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Stop pocket-dialing on your iPhone

Presenting three tips to help you from pocket-dialing on your iPhone.

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.
Expertise Laptops, desktops, all-in-one PCs, streaming devices, streaming platforms
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Matt Elliott
2 min read

After reading Nicole Cozma's post about how to stop pocket-dialing from an Android phone, I wondered if the same tips would apply to iPhone users. First, I checked the App Store for something akin to Call Confirm, the Android app that presents an extra step before you place a call. No luck. The closest I found was Call Guard, a $0.99 app that does the opposite--preventing you from hanging up on someone during a call. In the end, iPhone users have two tactics they can employ to lessen the chance that their pocket, purse, or butt dials on its own.

Matt Elliott/CNET

1. Power button for the lock
When I've been notified that I've just pocket-dialed someone, it typically happens right after I hang up on a call and have the phone app open when I slip my iPhone back in my pocket. A lucky somebody from my Recents or Favorites list gets dialed before the iPhone locks itself. To prevent pocket-dialing a contact after a call, hit the power button to lock the iPhone. Get in the habit of locking your iPhone before putting it in your pocket, and your pocket-dials will decrease if not cease.

2. Voice-mail screen is your friend
Tapping the voice-mail icon in the lower-right corner of the phone app should do nearly the same thing as locking the phone as a preventative measure against pocket-dialing. It's not quite as effective because your butt could somehow return you to the Recents or the Favorites screen--where a call is just a tap away--or call back someone who recently left you a voice mail before the phone locks. The odds are, however, that at most your butt will listen to a voice mail or two.

Challenge your arse to dial a four-digit code to place a call. Matt Elliott/CNET

3. Passcode Lock to the rescue
If you find that you are pocket-dialing not after recent phone calls but at seemingly random intervals, try the iPhone's Passcode Lock. Go into Settings, and under General you'll see Passcode Lock. Choose a four-digit code, which must be entered before you or your butt can unlock your iPhone.