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:
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For more details on each permission click here: Permission Details
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Enabling Permission via the iPhone Settings
In your iOS Settings:
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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
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