How to place voice and FaceTime calls on hold with iPhone 4

Apple made some changes to the way users can put calls on hold with iPhone 4. While it may not appear to be there anymore, it is indeed still possible to place both voice and FaceTime calls on hold.

The disappearance of the familiar Hold button on the iPhone 4 may not have been noticeable to everyone, but there were many of us who were very confused as to where it went. Apple is notorious for cutting the “fat” from their products to make them better overall, so it wasn’t crazy to think they did away with it altogether to make room for the FaceTime button. It turns out that wasn’t the case at all – Apple just packed more functionality into the same space.

So, how do you put a call on hold with the iPhone 4? That depends whether it’s a standard voice call or a FaceTime video call.

Put a voice call on hold with iPhone 4

You’d think tapping the Mute button would just silence the audio going into the iPhone’s microphone. And you would be right! But tapping and holding the Mute button for a couple seconds actually places the call on hold, thereby muting both the earpiece/speaker and the microphone. One button, two purposes.

Put a FaceTime video call on hold with iPhone 4

FaceTime is a pretty cool feature, but we don’t always want to be “on” during a video call. To keep the video feed going and only worry about silencing the audio input, simply tap the Mute button. To keep the audio alive and pause the video transmission, just go to the Home screen or another app on the iPhone 4. It will be just like a regular voice call until you return to FaceTime to resume the video portion of the conversation. This can be done by tapping the green bar at the top of the screen. To temporarily suspend both audio and video at the same time, hit the Mute button first and then go to the Home screen or another app.