What to know

  • You can put someone on hold on outgoing calls by first dialing a number and long-pressing the Mute button when the call connects. 
  • You can also put someone on hold when you receive an incoming call using the Hold & Accept option on the call screen. 
  • When you’re connected to multiple people on different calls, you can switch between them by tapping on Swap. This will put the current person on the call on hold. 

Apple’s UI for incoming calls is pretty minimal. You get a mute button, access to the keypad, contacts, FaceTime, and audio options. You can use these options to control calls, add more members, switch to FaceTime calls, and change the audio-out options. But if you get a lot of calls, you might have noticed that there’s no hold option. This can be a bit confusing, especially when you’re on calls and get another call that you’d like to switch to.

So how do you put someone on hold on an iPhone? Let’s find out! 

How to put someone on hold on iPhone [2 methods]

The hold button can be accessed using the tap and hold gesture on the Mute button. Here’s how you can put calls on hold on an iPhone.

Method 1: Put a single call on hold

  1. Open the Phone app and dial the concerned contact. Let’s call the carrier customer care for this example.
  2. Once the call is attended, long-press the Mute button.
  3. The call will be placed on hold once you let go of the Mute button.

And that’s how you can put single calls on hold on an iPhone.

Method 2: Put the current call on hold and pick up another call

This is a bit easier as the UI offers a visible choice when attending incoming calls while on a call on an iPhone. Here’s how you can access this option.

Note: This applies to both carrier and FaceTime calls.

  1. When you get an incoming call, you get the following options.

    End & Accept:     This option will end the current call and pick up the incoming call.
    Decline: This option will disconnect the incoming call.
    Hold & Accept: This option will put the current call on hold and pick up the incoming call.
    Remind Me: You can tap this option to create a reminder for the incoming call. You can choose to create a reminder for when you arrive home or when you leave your current location or in an hour.
    Message: Tap this icon to message the caller calling you.
  2. Tap on Hold & Accept.
  3. You can now tap the Swap icon to swap between callers. 
  4. You can also use the Merge option to merge the two calls and talk to both callers simultaneously.

And that’s how you can put an incoming call on hold while already attending another call.

Can you put a single FaceTime call on hold?

No, unfortunately, you can’t put a Facetime call on hold. The only option you get is to answer the call, send a message to the caller, or set a reminder so you can get back later.

We hope this post helped you easily put calls on hold on an iPhone. If you have any issues or more questions, feel free to reach out using the comments below.