By Divya Bhati: Tired of spam calls and messages? You are not alone. Online spam is on the rise and many people reportedly receive multiple spam calls every day. The calls are not only annoying, but also distracting and even dangerous. You may miss important calls from your family, friends or work because you have to put your phone on silent. You can also fall for scams pretending to come from your bank or other trusted sources.
You might think that blocking and reporting every number will stop these calls. But scammers and telemarketing companies have many more numbers to harass you with. So what can you do then? Well, both Google and Apple have features that allow users to deal with unknown callers on Android phones and iPhones. Let’s take a closer look at the different methods you can use to silence or block spam or unknown callers on your phone.
How to Block Unknown Numbers in Android
- Open the Phone app on your Android phone.
- Tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner of the screen and select Call History.
- Find a call from an unknown number and tap it.
- Tap Block/Report Spam at the bottom of the screen.
- You can choose to report the number as spam or not. Then tap Block to confirm.
- To block all unknown numbers, go back to the Phone app and tap the three-dot icon again.
- Select Settings and then Blocked numbers.
- Turn on the switch next to Unknown.
You have successfully blocked unknown numbers on your Android phone. You will not receive calls from private or unidentified numbers. If you have enabled visual voicemail, blocked callers will also not be able to leave voicemails.
In particular, if you want to avoid receiving calls from unknown numbers, you can block them on your Android phone. This prevents callers who hide their number or use another number from reaching you. However, you will still receive calls from phone numbers that are not saved in your contacts.
How to block unknown numbers on iPhone
If you want to avoid receiving calls from unknown numbers on your iPhone, you can use the Silence Unknown Callers feature. This feature blocks phone numbers that you have never contacted or saved in your contact list. You’ll still receive calls from numbers you’ve texted or emailed, or Siri suggests based on your communication history.
Follow these steps to block unknown numbers on iPhone:
- Go to Settings > Phone
- Scroll down and tap Mute Unknown Callers
- Enable the function by sliding the switch to the right
What happens if you block unknown numbers?
- Calls from unknown numbers will be muted and sent to your voicemail
- You will not be notified if an unknown number calls you
- You can still see the missed calls in your recent calls list
- Calls from known numbers come through normally
What should you pay attention to before blocking unknown numbers?
- Make sure you have saved important contacts on your phone or you may miss some calls you want to answer
- Making an emergency call disables the feature for 24 hours so your iPhone can be reached
- You can always deactivate the function if you want to receive calls from unknown numbers again
Activate Do Not Disturb (DND).
To stop receiving spam calls from telemarketers, you can activate the Do Not Disturb (DND) service on your number. This service is provided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) through the National Customer Preference Register (NCPR). You can choose to block all telemarketing communications or only specific categories.
- Open your SMS app and type START.
- Send this message to 1909.
- You will receive a reply from your service provider with a list of categories and their codes. For example Banking (1), Hospitality (2), etc.
- Comment with the code of the category you want to block. You can also type 0 to block all categories.
- You will receive a confirmation message from your service provider. The DND service will start within 24 hours.
- Once enabled, you will not receive calls from telemarketers in the category or categories you have blocked.
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