Truecaller identifies 29.7 bn spam calls in India in last year, rolls out indicator for Android users

Truecaller on Wednesday said that it has identified 29.7 billion spam calls and 8.5 billion spam SMS for its users in India last year. The Swedish company has also rolled out a new spam activity indicator for Android phone users that will give detailed statistics on the spammer. 

"Truecaller has become indispensable in the lives of 240 million (monthly) global active users... In 2019 alone, we identified 29.7 billion spam calls and 8.5 billion spam SMS for our users in India," the compay said in a statement. 

It added that the new Spam Activity Indicator for Android users builds upon company’s core proposition of making communication safer and more efficient for everyone. Currently, three trends - spam reports, call activity and peak calling hours - will be shown to users when they tap on the spammer's profile image in the app. 

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A future update will show users the stats right in the caller ID itself to help users make the decision before even picking up the call, Truecaller said. The feature will be extended to iOS (iPhone) users in the coming weeks. 

The app will show spam reports which will reveal how many times a Truecaller user has marked a specific number as spam and indicate by percentage if it is increasing or decreasing according to the reports. Call Activity will show the number of calls that particular phone number has made recently, potentially indicating how much of a spammer the number is. 

Earlier in another report, the company had ranked India fifth in 2019 in terms of number of spam calls received by users per month, and eighth position in terms of spam.