# Do you use the ignore button on your phone? If so, how often and with whom? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [November 7, 2019, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100 "2019-11-07T01:01:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/21 "2019-11-07T16:25:31Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > Ah! > I was wondering what this thread was about. I have never heard of an ignore button. I had no idea what was being discussed. That is what the hang-up button is called? > [@cochrane](#): > > Mine’s a little different in that one button shows up on the screen. I swipe it one way to answer the call and swipe it the other direction to reject it. Or I can simply ignore the call and it will go to voicemail. It’s different on different phones, I just figured that was the easiest. Some have discrete buttons, some have a slider that goes in multiple directions, some have two slides etc. I’ve also seen it called Ignore and Decline and they’re likely other names as well. I just figured green is for picking up and red was for ignoring would be the quickest way to explain it. On my phone, there’s even a setting to shut the phone up (I think it’s for not just ringing but various other alerts as well) by placing your hand over it. I haven’t used that one yet, it seems like a good way to dismiss things that I don’t want to dismiss. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/22 "2019-11-07T19:13:28Z")
I play the stereo loud enough so I never hear it ring. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/23 "2019-11-07T19:44:37Z")
> [@rbroome](#): > > Ah! > I was wondering what this thread was about. I have never heard of an ignore button. I had no idea what was being discussed. That is what the hang-up button is called? I call it the “end call” button. But when I’m speaking about ending the call, I still say I’m hanging up. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 7:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/24 "2019-11-07T19:46:01Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > It’s different on different phones, I just figured that was the easiest. Some have discrete buttons, some have a slider that goes in multiple directions, some have two slides etc. I’ve also seen it called Ignore and Decline and they’re likely other names as well. > I just figured green is for picking up and red was for ignoring would be the quickest way to explain it. > > On my phone, there’s even a setting to shut the phone up (I think it’s for not just ringing but various other alerts as well) by placing your hand over it. > I haven’t used that one yet, it seems like a good way to dismiss things that I don’t want to dismiss. I like the idea of just waving the call away with your hand. ---
**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/25 "2019-11-07T20:00:26Z")
It’s called “turning the sound, and vibrate, off, and looking at the screen to see who’s called” and has been my go-to phone setting for over 5 years now. ---
**Author:** ![CookingWithGas](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cookingwithgas/32/485_2.png) [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/26 "2019-11-07T20:10:12Z")
I hit the ignore button if the call is from an unknown number. I always answer calls from people I know, unless I physically can’t talk. ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2019, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/27 "2019-11-07T22:04:34Z")
If my mom or my wife call me, I’ll answer. Everyone else gets ignored. But if you leave a message I may call you back if I feel like it. Honestly you’d save time to just text. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/28 "2019-11-08T23:28:44Z")
> [@Personal](#): > > I seem to recall when I was a kid in the late 70s we had a telephone hard-wired into the wall, and we didn’t have an answering machine (I don’t think many people did). Letting a call ring through wasn’t really an option. The phone would just ring and ring and ring (loudly, mind you) until the caller hung up. And if you took the receiver off of the phone and laid down, after 30 seconds or so, the dial tone would cut off and the earpiece would start clicking, loud enough that if you were in the same room you could hear it. You couldn’t unplug the phone because it was hard-wired both ways. The old man would occasionally grab the receiver and throw it in a kitchen drawer if he didn’t want to be disturbed by the phone. What we have now is a big improvement. I can ignore people at my pleasure. When I was training, I routinely went 36+ hours without sleep so the last thing I wanted when I finally got to go to bed was a ringing phone. I learned that if you unscrewed the earpiece from the phone the speaker would just fall out (i.e. no wires to disconnect). I could then leave the phone off the hook as long as I wanted without any loud clicks/sounds/howls to ‘remind’ me to hang the phone back up. ---
**Author:** ![Joey\_P](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/919ad9/32.png) [@Joey\_P](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joey_P)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2019, 11:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/29 "2019-11-08T23:50:30Z")
> [@KarlGauss](#): > > When I was training, I routinely went 36+ hours without sleep so the last thing I wanted when I finally got to go to bed was a ringing phone. I learned that if you unscrewed the earpiece from the phone the speaker would just fall out (i.e. no wires to disconnect). I could then leave the phone off the hook as long as I wanted without any loud clicks/sounds/howls to ‘remind’ me to hang the phone back up. You could accomplish that by disconnecting the handset from the base as well. I’m kind of surprised that in all these years no one came up with a simple device that you could plug into a phone jack with a switch that would simulate it being off the hook. I don’t even recall (residential) phones having some type of Do Not Disturb buttons that would do the same thing, make the phone act like it’s off the hook but without the noise. ---
