One of the most important things phones allow us to do is to remain connected across various locations, time zones and devices. The evolution of cell phones has rapidly created enhanced convenience and countless features, all at our fingertips. From browsing the internet to purchasing an item in another country to staying in touch with our long-distance colleagues and loved ones, cell phones play a huge role.
Today, smartphones like iPhones have more capabilities than ever and allow us to run an entire business with their features alone. One feature that enhances our communication and productivity is call forwarding. Keep reading to learn how to set up call forwarding on an iPhone and how it can give you more flexibility.
What Is Call Forwarding?
Call forwarding, also known as call diversion, is a phone feature that allows you to forward or redirect your calls to another phone number, such as a landline, home, office or another mobile phone.
Many businesses use this feature to send calls to a different number for employees who travel for weeks at a time to remain productive and connected. Businesses can also use it to forward calls going to an office directly to a cell phone to reach a particular person instead.
When you turn on call forwarding, incoming calls go straight to your alternate number and your mobile phone won’t ring. Once you turn call forwarding on, it remains active until you disable it. Though this feature was once only provided on landlines, today, most phone plans carry the option. Smartphones like iPhones have call forwarding built into the operating system so you can turn it on and off with a few clicks of a button.
Benefits of Setting up Call Forwarding
Call forwarding can be useful in a few ways. Whether you’re trying to stay within your call minutes limit for the month or want to save your phone’s battery, you can use call forwarding to make these situations easier. You may even anticipate an important business call and want to forward it to your landline for better reception. Here are some other benefits of setting up and using call forwarding.
Always Stay Connected
Because you no longer have to stay in one place to take or make phone calls, mobile phones and call forwarding make it easy for you to be on the go without worrying if you’ll miss an urgent or important call. As an employee, you can leave the office for the day or stay in contact with clients as you run a quick errand.
If you run into traffic on your way to work, you can forward your business calls to your cell phone until you make it to the office. This feature makes it simple to always remain ready to take a customer or colleague’s call. You can even forward your calls to a co-worker’s phone if you plan on taking a vacation.
If you forget your cell phone at home, you can call your network carrier or visit their website to find a call forwarding page that lets you redirect your calls to another mobile phone or landline near you. If you need to leave the house but know a loved one will be calling your house phone, you can easily transfer the call to your cell phone instead.
Avoid Phone Tag and Increase Availability
Call forwarding can increase availability among you and your staff. For example, if you’re not in your office at the time of a call, it will likely go to voicemail. By the time you get back to your caller, they may get busy on their end and cause a game of phone tag where you continuously miss each other’s calls.
With mobile phones like iPhones that have call forwarding, you can immediately direct your calls to your cell phone, so you can remain available even if you’re not physically sitting at your desk. This ability helps you stay connected with your clients in real time and provides convenience for them.
Make It Easier to Travel
The convenience of taking calls anywhere stretches to salespeople, construction workers, real estate agents and any other profession where you need to travel to conduct business or spend more time away from your desk than at it. You can also benefit from this if you’re simply going on vacation to another country and want to make it easier for people to stay in touch with you at your new location. Call forwarding gives you the freedom to travel without missing any calls or messages.
Reduce Long-Distance Calls
Using call forwarding makes it easier for people in other states or countries to connect with you if you have a home office and conduct business around the world. Instead of making a long-distance call, your clients and business partners can call your local number and immediately get forwarded to your direct line.
For smaller or newer businesses, this feature also makes it easier to expand your company’s presence and decrease the likelihood of missed calls, which can help your business become more efficient and improve your customer service.
Establish Call Forwarding on Your iPhone
Turning call forwarding on or off on your iPhone is a quick and straightforward process. Before setting your iPhone to forward calls, you must be within a cellular network range.
Here’s how the call forwarding iPhone setup process works:
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll until you see “Phone,” then click it.
- Tap “Call Forwarding.”
- Confirm the button swipes to the right to indicate the feature is on.
- Click “Forward To.”
- Enter the phone number where you want your calls redirected.
- Use the back button to save your changes — if you force-close the Settings app, it might reset your information — and confirm the destination number is correct.
Here’s how to turn off call forwarding on your iPhone:
- Open the Settings app.
- Scroll until you see “Phone,” then click it.
- Tap “Call Forwarding.”
- Swipe the button to the left.
- Use the back button to save your changes and confirm the number is correct.
If you need to go through your network carrier, there’s an alternative way to turn call forwarding on and off.
To turn it on:
- Call your network carrier or visit their website for any specific requirements or instructions for activation.
- From your cell phone, dial *72 and the phone number where you want to forward your calls.
To turn it off:
- Use your network carrier’s call forwarding page or call service.
- From your cell phone, dial *73.
To avoid any issues, especially if you’re redirecting work and business calls, you can do a test call to ensure your phone is successfully activated or disabled from call-forwarding mode. Remember that your cell phone won’t ring until you turn call forwarding off, so be sure to disable it when you no longer need to use it.
Learn More iPhone Features With Gazelle
Call forwarding is a beneficial feature for both businesses and individuals. Many other iPhone features and tricks can help you avoid spending money on third-party services for capabilities your device already has. At Gazelle, we specialize in refurbishing and reselling iPhone and Samsung devices and helping our customers learn more about their phones through our help and tip articles.
Whether you’re interested in new and upcoming cell phone industry updates or want to know how to fix your slow phone or how to use Apple Pay, we have all the information you need to troubleshoot common problems and enhance your phone’s functions. Explore our blog for more.