Calls: who may ring, and when¶

On an Android phone, Sioul can screen your calls. A call from someone who may not reach you now is declined plainly, as you would by hand, and your operator sends it to your voicemail: nothing rings, nothing shows meanwhile. Afterwards the Porch says who called, at a time they may reach you.

Setting it up¶

Settings ▸ This phone (on the phone) says what Sioul does with calls, what it never does, and what always rings.
Let Sioul screen calls: Android asks "Set Sioul as your default caller ID & spam app?". Say yes. It gives Sioul no other permission. To stop later, Android's default apps on the same page, then "None".
Allow reading contacts, if Android has not been asked yet: without it, Android rings your contacts' calls without asking Sioul, and Sioul screens the others only.
Who may call you, and when: Settings ▸ What reaches you ▸ By person ▸ Calls (What reaches you, and when). Each row of the people you know (your safe, neutral and restricted contacts) rings at the times its row says, across work, admin, leisure, meals, sleep, the pause, Free time, and the two layers, time for you and do-not-disturb; while you are Reachable, every one of these rows rings. The others go to voicemail. Numbers not in your contacts and hidden numbers have left that grid: they are the call screening's, apart (The call screening).
The people who must always get through (a carer, your doctor's office): put them on your Always through list, in What reaches you ▸ Exceptions, or from their card, How … reaches you (A person's sheet). Their calls ring at any time, sleep and pauses included, unless you blocked them.
Where declined calls go: Check *#67# and Check *#61# open the phone app with the code typed in; you press call. Most operators send declined calls to voicemail.

Your voicemail greeting can ask callers to send a text instead.

Android 9 lets no app screen calls, and Sioul cannot silence it either: that takes Android 10. Android's own do-not-disturb, set in its settings, can keep calls quiet there (Do not disturb on every device).

What always rings¶

Emergency numbers, and emergency services calling back (in France from 0 800 112 112, or the emergency number itself).
Every call for a day after you call an emergency number, if Android shows Sioul your outgoing call (this cannot be tried without calling one).
A second call from the same number within 15 minutes, unless you blocked it, or the call screening keeps it out whatever else (an automated caller, a number that cannot be a caller's, a number your network could not verify).
Your Always through people, unless you blocked them.
Any call Sioul cannot decide in time.

Do-not-disturb comes after: while one of Sioul's modes is on (a pause, Free time, its switch), the calls Sioul lets ring ring through it, your contacts' while this phone screens calls, and a second call within 15 minutes. Numbers nobody knows never ring through it, unless you expect a call. Your own do-not-disturb, set in Android, lets through whom you set there (What each system does).

The call screening¶

Calls from numbers nobody knows (in none of your address books, Sioul's or the phone's) and from hidden numbers are the call screening's, apart from do-not-disturb: neither do-not-disturb nor any state of yours switches it off. On the phone, Settings ▸ This phone ▸ Calls ▸ Call screening:

Screen calls from numbers nobody knows: on, at all hours as usual. Off, such numbers ring when your contacts may: while you are Reachable, at every hour.
When: at all hours, or only outside your work and admin hours.
Numbers not in your contacts and Hidden numbers: to your voicemail, ringing in your work and admin hours (a hospital's switchboard often calls from a hidden number), or ringing. Until you change one of the screening's settings, they follow what your Calls rows of numbers not in your contacts and hidden numbers said; the first setting you change fixes both, and no preset of What reaches you changes them.
Automated callers (since 2023, a machine may show only a number from the roots ARCEP keeps for machines), numbers that cannot be a caller's (France's numbering plan forbids numbers beginning 08 9 as a caller ID) and numbers your network could not verify: to your voicemail at all hours, a second call too, even while you expect a call; or each as other numbers nobody knows.
Numbers you called in the last 14 days ring as your contacts do, so that someone you called can call you back. The phone keeps the numbers you call for 14 days, and only while this is on.

Whatever the screening lets ring never rings where your contacts wait: under do-not-disturb, at night, in a pause or in Free time, numbers nobody knows go to your voicemail too, unless you expect a call. The people you know ring as their rows say.

Expecting a call¶

When you expect a call from a number you may not know: a hospital, a delivery, someone calling you back. Numbers nobody knows, hidden numbers and numbers you called lately then ring, even where your contacts wait; your blocked numbers, automated callers, numbers that cannot be a caller's and numbers your network could not verify stay out. The people you know still ring as their rows say: until 19 October 2026 this was Let every call through, which let every call ring, the people you know at night included; it no longer does. On Sioul's quiet notification on the phone, the one that says what now is for (its channel: "Devices in step"): Expecting a call, 1 h, or Expecting a call until you turn it off; Screen calls again ends it. In the window, on any of your devices: the card What reaches you now, behind the status line's button (What reaches you), with Expecting a call, 1 h, or Screen calls again while it lasts.

Afterwards, on the Porch¶

"While you slept, a number not in your contacts called at 09:30." Each call waits until its caller's Calls row lets them reach you, or until your work and admin time for a row that never rings; never counted, no badge, never a notification. Under it: Text back, Call back and Seen; its ⋮ (or a long press, a right click, the Menu key) holds Add to contacts, Block, How they reach you… and Why?. When the same number called again and that call rang, the line says so: you may have spoken already. Sioul cannot see your voicemail, so it says: "They may have left a message." The phone's own call history lists every declined call too, with Sioul's name.

If your operator can mail you each message with its sound (Free can: your subscriber area, Messagerie vocale ▸ Notification, with the audio file), name the domain its mail comes from in Settings ▸ Words ▸ Voicemail by mail (Settings): the line then says "They left a message (0:42)." with Listen. The mail stays in your mail.

On your computers¶

The calls your phone declined also wait on the Porch of your computers, at the same times, once your devices share (Sharing between your devices, the part Calls): "While you slept, a number not in your contacts called your phone at 09:30." Seen on one device takes the line away on all of them, with ten seconds to undo. On a computer, Text back and Call back go through the app your system has for phone links (KDE Connect hands them to your phone), else Copy the number; Add to contacts opens a new card in Contacts, the number filled in. To keep the calls off your computers' Porch: the Porch's ⚙ ▸ Calls ▸ Calls your phones declined. To keep the list off one computer entirely, switch the part Calls off there.

A person's calls of the last month, rang or declined, are on their sheet: Contacts ▸ their card ▸ How … reaches you, or How they reach you… on a call's line. Each device keeps a call a month, then takes it out.

What Sioul never does¶

It never answers a call, never records one, never listens, and sends no number anywhere: no server, no lookup. The list of calls your phone screened travels only to your own devices, sealed, while the part Calls of the sharing is on. Texts are held as other apps' messages are, by who wrote, when Sioul has Android's notification access (Other apps' notifications, on a phone); Android's own blocked numbers stop a number's calls and texts for every app.