Call screening is the process of evaluating the characteristics of a telephone call

Telephone call

A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the calling party and the called party.-Information transmission:A telephone call may carry ordinary voice transmission using a telephone, data transmission when the calling party and called party are using modems, or facsimile...

 before deciding how or whether to answer it.

Some methods may include:

• listening to the message being recorded on an answering machine
  Answering machine
  The answering machine or message machine, also known as the telephone answering machine in the UK and some Commonwealth countries) and previously known as an ansaphone, ansafone, or telephone answering device is a device for answering telephones and recording callers' messages.Unlike voicemail,...
  
   or voice mail
• checking a caller ID
  Caller ID
  Caller ID , also called calling line identification or calling number identification or Calling Line Identification Presentation , is a telephone service, available in analog and digital phone systems and most Voice over Internet Protocol applications, that transmits a caller's number to...
  
   display to see who or where the call is from
• checking the time or date which a call or message was received
• prescreening callers to a request line
  Request line
  A request line or contest line is a telephone line which allows listeners to a radio station to call the radio studio or TV studio directly. In radio, this is usually to request a song, win a contest, be a part of a talk show, or to ask a question of the disk jockey, such as what the name and...
  
   at a radio station or call-in talk show
  Talk show
  A talk show or chat show is a television program or radio program where one person discuss various topics put forth by a talk show host....
  
   before they are allowed on the air

In addition, in the US and Canada, Call Screen is the name of a calling feature offered by the telephone companies that allows a customer to establish a list of numbers; anyone calling the customer from those numbers will receive an automatic message indicating that the call is not being accepted. Another name, not usually used for marketing purposes, is "Selective Call Rejection".

External links

• 'Call Screen' instructions from Bell Canada, now combined with the Call Privacy feature