With the arrival of the new General Telecommunications Law, we were hoping to put an end to annoying commercial calls, commonly known as spam calls. There are reasons why they continue to reach us on our smartphone, but fortunately, Android has an important tool to combat them.
We are referring to Google’s call filter, a feature integrated into the “Phone” application that allows you to act accordingly. Are you looking for a way to avoid calls from telemarketers? Keep reading, what we tell you the possibilities of this function: It’s completely free.
One of the reasons I can’t stand the iPhone for long
Given the nature of my job, I typically carry both an Android phone and an iPhone in my pants pockets (or in my backpack when I go out, of course), and while the two operating systems are more similar than one might initially think, The Google tool for Android feels basic to me, especially now that Spam calls appear to have proliferated.
It all resides in Google’s “Phone” app, which comes pre-installed on the Google Pixel and which you can also download to your mobile regardless of its manufacturer. It is free, weighs little and adds call filters, constituting an important barrier to prevent commercial communications from disturbing us.
First of all, it will of course be necessary to have it installed in the internal memory of our Android smartphone. Then, from its settings, it is easy to take advantage of the aforementioned functions. I tell you Which ones should I use to avoid phone spam?:
- Caller ID: This switch causes the phone app to inform us (if available) who is making the call.
- Filter unwanted calls: Enabling this option automatically blocks calls from numbers that Google recognizes as spam. So they don’t play on my Android: I don’t even know they’re coming.
- Block calls from strangers: This is not very common, but sometimes commercial calls can come from private numbers. With this setting, SMS messages from unknown numbers will be blocked, among other things. Additionally, you can manually add the ones you want to the list so that the same conditions apply.
In addition to these settings in the Google Phone app, my Google Pixel has an additional weapon to combat unwanted calls: the call filter itselfa blue button that appears in the incoming call notification. When you press it, Google Assistant will come to the phone to inform the caller that the call is being screened and tell them their name and the reason for the call.
This is not foolproof, in fact, most telemarketers will reject the call when they hear this message. However, they will think twice about it if they hit the filter every time they try to sell us the umpteenth offer. This is why I usually keep my Pixel active whenever I can: I forget to answer those annoying calls.
Alternatively, I recommend putting all possible obstacles to spam: the Robinson list can be useful, the control of prior consent is essential, there are also applications to block it, similar to those of Google. In this sense, Android has no rival.
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