Our team likes to block annoying stuff! (See also https://www.producthunt.com/post....) When we caught at WWDC that programmatic call screening might be possible in iOS 10, we jumped. Alas, the new VoIP parts of iOS were too buggy at launch to screen telemarketing calls. We’ve been helping Apple debug since, though, and are glad to be able to share Callblock now that you can actually use the app to block telemarketers – more than 3,000,000 in the version we’re releasing today.
App Store guidelines prevent us from offering a Product Hunt–only discount, so we’ve made Callblock free for everybody to try for a month instead. Tell us what you think!
@oldestlivingboy@rocketship, @callblockapp, @adblockfast Where do I get such a list of the numbers to block from? I could seriously use some telemarketer blocking in my own startup which generates customer calls to local businesses all over, but has the sad side effect of bringing oodles of telemarketer calls along with it. I don't have an IOS app, I just use Twilio for call forwarding.
This would be very helpful.
PRETTY PLEASE AND IT'S ACTUALLY MY BIRTHDAY. :)
@zak_kinion The telemarketer directory is something of Callblock’s secret sauce, but we have a few bits about how we compiled the entries in our faq: https://callblockapp.com/#faq
Happy birthday! 🎂
@oldestlivingboy Thanks for the bday wishes!
Yeah, I imagined it was something like that. One could screen scrape sites those "number lookup" sites that are seo spammed all over and then of course add to the list from private sources and especially from customers "reporting" numbers by tapping that its a telemarketer. It'd be near impossible to grow up that kind of db organically from scratch.
You should know that the ability to build and continuously improve a db like that, that can be used across many different solutions is probably far more valuable than just an iOS app. Something to keep in mind.
Best of luck to you.
@oldestlivingboy Not your customer/contact data, that'd be a terrible thing to do. :)
I was referring to the unique ability to create a constantly updated and most importantly accurate db of telemarketers. Think more along the lines of: all the white listing and black listing that used to go into spam email filtering, but applied to phone numbers instead. That alone, is very powerful.
Was really looking forward to using this as I get a tonne of spam calls every day.
But having the app free to download and then do literally nothing until you pay for the monthly subscription. That is not free.
Shame....
Does this app require me to all them to download my address book? Been using TrueCaller like Ryan and it is not great. Just installed Hiya this weekend because TrueCaller is so bad again it wanted my address book.
BTW, Really happy people are working on this problem, it is a giant user need!!! Fingers crossed they nail it. :)
@oldestlivingboy :
1) in your marketing email you say "Callblock is the first app that blocks telemarketing phone calls automatically in iOS". but I've been using Truecaller to automatically block calls for a while now, could you explain more?
2) can this work alongside Truecaller, or is it an either or?
@oldestlivingboy #1 : Truecaller launched that same feature the same day as your article was published: https://techcrunch.com/2016/09/0... in the post you link to, techcrunch doesn't say that you're "the first app" it says "Callblock will be among the first"
#2 : cool
@_jacksmith Multiple call-directory extensions (like Callblock) should be compatible, with the first enabled taking precedence to act on common callers. (I am finding recent iOS bug reports about conflicts, though.)
I am getting two spam calls per day on my iPhone these days. Just a few months ago it was one per week. It's like cell phone numbers are suddenly fair game. I had to start using Do Not Disturb because I have a NY number but live in SF now so the robocalls begin at 4:30am here. Installing this now. Thanks!
I received a spam call at least ten times a week; sometimes multiple calls per a day. While the onboarding and design of the app could use a little polish, if it works as advertised, it will be well worth the subscription. I'm excited to see the results this week 😄
@mirmayne iOS doesn’t allow calls with no ID to be blocked (but most telemarketers don’t block their caller IDs).
Callblock works in the UK and over 100 other countries (you can see all the supported countries at https://callblockapp.com/#faq).
@oldestlivingboy if you're open to the idea, you might check out @dustin's Open Office Hours to get some help thinking through the UX on your app. I've been confused a few times not realizing there are two big settings and not knowing what to click to toggle them.
How does it work with a Google Voice number? I have a work cell with my personal number on it through Google Voice. I get more calls from telemarketers on my personal number than I do for my work number. Is the integration there for GV calls?
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