Sweden-based mobile app company, Truecaller, has announced the addition of a new AI-based feature in its app.
According to a release on Tuesday, the update was made to provide improved protection against spammers and possible scammers.
The caller ID software claims it has over 374 million users, and has banned between 38 and 40 billion scam calls annually. It is now cranking up its filtering technology in an attempt to entice more users to join up for its premium tiers.
A recent “Max” upgrade for Android premium users employs artificial intelligence (AI) to filter all calls that either originate from unapproved contacts or those the algorithm suspects may be spam.
Truecaller currently uses a database of phone numbers that have been reported as spam.
This is problematic since new numbers could be used to go around the app.
With the Max update, however, the app will now employ artificial intelligence (AI) to identify calls that it deems to be spam, even if the caller isn’t listed in the app’s database.
This is an Android-only update: Apple forbids Truecaller and other caller ID providers from using caller ID to determine a caller’s spammer status to automatically restrict calls on iOS.
As a result, Truecaller offers a more fundamental solution centred around CallKit for iPhone users.
The company’s business is going through a pivotal period with these actions. With $41.52 million in revenues, Truecaller experienced a 4% year-over-year decline in revenue in Q4.
In the meantime, the Indian telecom regulator has proposed a caller ID service akin to Truecaller, to be extended across all telecom networks in the nation, to effectively combat spam. India is the largest market for Truecaller, with 259 million subscribers.
The monthly cost of Truecaller Premium is now $9.99. If you haven’t subscribed, you might want to give Truecaller Premium a try because of its new AI spam detection tool.
