Spam calls are a scourge of our time, becoming more acute and nerve-wracking due to AI. We show you apps that help.
What are spam calls? This technical term can refer to a variety of unwanted and sometimes even dangerous calls. Almost everyone knows the phenomenon: Your phone rings, the number is unknown to you and not in your contact list. When you answer, an AI voice reads you an advertisement or there is just silence on the other end.
Regardless of who or what it is: spam calls are annoying and can even cost you real money if you call back. We present you with a brief overview of two apps each and the options that iOS and Android inherently provide to identify and block spam calls.
You can read about what the N symbol on your phone means here with us on MeinMMO or watch it in the following video:
Stop spam calls, these apps help
How can I activate the default spam call detection on iOS and Android? Both Google and Apple generally offer tools to deal with spam calls out of the box.
- iOS: In iOS 13 and newer, you can use “Silence Unknown Callers.” This option can be found in the settings of your iPhone under “Phone.”
What does “Silence Unknown Callers” do? This feature on Apple devices suppresses calls from unknown numbers and stores them only in your call list. The phone does not ring at all – either by vibration, display, or sound. You will only find the entry in the call list, and the caller has the chance to leave you a message on your voicemail. (More info: via Apple.com)
- Android: Go to the settings menu of your smartphone, navigate to
Caller ID and Spam
, and activateFilter Spam Calls
.
What does Filter Spam Calls
do? Just like with iOS, the filtered call only appears in the incoming calls and is redirected to voicemail.
Why should I then use third-party apps? With third-party apps, you get a more user-friendly interface and control options to configure how the app should handle spam calls.
Do the apps cost anything? No, but they contain ads and/or the option for in-app purchases. However, downloading, installing, and using them will not cost you anything extra.
Anti-spam call apps for Android
On Google Play, these two apps are rated very well: Call Blocker or Truecaller: See who is calling. Generally, all apps of this kind work relatively similarly. Even if you choose other providers, you will always have the option to manually add numbers to a blacklist or often set entire number ranges that should be blocked.
Truecaller offers on Android as well as on iOS (see below) an additional database where numbers end up that other users have already blocked. So, at least in theory, you often receive direct information about a spam call when it comes in.
Anti-spam call apps for iOS
On the iPhone, you can find these two well-rated apps in the Apple App Store: Begone: Spam Call Blocker and Truecaller: Caller ID Blocker. The options are identical to those on Android: more information, more control, customizable ways to create blacklists for blocking.
If you’re interested in more tips from the world of mobile and data security, we have more on offer on MeinMMO. Because aside from the informative articles linked above, we have more to tell about smartphones, whether you use Android or iOS. Elsewhere, we have for example listed six myths about phone usage that you should no longer believe.
