Permissions Required by YouMail on iPhone – Help Center

YouMail and your iPhone

Like many services, we ask you to approve certain permissions when creating an account and activating with YouMail. If you're wondering what these permissions are for, or even hesitant about agreeing to them, this article is for you.

First, we understand your hesitancy and applaud your diligence. We agree that it's important to protect yourself, and we care about security as well. After all, we are in the business of stopping those nasty scammers from invading your privacy (and wallets)!
Below, we've outlined what each permission is for and your options with accepting or declining those permissions. For more information, see our Privacy Policy.

Understanding Each Permission

Phone & Calls: Required

At the core of our services, we are a robocall blocking and voicemail replacement service. This means to work our (award-winning) magic, we do, at the very minimum, need permission to access your phone and call information. So how do these permissions actually help you?

When we're your voicemail
This permission lets us know what your phone number and carrier are so the app can make it easier to set up and enable call forwarding (the feature required to send your missed calls to YouMail). **For Professional subscribers: Allowing permission to the phone also allows you to make outbound calls from your Extra Line.
When we're your call blocker
You know all those annoying robocalls you get offering you a free hotel stay or threatening to arrest you? Yup, we hate those too. This permission lets us see the number of an incoming call, verify the number in our directory, and if they are the bad guys, we can keep your phone from ringing.

Contacts: Optional

Whether you want to give YouMail contact permission is completely up to you. We do have to warn you though: our app is far more helpful and smarter if we are given this access.

When we're your voicemail
This lets you unlock one of our fan-favorite features: our Smart Greeting. This feature lets us greet your callers by name (like "Hi Monique" or "Hi Mom"). We can also show their names and pictures when we send you alerts (in-app and by email) with this extra bit of information.
When we're your call blocker
This permission lets us ensure we don't accidentally block your contacts from reaching you. Spammers, unfortunately, are getting sneakier. They like to pretend they're your neighbors, friends, or local companies through a tactic called spoofing. If you grant us this permission, YouMail won't accidentally block your contacts.

Microphone: Optional

This is used if you want to record a snazzy new outbound voicemail greeting for your callers to hear or to connect VOIP calls via your Extra Line. Feel free to turn this off if you're concerned about it. (Then if you do ever want to record your own greeting, we'll give you the option to turn it on again.)

Push Notifications: Recommended

We recommend having notifications enabled so YouMail can send you a push notification to your device when you receive a new voicemail, transcription, or SMS** (**For paid subscribers).

Photos/Camera: Optional

This permission allows you to upload a personal profile picture or specific pictures for contacts and groups.

Enabling Permission via the YouMail App

In the YouMail App:

Click on the Gear Icon at the bottom right-hand corner
Scroll and select Data & Privacy

Select App Permissions
On this screen, you will need to ensure the required and chosen optional toggles are enabled as this will affect how the app will manage your voicemails.

For more details on each permission click here: Permission Details

Enabling Permission via the iPhone Settings

In your iOS Settings:

Find and select YouMail
Once here, you will need to ensure the required and chosen optional toggles are enabled as this will affect how the app will manage your voicemails, notifications, etc.

Important: Additionally, within your iOS settings, you will be required to enable your call blocking and identification settings which ensure YouMail can provide fast and efficient blocking against robocalls.

In your iOS Settings

Select Phones > Call Blocking & Identification

Ensure the YouMail Toggle is ON (Green) and any additional blocking app are disabled.

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