by Alabama News Network Staff

By JAMIE TUCKER Consumer Technology Reporter

We’ve all been there. The phone rings and you can’t answer. Maybe you’re just getting out of the shower, or maybe your hands are digging through dirt in the garden.

Maybe you have some mobility issues that prevent you from finding the phone, unlocking it, and then tapping on the “accept call” button on the screen.

If you can’t quickly answer the phone with your hands, Apple’s voice assistant Siri can do it for you. But you’ll need to set it up beforehand.

Open your iPhone settings and go to “Siri and Search. Make sure the “Listen for Hey Siri” is turned on. Then, scroll down until you see “announce calls”.

This setting allows you to use the feature only while wearing headphones, using headphones, and Car Play. Or, ‘always’. Choose always.

Here’s what’s going to happen when you change these settings:

When the phone rings, Siri will announce who is calling. If you have their number and name in your contacts, she’ll say who’s calling. If not, she’ll announce the number that is calling.

Even if you can’t pick up the phone yourself, you can say “hey Siri, answer the phone”, and the caller will be connected.

If you’re not able to hold the phone up to your ear, say “Siri, answer the call on speaker”.

You’ll be able to talk to the person calling from several feet away through the iPhone’s speaker and microphone. Pretty cool.

You’ll also want to go back into settings and turn on “call hang up” within the Siri and Search settings. This is new, so if you don’t see it, update your phone to iOS 16. This way, when you want to end the call just say “Siri, hang up”.

I set this up on my dad’s phone because he can’t always pick up the phone when I’m calling. It makes a huge difference in his ability to accept calls. Siri will also place calls just by asking.

If you cannot hold the phone up to your ear, just say “Hey Siri, call ____ on speaker”.

Unfortunately for Android users, there isn’t an option that works for every Android brand. Since each Android phone is different, you should check the accessibility settings to see if there’s one for your device.

From what I’ve been able to find, SAMSUNG has a feature that allows for phones to be placed and accepted but some other Android device makers do not.

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