At some point in your life, you’ve likely yearned to take a vacation and turn your phone off for several weeks (at least).
But as technology has become increasingly integrated into our daily lives, this may no longer be a realistic option for most people.
There’s always another notification to see, text message to read, and call to pick up.
But the question many wonders in case they ever get to shut their phone down is:
Do you get missed calls when your phone is off?
If you’ve turned your phone off for whatever innocuous reason- even if it’s just to get a few hours of undistracted sleep- you will likely NOT receive a notification if your boss or important client has tried to call you.
When your phone is off, the only way to know if somebody has called is if they’ve left a voicemail message.
To see if you’ve missed any calls, you’ll first need to adjust your iPhone or Android settings. Read on below to learn how to do this!
Can You See Missed Calls When Your Phone Is Off?
As mentioned briefly above: No.
Your phone will automatically reroute incoming calls to voicemail. However, if your caller doesn’t leave a message, there will be no record of their call at all.
Android users can change their notification settings to enable missed call reminders, but only once the phone has been turned back on.
Unfortunately for iPhone users, there’s no settings adjustment for missed calls. iPhones only list missed calls as those that rang on your phone but were not picked up.
If your phone is off and you miss any calls, your iPhone will not record them in the call history.
Typically, cell phone carriers won’t notify you of these missed calls at all either (unless you’ve specifically paid for it- see below).
When an iPhone misses a call, it reminds us of that well-known philosophical thought; “When a tree falls in the woods and there is no one there to hear it, does it make a sound?”
If your iPhone is off, it may feel as though the call never existed!
Thankfully, missing a call is not a philosophical debate.
Instead, iPhone users should contact their cell phone carrier or network provider to check if any paid services will allow them to enable missed call alerts.
Cell carriers will keep records on their servers of any calls that were made to your phone number. Therefore, they should be able to alert you of missed calls- you may just need to pay for this notification service.
How To See Missed Calls When Your Phone Is Off
Unfortunately for iPhone users, there are very limited options.
However, Android users can change their notification settings to alert them of missed calls once their phone is back on.
To change the settings, follow these steps:
Settings > Notifications > Phone App > Missed Calls > Select your desired notifications.
If you only want to have missed call notifications for specific contacts (like your boss), follow these steps:
Settings > Apps > Contacts > Notifications > Activate notifications.
If you’ve updated these settings and you still don’t receive missed call notifications, contact your cell service provider. You may need to pay for an alert service package.
Do You Get Missed Calls When Your Phone Is On Airplane Mode?
Your cell service provider still keeps track of calls and messages made to your phone, even if your phone is set to Airplane mode.
After you turn off Airplane Mode and your phone regains cell service and network connectivity, most mobile providers will send you a text detailing if you’ve missed any calls.
This is because when you’re in Airplane Mode, the calls and texts are stored on the cell provider’s server (and not your phone).
When your phone reconnects to the network, you will receive notifications of everything you missed while out of service.
Some network providers may no longer send texts detailing missed calls and messages, but you can still call and ask them to activate this feature.
They may end up charging you for this service, but it’s better than not knowing you’ve missed a crucial call from a recruiter or your boss!
Do You Get A Missed Call When Your Phone Is On ‘Do Not Disturb’?
The ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode is a neat feature more commonly used on iOS and Android devices.
This feature allows all alerts (calls, messages, notifications, etc) to be silenced so that you can remain undisturbed during that time.
This feature is excellent for sleep and other quieter periods of the day, where pings and dings from your phone would be an unwelcome distraction.
Rest assured that everything is still being sent to your phone while your phone is set to ‘Do Not Disturb’!
So, should you miss a call from someone important, you will still receive missed call notifications and messages when you turn the feature off.
If you’d like to make extra sure that important contacts can still reach you when ‘Do Not Disturb’ is enabled, you can enable them in the settings.
Simply tap on the ‘Allow Calls From’ option, and you will be able to select the necessary contacts.
‘Do Not Disturb’ is different from Airplane Mode. In ‘Do Not Disturb’ mode, your phone is still connected to cell services and the internet.
There’s no risk of missing and losing track of calls because your phone is still able to receive them- you just won’t be alerted to it!
For more information on this, visit the Apple Help page: https://appletoolbox.com/how-to-use-do-not-disturb-on-iphone/
Related Questions
What happens when you call a phone that is turned off?
In some cases, your call will automatically be directed to voicemail. However, a super brief ring dial is usually a sign that a phone is off or without any cell service.
How do I get missed call alerts?
Otherwise, contact your cell service provider and ask if they have any alert services you can activate. You will likely have to pay a monthly fee for the alert service.
How can I know if I missed calls when my phone is off?
If they did, you would receive a message alert to tell you to check your voicemail messages.
What happens when you turn your phone off?
They will, however, be recorded on your network provider’s server.
Additionally, if you have a missed call alert notification enabled on your phone or alert package with the service provider, you will know of any missed calls.
To Recap
So, do you get missed calls when your phone is off?
When your phone is turned off, you may not be notified of any missed calls.
While Android settings can most likely be changed so that you become notified of missed calls, iPhones will not have that option.
iPhone users should therefore make use of the ‘Do Not Disturb’ or Airplane Mode features if they want to be notified of any missed calls during off-hours.
Once you disable either of the two modes, you should receive notifications of missed calls and messages the moment your phone reconnects to cell services and networks again!