If you’ve ever found yourself listening to music or an audiobook with your iPhone locked and your screen off—only to suddenly discover that your iPhone is calling random contacts, you’re not alone. It can happen at the most inconvenient times, like late at night while you’re trying to fall asleep, or while you’re enjoying a relaxing playlist. The call could be to anyone: an old contractor, a doctor, distant relatives, or even friends you haven’t spoken to in years. Worse, it often happens out of nowhere, without any warning.
This can be quite embarrassing, especially if you’re not sure how it happened. Let’s break down why this happens and, more importantly, how you can stop it from occurring in the future.
Why Does This Happen?
The root cause of this issue is voice control, which is a feature that can get activated accidentally. Modern wireless earphones—such as AirPods—have sensitive touch controls. When you touch or adjust the earphones, you could unintentionally trigger your iPhone’s voice assistant, which, in turn, could start making calls or even FaceTime random people from your contact list. This can also happen with wired headphones, which often come with an inline control. Pressing the buttons by accident could activate Siri or the legacy Voice Control feature.
The Solution
If this has happened to you, you’ll be relieved to know that there’s a way to disable this unwanted behavior. The trick is in the settings of your iPhone, but there are a few steps you need to follow to completely prevent random calls.
Step 1: Check the Side Button Settings
Start by navigating to your iPhone’s Settings > Accessibility > Side Button settings. In this menu, you’ll see the Press and Hold to Speak section. This setting only controls the physical side button of your iPhone, so it won’t have any effect on wireless or wired headphones. Therefore, you’ll need to make other adjustments.
Step 2: Disable Voice Control
Within Accessibility, you’ll also find a Voice Control dial. Although it seems like a good place to fix this issue, turning it off won’t actually solve the problem, as it doesn’t cover the controls on your headphones.
Step 3: Adjust the Settings for Wireless Headphones
For wireless headphones (like Apple AirPods), you need to go into the Bluetooth settings. Select your device, and under Press and Hold AirPod, change the action from “Siri” to something else—like “Noise Control.” This will prevent Siri or Voice Control from being activated accidentally when you adjust your AirPods.
If you’re using wireless headphones from another brand, most decent models will have an app that controls the features of the earbuds. Use the app to disable the voice assistant activation. While some wireless earbuds might not have an app, you can still adjust these settings if the headphones support them.
Step 4: Adjust Settings for Wired Headphones
Wired headphones, on the other hand, typically don’t come with an app to manage settings. For this, you’ll need to make adjustments within your iPhone’s Accessibility Settings. Go to Press and Hold to Speak, and select Siri. Don’t disable it—this will disable the classic Voice Control, which is the culprit.
Next, navigate to Siri & Search and turn off Press Side Button for Siri. This will prevent the Siri function from being activated by the buttons on your wired headphones.
Step 5: Handling the Lock Screen Prompt
Even after following these steps, some users might still experience a screen prompt asking them to enable Siri when using the lock screen. If this happens, go to Face ID & Passcode settings and disable Siri from appearing on the lock screen.
If that doesn’t work, the easiest solution is simply pressing the power button to turn off the screen whenever the prompt appears. This will prevent Siri from being reactivated and stop it from making random calls or FaceTime attempts.
Conclusion
It can be frustrating to deal with an issue like random calls while using earphones, especially when it happens at inopportune times. Luckily, there’s a straightforward way to stop it, involving a few simple tweaks in your iPhone’s settings. By adjusting Siri’s activation and voice control features, you can enjoy your music or audiobook without the unexpected surprise of calling a random contact. If this issue still persists, make sure to check your Bluetooth or wired headphone settings and disable voice assistant activation where possible. With these changes, your iPhone will stop dialing your mom—or anyone else—by mistake.