How to Set Up Call Forwarding on Android

Call forwarding is the preferred phone feature of the “Busy Professional” type. Pro tip: make sure when you’re forwarding that whoever is at the forwarded end answers it and knows you’ve done it – it avoids a lot of awkward situations that way.

Looking for the best call forwarding apps these days is more of a challenge than it used to be, but we’ve burrowed deep and dug up a couple of the finest and are also showing you how to set up call forwarding without even needing a third-party app.

Call Forwarding Using Android

Before installing any extraneous call-forwarding apps, you should check to see whether your Android phone has an integrated option for it. How exactly you do it is dependent on both your phone carrier and manufacturer, but here are the instructions for using stock Android 8.1.0.

1. Open your Phone app, tap the three-dot menu icon at the top right then tap “Settings.”

2. Tap “Calling accounts” (though on some phones this may be Call settings -> Call forwarding), then tap the SIM card that you want to set up forwarding from and tap “Call forwarding -> Voice.”

You’ll have several options to pick and choose according to your needs. It should all be self-explanatory, though bear in mind that certain operators won’t, for example, let you turn off call forwarding to your voicemail when you’re busy (among other little quirks).

Once you set up your call forwarding, you’re good to go!

Call Forwarding Using Dial Codes

If you want to look like the big cheese in front of your friends, you can even set up call forwarding using dial codes. To get these to work, enter the dial codes followed directly by the phone number you want to forward to, then end it with “#.” So if the dial code is *21,* you enter *21*1234 98765# assuming your number is 1234 98765. (We apologize if that actually is your number.)

Here are the dial codes you can knock straight into your phone dialer:

• *21* – Unconditional call forwarding
• *67* – Call forwarding when busy
• *61* – Call forwarding when you don’t pick up
• *62* – Call forwarding when you’re out of range
• *004* – Call forwarding when you’re busy, don’t pick up or are out of range.

If you want something a little more simple, then you should check out the below call forwarding apps for Android.

Automatic Call Forwarding

While everyone probably has call forwarding baked into their phones somewhere (even if the feature is quite well hidden), you can get a few extra bells and whistles with dedicated call-forwarding apps. Automatic Call Forwarding, for instance, lets you turn call forwarding on or off by location (based on the Wi-Fi network that you’re connected to). If you have more than one SIM card in your phone, you can set separate call-forwarding settings for both, giving them unique instructions for the different WiFi networks you connect to.

Call Forwarding

The unique selling point of Call Forwarding is that you can set up lists of numbers to forward calls to so that you don’t need to faff around with typing in the numbers each time yourself (a shortcoming of the integrated version, which only holds onto one number at a time). It’s simple, it works, the colour scheme makes it look like it’s designed for either very young children or very old adults. What more do you want?

Conclusion

That should just about cover every main concern regarding call-forwarding on Android. Have you found an alternative call forwarding app with fancier features than those we talk about above? Let us know with a comment!