Around the middle of last month, 9to5Google spotted that Google Voice was picking up up a toggle to strip caller ID on outgoing calls — à la *67, but without having to dial it every single time. The new feature rolled out to the iOS version of Google Voice last month, and now it's here for both Android and the Google Voice site.
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The once-forgotten communication app Google Voice has seen a few interesting updates recently. VoIP calling was introduced last month, right before the app received a refreshing Material Design makeover. A new setting has just rolled out to iOS users that lets them easily hide their caller ID for all outgoing calls, and it should be coming to Android soon.
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We've all been there—an unfamiliar number appears on your caller ID and you wonder if it's a scammer offering to lower your bills by a zillion dollars or send you on a totally legit free vacation. T-Mobile subscribers are about to get a little more peace of mind when phone calls come in. The carrier is set to roll out network-level technology to identify and block scam calls, and there's no added cost for customers.
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Truecaller had its first annual "Stay Ahead" event in India today and made plenty of announcements regarding its app and platform with partnerships across the board. The popular service, which first started as a way to help you identify unknown callers, is now spreading its wings beyond being your complementary phonebook and voice call app.
With Truecaller 8, the app can be your default SMS inbox, handling unknown senders, blocking spam messages and specific numbers, and integrating flash messaging for sending quick requests and bouts of information to your contacts, like your location or an emoji.
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There are about a half-dozen countries that have enacted some form of official "do not call" registry and many others that have signed in laws to prevent various types of spammy behavior from running rampant over the telephone system. Unfortunately, little to nothing is done to enforce these laws and the penalties usually aren't steep enough to discourage bad behavior. Google is taking matters into its own hands and giving users a way to fight back. Starting today, a new version of the Phone app is rolling out to Nexus and Android One devices with built-in spam warnings.
The warning feature comes as a part of the phone app's existing Caller ID capability, which already maintains a very thorough directory about various businesses.
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Truecaller is a caller ID service that gained more attention a while back when Cyanogen Inc. announced it would integrate the service into Cyanogen OS. The company released Truedialer in the past to replace your default dialer, and now it's looking to expand its presence on your phone by integrating those features directly into the Truecaller app.
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Hey you, the guy with the New Jersey accent who keeps offering me a small business loan: I hate you. I hate you with a passion that eclipses any love or loathing that I have felt for anything in the mortal world. I hate you and your army of randomly-dialing robots, I hate you and your legions of foreign switchboard operators trying to sucker Americans into possibly illegal and/or phony loans. The multiple times that I've actually gone through your rigamarole claiming to be Archibald Buttz, the owner of a talking dildo emporium called "Buzzwords," has not kept you from calling me on my private cell phone several times a week.
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Cyanogen is on a mission to free you from Google's evil clutches, apparently by delivering you into the clutches of other companies it gets along with better. Rather than integrating Google services with Android, Cyanogen has been investigating other partnerships, and the latest example is Truecaller. This is a caller ID service for Android, and it's going to be available in Cyanogen OS soon.
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As if you needed another reason to lust after the Nexus 5 and/or Android 4.4, Google just announced a huge new feature for the default Phone app in KitKat. The new version of the dialer/contacts app will match incoming numbers against Google's various databases to provide an automatic caller ID for businesses using Google Places, as we've already seen. But starting next year, this feature will be applied to people as well.
The KitKat dialer will integrate with users of Google Apps for business, matching incoming numbers against contacts and employees (if their phone numbers are shared) in the Apps database.
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For a smartphone operating system, Android hasn't always had the best features for, you know... calls. One of the especially annoying omissions has long been caller ID, but Android 4.4 takes a big step toward fixing that. If you get a call from a business that Google knows, it lets you know on KitKat's incoming call screen. Neat.
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