One of the most pervasive technological annoyances faced by almost everyone in the United States is the prevalence of unwanted calls. Whether they be robocalls or unwelcome telemarketers, pretty much everyone has had to deal with unsolicited phone calls at some point in their life.
While the problem of unwanted calls is widespread, there are several actions that you can take to counter their effects. With most mobile devices, you have ways of identifying spammers who are unwelcome and have them sent straight to voicemail for you to look over later.
Blocking New Callers on your Cell Phone
Most Android and Apple devices allow you to filter or block any callers that do not provide identification or who you do not approve beforehand and send them straight to voicemail. This allows you to avoid dealing with unwanted calls in the middle of the day instead of letting you look over them in your voicemail to check and see if they are worth calling back.
Android Phones
If you want to block unknown callers on an Android device, use the following steps:
Access your Phone app.
Find and select the options menu within the Phone app.
Click the menu tab for blocked numbers.
Set your phone to block all unknown numbers.
This process blocks any unknown phone numbers from calling your cell phone number.
Apple iPhone
Apple devices allow you to silence unknown callers as of iOS 13, meaning you won’t hear an annoying ring, and you can instead deal with the calls once they hit your voicemail. To set this up, do the following:
Open your default phone settings.
Select your Phone app settings icon at the top of your iPhone.
Switch on the Silence Unknown Callers option.
These calls will still show up in your recent calls menu, meaning you can check and see if you recognize them at your leisure.
Blocking Specific Numbers
There are a variety of reasons you might want to block a specific phone number from reaching you. Frequently, robocalls will contact you from a common phone number, meaning that once you identify them, you have the option to block that specific number and hope your unwanted calls cease for a while.
Other times there might be organizations or people in your life that you don’t want to contact, making this feature equally useful. While your device layout will differ, the process of blocking a number will most likely follow a common method:
Access your recent calls list (call log) to find the robocall (this also might be a call blocking list).
Select the number and indicate that you want to block that number.
Confirm that you are sure you want to block the number you selected.
Until you unblock the number, it will be sent to the auto reject list and is unable to call you, meaning you are free from another unwanted caller.
Using a Third Party App
While it is great that more and more developers are creating ways that you can silence junk callers, most of them still have a lot of room for error. Firewall is a third-party app that you install on your mobile device that blocks 100% of annoying callers to your phone number.
Most methods of combating robocalls use an inefficient solution called a blacklisting method, which means that a wide array of databases are cross-referenced to build a list of potential spam callers. This method is effective, but there will always be ways to bypass it and create new phone numbers.
Firewall uses a whitelisting method, meaning that you choose which numbers to approve and which not to. Any caller who you don’t whitelist is sent straight to voicemail, where Firewall’s voicemail transcription feature allows you to determine whether or not they were legitimate.
Conclusion
Being hounded by annoying spam calls is something no one wants to deal with, and luckily there are more options to avoid them than ever before. While your device comes equipped with ways of fighting against unwanted inbound calls, third-party apps are the way to go if you want complete protection from pesky spam calls.
Firewall is made by the creators of Burner, and with that comes a tried and true dedication to privacy and security. With Firewall’s whitelisting approach, you can rest assured that 100% of unwanted callers will be filtered out for you to take a look at without them bothering you with a call in the middle of the day.
Whatever tool you choose, it is a good idea to always keep an eye out for new ways to preserve your privacy, especially when it comes to your phone.
Sources:
Targeting Gateway Providers to Combat Illegal Robocalls Fifth Further Notice of Proposing Rule | FCC