Don't know the number? Sick of telemarketers? Block 'em!
- Internet
- Jun 22, 2017
- 2 min read
SPAAAAAAAM, WONDERFUL SPAAAAAAM! Kidding — it's not wonderful. You're just sitting down to catch up on Netflix and the phone rings and it's Sarah from some wildlife organization, wanting to know if you'll donate money to save the penguins. Are they endangered? No, but they're very cold. Shut up, Sarah.
While iOS 10 doesn't innately block spam, you can download some third-party apps that can totally help you out.
Note: These apps are only available for iOS 10 or later.
Third-party call blocking apps
Many third-party apps have been developed (thanks to iOS 10's openness to developers) that can alert you of a possible spam call by checking an incoming number against the app's database. You can install multiple spam blocking apps and have them work simultaneously, just in case there are any holes in any app's spam library.
Truecaller is free, though it requires some information from you before you can use it, so if that's weird to you, check out the next app. If you like free apps, however, this one works quite well, identifying spam calls so you can disregard them and not answer. You can then block those numbers so that they can't contact you again.
There is a bit of a creepy element to this one in that you can enter any number to lookup the name and contact info, and you can see when your friends are free to talk, like whether or not their line is busy… Yeah. I don't know about that one. That being said, your phonebook is never made public or searchable.
According to software developer Marco Arment, Nomorobo is a great spam blocking app that doesn't ask for your information (no contacts or call logs — nothing) but does require a monthly subscription for $1.99.
The app is able to differentiate between necessary robocalls (school closings, states of emergency, etc.) and annoying robocalls, and you can choose to either block them outright or simply identify them and send them straight to voicemail (you know, if you're curious or whatever).
Hiya is another free spam blocking app that can identify spam numbers as they come in. It even has certain scam numbers flagged within its database, so you'll be notified if a con artist is calling you. You can make calls right from the app and customize your caller ID, and you can perform reverse phone lookups on incoming calls to find out if they're spam, a scam, or any other malicious content.
There's nothing inherently different about Mr. Number when it comes to spam blocking apps (in fact, it's made by Hiya), but it's another freebie that works really well and is quite highly rated in the App Store. You'll get real-time alerts that warn you of incoming spam calls and you can set it to auto-block them if you just don't wanna deal with them. You can also do the whole reverse phone lookup for any number that calls you.
Source: imore.com
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