How to Automatically Send Spam Calls to Voicemail on Android
Even though I was on the Do Not Call list, I somehow managed to get on some robotic call list where a woman named “Ann” is trying to sell me health insurance. Ann calls me at least a dozen times a day from numbers across the country (what a traveler!) To let me know of all the offers she has available. When I stay long enough to speak to a representative and ask him to stop calling me again, they immediately hang up. It’s great.
At this point, I’ve already blocked several of Ann’s “known” numbers, which means my phone doesn’t ring when she calls from there, but she can still leave her voicemail. If you are experiencing the same, I highly recommend it. This process allows me to miss at least four or five calls a day, and I can simply delete my voicemail as soon as I hear its characteristic “Hello!” However, Ann can still call other numbers.
This week Google introduced a new feature for the Phone app that will make this task much easier. You can now set up your phone so that whenever Google detects that a call is potentially spam, it can automatically redirect that call to voicemail so that your phone doesn’t even ring. To work, you need the latest version of the application.
To set it up, open the updated Phone app on your Android phone, then tap the hamburger menu (three dots above each in the top right corner), then Settings, and then Caller ID and spam.
From there, tap to enable Caller ID & Spam and then Filter Suspected Spam Calls so they go straight to voicemail.
You can also report a call as spam by going to your phone app and viewing Recent Calls. Click on the call you want to mark as spam and then select “Block / report spam” from the menu (not everyone has the option to report as spam). Otherwise, you can just hit Block, which is what I did with good old Ann when she called to send her straight to voicemail.
Yes, you still have to deal with the voicemail your “Ann” leaves behind and the one or two calls you want might be sent there by mistake, but if you get a ton of spam calls it might be worth it. to just not have your phone ringing all day and you don’t want to answer your calls.
And if you haven’t already, subscribing to the Do Not Call list is not a bad idea. Given my current situation, this clearly won’t get rid of all the annoying calls, but it might at least cut them down.