If you make a call and you are waiting, a new feature in ios 26 will wait for you so that you can do other things. Hold Assist Listens for Hold Music Playing, then warns you when a person comes online so that you can recover the call.
Hold Assist is available on any iPhone that supports iOS 26 (that is, this is not an Apple Intelligence feature). The function works automatically on demand – there are no settings to switch and no configuration required. However, there are a few things to know. Here’s what to expect the time to use it.
Activate Hold Assist on a call
When you are put on hold during a phone call, Hold Assist will be launched automatically after 10 to 15 seconds. Will you know when a notification appears on your screen asking “holding this call?” Press the Socket Button to activate Hold Assist, or press the X to reject the notification and stay on the line yourself.
While Hold Assist is active
Once you have reached HOLD, you’ll come back to your iPhone’s home screen. A notification will appear briefly, confirming that you are waiting and that you will be alerted when it is time to take the call.
You can continue with everything you did on your iPhone, and the call will continue in the background. On iPhones with a dynamic island, you will see this as a live activity. On other models, time in the upper left corner appears in a green bubble, which is also what you see when you leave the telephone application during the calls.
When Hold Assist detects that a living person has responded, you will receive a notification. Just press it to come back to the call.
Also hold assistance screens on MacOS Tahoe.
Note that Hold Assist works by detecting Hold Music, so he can fight against automated messages based on voice or music with distinct words. You will see a transcription of all the words spoken, so it should help you know when a real person is at stake.
Manual activation Hold Assist
If you have initially rejected the labor assistance notification and you now want to activate it, you can do it manually. During an active call where you are waiting, just press More button (three points), then press Increase in the menu.
