How to politely decline calls with an Apple Watch

The Apple Watch offers a hidden way to reject an incoming call without sending the caller with hurt feelings straight to voicemail.

Matt Elliott Senior Editor

Matt Elliott is a senior editor at CNET with a focus on laptops and streaming services. Matt has more than 20 years of experience testing and reviewing laptops. He has worked for CNET in New York and San Francisco and now lives in New Hampshire. When he's not writing about laptops, Matt likes to play and watch sports. He loves to play tennis and hates the number of streaming services he has to subscribe to in order to watch the various sports he wants to watch.

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Matt Elliott

Aug. 17, 2016 7:48 p.m. PT

When your Apple Watch rings when a call arrives, you certainly don't want to look like this guy. Though the Apple Watch is a poor choice for conducting phone calls, it can be useful for declining them -- though perhaps not in the way you might expect.

The Apple Watch appears to offer two options for an incoming call: A red button to decline the call and a green button to accept the call. Declining a call sends it straight to voicemail, a swift rejection that could insult or dismay your caller. There is, however, a hidden third option that lets you politely sidestep incoming calls, with hopefully no hurt feelings.

When your Apple Watch rings, simply place your hand over the watch. This mutes the ringing but doesn't send the call directly to voicemail. Your voicemail will only pick up after the appropriate number of rings, indicating that you missed the call rather than forcefully rejecting it.

(Similarly, you can politely decline a call on an iPhone by pressing the power button or either volume button, muting the ringing without sending the call straight to voicemail.)

Although this tip is useful, my favorite Apple Watch feature remains its ability to ping a misplaced iPhone.

(Via OS X Daily)