With iOS 8.1 and OS X Yosemite, you can answer phone calls from your iPhone on your Mac. It’s a useful feature, but if you find it annoying, it’s easy to mute phone calls on Macs with OS X Yosemite.
Turning off phone calls in OS X Yosemite is essential if you’re sharing an Apple ID with someone else at home and the Mac is constantly ringing, especially when a family Mac with multiple users, including a teenager, is ringing.
This is similar to how you can stop all iPhones from ringing when a call comes in, but you don’t have to share an Apple ID for this to interrupt your day.
Turn off iPhone calls on your Mac in seconds.
Apple includes an off option in OS X Yosemite that lets you receive text messages and use Handoff on your Mac.
To turn off iPhone calls on your Mac, you will need to turn on FaceTime and go to this app’s settings. Strange place for option, but at least front and center of options.
Start FaceTime.
Open FaceTime from your dock or using Spotlight to enter the app.
Open preferences.
Once you are in FaceTime, you need to click on FaceTime in the menu bar at the top right of your screen.
Find FaceTime preferences.
Then click Preferences. This will show all your numbers and associated FaceTime details and an option to turn off iPhone calls on your Mac.
Uncheck Cellular calls on this screen.
When you see your contact information, you will also see an option for iPhone Cellular Calls. This allows your Mac to use the iPhone to make and receive calls. Uncheck this option to turn off iPhone calls on Mac.
If you’re using more than one Mac, you’ll need to do this on each machine you want to turn the feature off on.
Overall this is an exciting feature, but it’s hard to ignore on-screen pop-ups that can interrupt work throughout the day. It’s also a surefire way to ruin a Netflix binge-watching experience when you see your boss’s name pop up on the screen.
You can follow this guide to turn off iPhone calls on other iPhones in your home that share the same Apple ID, and turn off iPhone calls on iPad. It’s still in the FaceTime settings, but not on your main iPhone, but on the device where your calls are ringing.
This feature works with newer Macs and Phones running iOS 8 and later and OS X Yosemite and later. If you don’t see these options, you may not be on the latest software. Both of these are free upgrades.
