You’ve made it through the automated menu, survived the hold music and finally reached a human being! They ask for your booking reference. It is, naturally, buried somewhere inside your iPhone, probably in an email you received six months ago. Internally, you scream.
Sure, you could leave the call screen, open Mail, and start frantically searching while attempting to follow the conversation. Or, with Apple’s new Call Context feature, your iPhone could find the reference for you and put it directly in front of you. Which one sounds like the better option?
Call Context is coming as part of iOS 27, and it might be one of the most useful additions to Apple Intelligence so far. Here’s what it does, how it works, and which iPhones will support it.
What is Call Context?
Call Context is a new Apple Intelligence feature built into the iPhone. When you call a business, it can proactively find information connected to it, and display it on the active call screen.
Apple’s main example is calling an airline to change a flight. Call Context can search Mail for the relevant confirmation code and surface it as the call begins, saving you from digging through your inbox while speaking to customer services.
Apple says that it can also display reservation numbers, so the same idea should prove useful when calling a hotel, restaurant or any other company that needs to identify a booking. However, Mail is the only specific source Apple has demonstrated so far, and it hasn’t published a complete list of businesses, apps, or types of information that Call Context can recognise.
You don’t need to open Siri or ask it to search for anything either. The feature is designed to work proactively, bringing up potentially useful information when it detects that you’re calling a business.
How does Call Context work?
Call Context uses the identity of the company you’re speaking to to work out which information might be useful. If the phone number belongs to an airline, for example, it can look for an email containing an associated flight booking, before automatically digging out the info.
Crucially for privacy advocates, Call Context works by looking at who you’re calling, not what you’re saying. According to Apple, Call Context doesn’t listen to the conversation or analyse the call to decide what information you need.
The process also runs entirely on the iPhone. Apple says nothing is shared with Apple, the business on the other end of the phone or anybody else. Your confirmation code appears on your screen, but it isn’t automatically sent to the company – you still decide whether to read it out or use it during the call.
Apple describes Call Context as surfacing information “from across your apps”, although its announcement only shows it retrieving confirmation details from Mail. It remains unclear whether third-party email, travel and shopping apps will be supported, or whether the initial version will mostly rely on information stored in Apple’s own apps.
The basic idea isn’t entirely new. Google introduced something very similar with Magic Cue on the Pixel 10 range. With permission, it can search Gmail and Messages for information such as an order number or flight confirmation code, then show it inside the Phone app when you call the relevant company.
Magic Cue is considerably broader than the one calling feature. It can draw on Gmail, Calendar, Messages and Pixel Screenshots, suggest flight or restaurant details during conversations and find relevant photos. Google has since expanded it with Gemini-powered restaurant recommendations, and support for suggestions inside Snapchat. Call Context currently looks like Apple’s more focused take on the same idea – AI that brings useful information into the app you’re already using, instead of waiting for you to open a chatbot.
Which iPhones support Call Context, and when is it coming?
Call Context is part of iOS 27, but it also relies on Apple Intelligence. That means that just because an iPhone can install iOS 27, it doesn’t necessarily mean it will receive the feature.
Apple’s current compatibility information says Call Context should work on:
- iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 15 Pro Max
- Every iPhone 16 model, including the iPhone 16e
- iPhone 17, iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max
- iPhone Air
- iPhone 17e
- Compatible newer iPhones
The standard iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus don’t support Apple Intelligence, so Call Context won’t be available on them. The same applies to older iPhones that can install iOS 27, but lack the necessary hardware for Apple’s AI features.
Apple says that its new Apple Intelligence features will reach users this autumn with iOS 27. Call Context will initially be available in English, although Apple hasn’t announced an exact public-release date or listed individual countries. Stay tuned for more info, as and when we get it.
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