How to Allow Calls on Other Devices

Jul 14, 2021

1 minute

Are you ever on your iPad playing games or working on a project, and your phone starts ringing, but it's across the room? Wouldn't it be lovely if Apple had a built-in iPhone feature that allowed you to answer your phone on your Wi-Fi-only iPad?

Lucky for you, Apple did create a built-in feature that can make that a reality: allow calls on other devices. Allowing calls on other devices is a continuity feature that allows you to use your products seamlessly, by forwarding your calls to your other Apple products.

You can choose to allow this feature on all your Apple devices or select specific devices to allow calls for on your iPhone, and it only takes a minute to set up. In this guide, I will help you make sure you have the settings in place to allow calls on other devices, and I will show you how to set up calls on other devices.

Note: These steps are completed on an iPhone, but can be done on all your Apple devices. Steps may vary slightly depending on what Apple devices you are trying to allow calls on, and what version of software you have installed.

iPhone 11 (256GB + Green)

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The allow calls on other devices feature is always in your settings. It's there waiting for you to use it if you choose to. However, if you want your devices to show up in the list of devices to forward calls to, then you need to make sure of the following:

An activated carrier plan for the original device (the iPhone).
All devices you wish to allow calls on for are signed in to the same Apple ID in Settings (iCloud).
All devices are updated to the latest available version of iOS. iOS 8.1 or later is required, but if devices are on different iOS versions, you may run into trouble. Macs are required to have Yosemite or later, but may not be compatible with later versions of iOS when setting this feature up.
All devices are signed in to the same Wi-Fi network.
Mac Mini and Mac Pros require an external headset to use this feature.

Now that your settings are good to go, let's open the Settings app to get started!

Click "cellular," so that we can get the option to allow calls on other devices.

Click "calls on other devices," so that we can allow calls on other devices.

Click the toggle to the right of "allow calls on other devices" to allow calls on other devices.

Below "allow calls on other devices" there will be a list of the applicable devices that you can allow calls on. To the right of each device, you will see a toggle. This allows you to specify which devices use this feature, and which do not. Click the toggles to the right of the Apple devices you wish to use this feature with.

That's it! Now, try out the feature and tell us what you think! Remember, this feature allows the calls to go to all the devices with this feature turned on. It doesn't mean your original device, your iPhone, will not still ring.

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