How to call anonymously from Your iPhone

Giving strangers access to your phone number might not be something quite a lot of us are comfortable with. While never making phone calls to people who you don't know is not a feasible one. If you are among the many who wish to protect their number, you can do so by hiding your Caller ID from the people you make the call to.

1) Blocking your number.

If you wish to stop your caller ID from showing up for any calls you make, do the following:

1) Access the Settings app.

2) Go down to the Phone option.

3) Go to Show My Caller ID.

4) Move the slider to OFF.

• Indian service providers do not usually permit private numbers.

o Airtel provides a separate service called the Dialport.

o Vodafone has its own VPN service Vodafone VPN

o BSNL also provides voice VPN.

• All mobile operators charge a nominal fee to activate private numbers.

• The availability of the service for prepaid users will differ from network to network.

Procuring necessary information from your customer care before going for the above will be a wise move.

After verifying your eligibility for a connection as mentioned above, you can proceed to hide your caller ID through your device.

For example, if xxx-xxx-xxxx is the number you're making the call to. Before you call the number, you must add the code *31# before the mobile number, this will block your caller ID, and you cannot make a connection, the number will also have *31# preceding it when you place the call.

Drawbacks of activating private number service:

• When making calls to numbers which have Anonymous Call Rejection running, it will not connect unless you make it from an unblocked number.

• If you wish to make an unblocked call after you have blocked all your outgoing calls, adding an unblocking prefix before the phone number will do the trick. This prefix isn't specified for users in India, so you can use *31# as most networks make use of this.

2) Making use of a Burner Number.

The first method is more than efficient if you wish to prevent your number from never appearing at all, but if you do not have qualms about making use of a proxy when you make a call but only wish to hide your primary number for your iPhone, 'Hushed’ and 'Burner’ are apps that let you set up a second number, in addition to letting you burn the number and providing you with a new one. But these services are not free.

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Google Voice is a cheaper way available to do this. Though you cannot burn your number for free, you will be able to use another free number. And incoming calls made to the particular number will be rerouted to your phone.