As a business owner and salesman, I am less guarded than many others may be when letting my cell phone number be published to the public. This makes me very accessible for my clients and prospects however it also gets my number added to many lists for spam calls. Multiple times per day I receive calls for cash flow loans, investment services, google listing companies, web design and app developers in India and of course the automated calls from the IRS letting me know that I have a serious matter that needs to be addressed.
Many of these calls are easily identifiable by the pause that awaits an operator to pick up and speak with the “fish on the hook.” Other spammers use technology to replicate a local exchange so the phone call looks like it could be from a nearby prospect. I began to store these numbers in my phone under “Do not answer” or “Spammer” etc. The challenge of typing in the info and coming up with unique name became too much effort to avoid these calls. I searched for apps that block numbers and found a number of them however the way they took over your phone call flow or streamed ads to the phone made it a bit cumbersome or invasive, even though I understand the trade for a “free” app is potentially a barrage of ads.
I was very pleased to learn that blocking numbers is native in the Android Phone App. Go figure. Here is how to block a number from your contact list or from your recent call screen. This works on my Samsung Galaxy S7.
1. Select your Phone App.
2. Select the number you would like to block & select “details.”
3. Select the 3 dots “more options” icon on the contact details screen and select “Block Number.”
4. Select “Block” on the confirmation screen.
5. This number is now blocked.
Once you have blocked this number, a blue circle with a line through it will appear next to the number and your phone will no longer ring when that number dials in.
Need to unblock a number? Simply repeat these steps and the option to “Unblock Number” will be available in step 3.
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