**Author:** ![commasense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/commasense/32/3017_2.png) [@commasense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/commasense)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2019, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/30 "2019-11-10T19:34:02Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > You could accomplish that by disconnecting the handset from the base as well. **Personal** was talking about the old days, before modular jacks, when phones were hard wired to the wall and handsets were hardwired to the base unit. ---
**Author:** ![Personal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Personal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Personal)\ **Post date:** [November 10, 2019, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/31 "2019-11-10T19:42:55Z")
A downside to the whole ignoring thing is that you know that I know that you called, and if I don’t call call you back, or text you or something, you can be upset about being ghosted (and you’re probably within your rights to be so). ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 11:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/32 "2019-11-12T11:21:56Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > Not sure if you’re joking but…on pretty much every Android and Apple phone, the green button answers the call, the red button ignores (or declines) it and sends it to voicemail, they both show up on the screen while it’s rining. > > If you have an older flip phone, usually pressing one of the buttons on the side without opening the phone, will push the call to voicemail (IOW ignore). Not joking. I didn’t know a red X meant “ignore call and send to voicemail.” If only there were some method of visual communication to inform the user of its purpose… like the clever runes I’m using now. All I knew was that pressing it made the phone quiet. ---
**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\ **Post date:** [November 12, 2019, 1:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/33 "2019-11-12T13:09:39Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > In iOS 13 there is the option to send any call not on your contacts list straight to voicemail. I _never_ answer my phone. Everyone knows I prefer texting, so the only calls I get are from those who don’t know me. Once every day or two I read/delete my voicemails (Apple speech to text is great). This. This is the one feature that I cared about when iOS 13 came out. Couldn’t care less about all of the other stuff they added. It’s sure sweet to look at my phone after a long day and see that four or five bogus calls had been silently ignored, with a couple of them repeated and ignored a second time. And yes, when one of the actually leaves a message I use the speech to text feature to immediately dismiss the “blah blah about your student loan blah blah” stuff that often is left. It’s the cat’s meow! ---
**Author:** ![chizzuk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@chizzuk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chizzuk)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2019, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/34 "2019-11-13T00:13:39Z")
If they’re in my contact list, I’ll answer the call if I’m available.\* Every other number gets declined and sent to voicemail for later filtering. \*If it’s immediate family, I’ll answer no matter what or drop everything to call back immediately if I missed the call. All of us loathe the phone and are strictly a text-and-email family. If one of them is calling me, something is urgently wrong. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 3:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/35 "2019-11-14T03:05:48Z")
My Pixel 3XL has a button that screens calls. It plays a message that I’m using a call screening app and tells them to say their name and reason for calling. If someone is calling for a legit reason i can read their response and answer it if it is legit. Otherwise, I add it to my spam blacklist. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 5:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/36 "2019-11-14T17:32:18Z")
On my cell phone, I never answer it if the caller isn’t listed on my caller ID. If the call is important they’ll leave a v/m. If they can’t be bothered then it can’t be important, at least IMHO. On the land line we have one call number blocked. Otherwise we use the cell phone rule. ---
**Author:** ![Mallard](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Mallard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mallard)\ **Post date:** [November 14, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100/37 "2019-11-14T17:33:20Z")
On my cell phone, I never answer it if the caller isn’t listed on my caller ID. If the call is important they’ll leave a v/m. If they can’t be bothered then it can’t be important, at least IMHO. On the land line we have one call number blocked. Otherwise we use the cell phone rule. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-you-use-the-ignore-button-on-your-phone-if-so-how-often-and-with-whom/843100.md?page=1)