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If you’re a fan of spam calls, move along, there’s nothing to see here.
But if you’d prefer spam calls didn’t even exist, you may quickly become a fan of Google’s updated Phone app.
Imagine being blissfully unaware that you get spam calls. In the latest update to Google’s Phone app for Android, spam calls can be blocked so you don’t even know they are happening. The update adds a Spam Call filter setting that tells the Phone app to send spam calls directly to voice mail.
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When you activate the Spam Call filter in Settings, spam calls will go directly to voice mail. When you receive a call from a caller that has been identified as a spam caller, your phone will not ring nor will you receive a notification that you have a missed call. You will be able to see spam calls that you receive in the Missed Calls section of the app.
The spam call will be sent directly to voice mail without your phone ringing first. If the spam caller leaves a voice mail message, a notification of the voice mail will not appear on your phone. You can listen to the message in voice mail or just delete it without listening to it.
Phones running Android 7.0 (Nougat) or later should update Google’s Phone app to take advantage of the Spam Call filter. You can get the update to Google’s Phone app at the Play Store: Phone app by Google.
If your Android phone does not come with Google’s Phone app, you can download the Phone app from the Play Store and set the app to be your default phone app. This way you can get the Spam Call filter feature to block spam calls from ringing on your phone.
(Note that some models of Android phones may be unable to download the latest version of Google’s phone app.)
Activating the Spam Call Filter in Google’s Phone App
The Spam Call filter can be activated in the Settings section of the Phone app. After you have downloaded or updated the Google Phone app, open the app and tap the three stacked dots in the top right corner of the screen. A drop-down menu will appear.
Tap Settings => Caller ID & Spam. Turn on Caller ID & Spam. Then turn on Filter suspected spam calls.
Reporting Spam Calls in Google’s Phone App
Google’s Phone app filters known spam callers, but some spam callers that are unknown to Google may slip through the filter. You can report spam callers to Google to help improve the Phone app Spam Call filter.
To report a spam caller to Google, open the Phone app. Tap the clock icon to go to Recent Calls. You’ll see a list of recent callers. Tap the number you’d like to report as spam. Tap Block/report spam. You’ll be asked to confirm that you wish to block the number. You should also see the option to Report Call As Spam.
Tap Report Call As Spam to alert Google that the number is from a spam caller. Your report can help to improve the app and block the caller for others using the Spam Call filter.
Learn more about the Spam call filter and reporting spam callers at the Google Phone app support page.
Your Thoughts
Do you like the idea of a spam call filter that totally blocks spam calls from ringing on your phone? Will you use this filter to be blissfully unaware that a spam caller tried to call you? What steps do you take to avoid spam calls on your phone?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below!
*Stop Spam image (edited) courtesy of geralt via Pixabay and Creative Commons
Hi Carolyn,
Thanks to come with this wonderful post.
Going to use Google’s Mobile Phone app for Android to blocked unwanted SPAM calls to follow your guidelines.
In this Digital Transformation World these Unwanted SPAM calls are Termites.
Thanks
Jagdish Adhikari
Hi Jagdish, You’re right, spam callers are similar to infesting termites. We should try to exterminate them with the Phone app from Google.
Hi Carolyn,
I used this App and as you mentioned in your article, it’s really useful to blocked unwanted SPAM calls. I do recommend Google’s Mobile Phone app.
Thanks
Hi Jagdish, That’s great to know. Thanks so much for sharing your successful experience with the Google Phone app.
Hi,
Thanks for sharing this blog with us, your blog contains very important information for us, I appreciate your work and effort. It’s very helpful information for us because everyone irritated by these kinds of calls.
Hello Hash, Good point. I don’t know anyone who welcomes these spam callers. Google is doing a good thing in helping us block these callers with its updated Phone app.
thanks for the article. this is a real big problem that we all face. good work by google in introducing this.
Hi Uttam, Yes, spam callers are becoming an increasing problem. The more tools we have to combat spam the better. This app goes a long way to help battle these spam callers.
Hi
Carolyn,
I don’t have Google phone app on my Android device and I’ve heard about this app for the first time. I will download this Google phone app. Thanks for sharing this useful information with us. The features of the Google phone app are awesome. Currently, I am using True caller Andriod app to avoid spam calls.
Thanks
Have a great day.
Praveen Verma
Hi Praveen, You may want to give the Google Phone app a try. To not even realize that spam callers exist would be a truly beautiful thing.
Great article. I didn’t even know that this app existed. I often get spammy phone calls so I’ll definitely check it out. Cheers
Hi Laura, Yes, anything we can do to fight these annoying spam callers is worthwhile. And to be able to use this free app is a bonus.
I hope this works well for you and helps you forget that spam callers even exist.
It is a good idea overall, I personally use an app call Text Free which let me register different phones for personal and business use. Right now I also use True Caller app (check it out too) which let you see if number has been marked by others as SPAM. It has been downloaded more than 100 Million times, so database is pretty big
Hi Luis, Thank you for the app recommendations. I haven’t tried either Text Free or Truecaller but I’m glad you have found solutions that work well for you. The more we can do to battle spam callers the better!
Hey Carolyn, The blog sounds perfect because the information was very clear. Does block calls come under spam calls? Whenever we receive a blocked call does it directly go into spam section or a notification pops up?????
Hi Sudeesh, Thank you for your kind words. Google’s updated Phone app sends spam calls directly to voice mail, without the phone ringing and without a notification appearing. There is no spam section for calls in the app.