listen. The mail stays in your mail.

On your computers

The calls your phone declined also wait on the Porch of your computers, at the same times, once your devices share (Sharing between your devices, the part Calls): "While you slept, a number not in your contacts called your phone at 09:30." Seen on one device takes the line away on all of them, with ten seconds to undo. On a computer, Text back and Call back go through the app your system has for phone links (KDE Connect hands them to your phone), else Copy the number; Add to contacts opens a new card in Contacts, the number filled in. To keep the calls off your computers' Porch: the Porch's ⚙ ▸ Calls ▸ Calls your phones declined. To keep the list off one computer entirely, switch the part Calls off there.

A person's calls of the last month, rang or declined, are on their sheet: Contacts ▸ their card ▸ How … reaches you, or How they reach you… on a call's line. Each device keeps a call a month, then takes it out.

What Sioul never does

It never answers a call, never records one, never listens, and sends no number anywhere: no server, no lookup. The list of calls your phone screened travels only to your own devices, sealed, while the part Calls of the sharing is on. Texts are held as other apps' messages are, by who wrote, when Sioul has Android's notification access (Other apps' notifications, on a phone); Android's own blocked numbers stop a number's calls and texts for every app.