Image: June Wan/ZDNET.
Spam isn’t just for emails. Whether it’s selling you better insurance, convincing you to vote for a party or an election or threatening you, we’ve seen a steady increase in unsolicited phone calls for several years.
The good news is that Google has provided its Pixel smartphones with very practical tools to combat this telephone spam. Working with Google’s frequently updated spam database, they prevent these calls from flooding your phone – or at least significantly reduce the number of them.
But Google isn’t going to do everything for you. To benefit from this service, you will have to modify the configuration of your Phone application. To do this, you will need a Pixel smartphone with Android 10 or later. Other smartphone models offer a similar service, but much less effective. If you don’t have a Pixel, check your Phone app settings to see the level of spam protection.
So here’s how to configure your Pixel to receive fewer unwanted calls.
1. Open phone settings
Open the Phone app on your Pixel, then tap the three dots in the vertical menu in the upper right corner. From the context menu, tap Settings.
2. Check Spam Options
In the application settings, go to Spam and call screening > Call screening.
3. Enable automatic call screening
Enable the option Automatically filter calls.
Image: Jack Wallen/ZDNET.
4. Refuse automated calls
To have your phone automatically reject calls from bots, go back to Settings > Spam and call screening > Call screening and select Potentially fake numbers. In the pop-up window that appears, enable the option again Automatically filter calls > Refuse potentially fake numbers.
Image: Jack Wallen/ZDNET.
How it works ?
Once you enable these two options, when potential spam arrives on your phone, it is automatically filtered. You can also apply this setting to numbers calling you for the first time (to be configured in the same place as potentially false numbers).
So of course, it will not be possible to delete all phone spam. But, in my experience, this setup significantly reduces their numbers.
Source: ZDNet.com