If you wear an Apple Watch, own a pair of AirPods, or frequently connect to your car’s Bluetooth system, you have probably experienced this frustration: you answer an incoming phone call directly on your iPhone screen, but the audio is instantly routed to a Bluetooth device sitting in another room. This happens because iOS tries to intelligently guess where you want to hear the call based on your connected accessories. If you prefer to always hear phone calls exactly where you answered them (on the physical phone), you can turn off this automatic routing.
How to Disable Automatic Call Routing
You can force your iPhone to always use its built-in earpiece speaker for incoming and outgoing calls by changing a setting tucked away in the Accessibility menu.
- Open the Settings app on your iPhone.
- Scroll down and tap on Accessibility.
- Under the “Physical and Motor” section, tap on Touch.
- Scroll all the way down to the bottom of the Touch menu and tap on Call Audio Routing.
- By default, this will be set to “Auto.”
- Tap on Speaker (if you want calls to always default to speakerphone) or Bluetooth Headset (if you want to force them there).
- However, if you want the call to stay on the phone itself like a traditional handset, unfortunately, there is no “Phone Only” option.
The Practical Workaround
Because Apple removed the direct “Handset” option in recent iOS updates, the best way to prevent your phone from randomly sending calls to your AirPods in the next room is to manually manage your Bluetooth connections.
Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen to open the Control Center. Before you answer a critical call, tap the blue Bluetooth icon to temporarily disconnect your accessories. This guarantees the audio will stay on your phone. Once the call is finished, tap the icon again to seamlessly reconnect your watch and headphones.