Managing dual sim numbers on iPhone

Forums › Spark New Zealand (including Skinny and BigPipe) › Managing dual sim numbers on iPhone

Geektastic

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#284648 7-May-2021 09:43

I’m not sure if this is a Spark issue or a handset issue.

I have two numbers on my iPhone. Both Spark.

I want to set it so one goes to voicemail when I’m doing one job and the other does the same when I’m doing the other job.

This seems like a fairly logical use of dual sim capability but I can’t see any simple way to do it. Any ideas?

Geektastic

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#2703696 8-May-2021 13:42

Nobody knows?

Geektastic

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#2703697 8-May-2021 13:42

Nobody knows?

Delorean

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#2703700 8-May-2021 14:24

So in essence you are wanting to disable one SIM for a period so it goes to voicemail and use the other?

why not just turn one SIM off while you don't need it.

Or am I missing something?

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Geektastic

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#2703731 8-May-2021 17:56

Only that I’ve not got a clue. The answer might be that simple but one never knows.

richms

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#2703733 8-May-2021 18:03

You could use call diversion to force calls to go to voicemail when you dont want them. Its been so long since I have done that I cant recall them but I have not looked at that since they got on the dual sim feature a decade after everyone else but at least on all the androids I have used it was pretty self evident which sim you were setting diversion on in the menu.

Richard rich.ms

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#2703792 9-May-2021 08:41

I found Call Forwarding and you can set it for each line although it’s no simple one button solution like “Divert All Calls To Voicemail”. You have to know the actual phone number for voice mail.

Also, really I only want one voicemail to check using the Spark app (it will be abundantly clear by message content which messages belong to which number) and I can’t really see how to do that.

Dual sim seems slightly like a good idea that hasn’t had much user input.

lxsw20

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#2703839 9-May-2021 10:44

Under Settings > Mobile I think you can turn off a line, IIRC. You wouldn't get notified of a voicemail until you turned that line back on. I'm not sure your use case is quite as common as you think, though.

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#2703984 9-May-2021 13:44

I went into Spark this morning. Essentially iPhones don’t allow you to do what I want to do.

If I don’t answer one number it will go to voicemail. However you cannot silence calls on one number only so you can’t get round it that way either.

Geektastic

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#2703986 9-May-2021 13:46

lxsw20:
Under Settings > Mobile I think you can turn off a line, IIRC. You wouldn't get notified of a voicemail until you turned that line back on. I'm not sure your use case is quite as common as you think, though.

Sadly it’s not possible to turn them on and off.

midiii

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#2705476 10-May-2021 13:09

You can turn the line off that you do not want to use.

Go to Settings > Mobile and under Mobile Plans you will have two services On, just go into which service you want to turn off and it will have Turn on this Line (change this to off).

If you want to receive voicemail this will be an issue as even with the Spark Voicemail app I think you can only use one phone number. You'd have to wait until you turn the line back on to receive alerts of the voicemails and then call to check them.

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#2706603 12-May-2021 14:53

midiii:

You can turn the line off that you do not want to use.

Go to Settings > Mobile and under Mobile Plans you will have two services On, just go into which service you want to turn off and it will have Turn on this Line (change this to off).

If you want to receive voicemail this will be an issue as even with the Spark Voicemail app I think you can only use one phone number. You'd have to wait until you turn the line back on to receive alerts of the voicemails and then call to check them.

This appears only to switch on and off the data plans for each number - at least they are under a heading "Data Plans" that allows on and off.

Under Settings - Phone (where the voice part is found in iPhones) that option is not there.

lxsw20

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#2706611 12-May-2021 15:35

It will disable the whole SIM from memory including the data plan, yes.

wlgspotter

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#2706623 12-May-2021 16:19

Geektastic:

midiii:

You can turn the line off that you do not want to use.

Go to Settings > Mobile and under Mobile Plans you will have two services On, just go into which service you want to turn off and it will have Turn on this Line (change this to off).

If you want to receive voicemail this will be an issue as even with the Spark Voicemail app I think you can only use one phone number. You'd have to wait until you turn the line back on to receive alerts of the voicemails and then call to check them.

This appears only to switch on and off the data plans for each number - at least they are under a heading "Data Plans" that allows on and off.

Under Settings - Phone (where the voice part is found in iPhones) that option is not there.

I think the setting that @midiii mentioned is further down in the next level of the menus, i.e. Settings --> Mobile, and look under the Mobile Data, Personal Hotspot, Default Voice Line, and next item you'll see "Mobile Plans", which should have both your lines listed. If you select a line you would get an option to "Turn on this line" - just flick it to off". However as mentioned I don't think you'll get notified of a VM going into the disabled line until you turn the line back of again.

As another option, perhaps you could try turning "Call Waiting" off? This setting would be under Settings --> Phone --> Call Waiting option. You should have one option for each line which you could turn it off. But then again I'm not sure if Call Waiting is the right option/solution for you as technically if you're on a job/call on one line, the other line is still free so if a call comes in to that other line then it would still come to the phone and not go into VM. Guess you may have to give it a try and see if this is what you're after?

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#2706645 12-May-2021 17:32

That does appear to turn it off - at least, the signal bar does disappear, even though the heading is marked ‘mobile data’ which is a bit confusing.

I’m amazed that you can’t even allocate different ring tones to each line or indeed simply silence one.