iOS 9 tells you who that unknown caller is

This single feature may make upgrading to iOS 9 worth the effort.

About 10 times every day some “Unknown” person calls my phone, and fearing an untimely/uncomfortable/tedious/unnecessary conversation, I often don’t pick up. They often don’t leave voicemail, so I’m left to wonder if I just refused a call from somebody important.

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Apple’s new iOS 9 mobile operating system contains a very cool new feature that attempts to help you out with that problem.

When an unknown person (or bot) calls, the OS searches through your email for names that might be associated with the phone number calling. When it finds a possible match, it says “Maybe [person’s name]” underneath the phone number on the screen.

This can totally change your decision on whether to take the call. You may have no problem talking to the person during business hours but have no desire to talk to them in the evening, for example.

Actually, our Paul Sawers called for this feature in his story “10 apps that should be core smartphone features” last month. Sawers points out that TrueCaller already offers the caller ID functionality in its app. The TrueCaller app also allows users to form block lists for telemarketers, scammers, and other undesirables.

Of course iOS 9 comes with all sorts of other enhancements, such as a smarter Siri personal assistant, multitasking functionality on the iPad, and new “press and hold” contextual menus on the iPhone 6s and 6s Plus. Apple is pushing iOS 9 very hard — it even launched its first Android app to help users switch.

See our full iOS 9 coverage here.