Getting an unsolicited cell phone call is one of the most annoying habits human beings have invented. If you own a phone line that goes to your house (landline), I am sure you’re used to getting dozens of spam calls a week. Even with the government with the National Do Not Call Registry, run by the FTC, telemarketers break the law daily by calling your registered number. Your cell phone is personal though. It almost feels as if you’re being violated when you get a spam caller.
At least there is a way to identify the person on the other end with caller ID. Some people avoid answering any unknown numbers, but for people like me, who use their personal cell as a business line too, we take all calls. The sad part about caller ID is some phone companies charge a fee to identify who is on the other end of the line. Like they don’t charge us enough to begin with.
That’s where Truecaller ID & Dialer comes in. It’s an app available at the Google Play Store and the iOS App Store and is free to download and use.
About the App
This app isn’t rocket science. It’s a phone dialer app that replaces your stock app once installed. If you want to go Pro it will cost $1.99 a month. Going Pro removes ads within the app, but they aren’t intrusive. Everyone has to monetize their products somehow.
I’d love to show screenshots of the app, but it contains personal information that I’d like to keep private. I’m sure my friends, business associates, and family appreciate that too.
Just like other phone dialer apps, it keeps track of who you call, and missed calls. The dialer itself is very clean and basic.
There’s nothing confusing about it. There’s a contacts folder, a dialer and a search option to look up specific numbers from a database of 2 billion contacts. The contacts folder reminds me of the Google Dialer where it shows a picture of your contact, if you have it associated to your account, next to their name.
How to make it your default dialer
The beauty of Android is you’re free to change out any apps you want. That includes the app that makes phone calls.
Once downloaded and installed, go to your Settings:
Enable “Allow notification access” within Truecaller > menu > settings > general.
You can then drag your stock dialer icon off the screen to delete it and then replace it with the Truecaller Dialer.
How did it perform?
I admit, I wasn’t in the know about the app even though over 100M users have downloaded the app. After three solid weeks of using the Truecaller ID and Dialer app as my default dialer, I fell in love with it. I cancelled the $2.99 fee that AT&T was charging me for caller identification.
The app uses a network of over 200M users to identify fraudulent or spam numbers, and I got over a dozen calls in three weeks that it picked up. There were a few instances where it didn’t identify the caller when my phone was ringing and I let the number go to voicemail. Within about a minute, the app did identify the number though and it helped me decide if I needed to call back.
In more important cases though it did help identify SPAM callers.
After testing the caller ID functionality, I then enabled the Auto Block feature which doesn’t allow for calls to come through that are identified as Spam.
The app wasn’t perfect but in more cases than not, it performed admirably. While there are in app purchases to go Pro, you really don’t need to pay for the fee. The ads are minimal, and understandable for a company that needs to support its developers. I highly recommend the True Caller ID & Dialer app.
Get the Truecaller ID & Dialer App at the Google Play Store.
If you have the update, try it out by tapping on the call icon at the top right corner of a chat. The app will then ask you if you want to make a voice call or a video call. Tap on video call to start a face-to-face conversation. As you talk, you can switch between the front and rear cameras. Tap “mute” if you don’t want the other person to hear you. When you’re done, tap the red phone icon to hang up the call.
Once each dot is covered, the photo is scanned. Google applies its machine learning algorithms to remove any glare from the photo. Each photo is also automatically cropped, rotated and color corrected. You can have your photos uploaded to Google Photos or saved to your camera roll.
Photoscan
For the last several days, I have been using 91 Launcher and 91 Locker as my only launcher and lock screen on my phone. My experience with them has been mixed so let’s take a look at 91 Launcher first. Unlike other big name launchers, 91 Launcher does not try to make everything look like stock Android but instead relies on a theme system that allows you to change the entire look of your phone with one click. Pressing and holding anywhere on the home screen will bring up a menu with several personalization options. There are normal options here for adding apps and widgets to the home screen, but others such as Effects, Quick Beauty, and Personality might not be recognizable at first glance.
Finally, you have a Settings button that I assumed would take you into the settings for the app, but it actually takes you into a phone settings menu but not stock one on your phone. You’ll see options for WiFi, Bluetooth, and Battery but tapping on any of them will take you to the stock page for that setting on your phone. If you are looking for the settings of the app itself, you need to tap on Preferences instead.
My biggest complaint with 91 Launcher can be summed up in a single word – inconsistency. I first noticed this when the Settings button redirected to a separate settings app but clicking on a setting would open the stock option. Why not just have the Settings button redirect to the stock settings app on your phone? Also for most things, tapping the home button on your phone will take you back to the homescreen, but when you are on the Quick Screen Search page or in a folder, you have to hit the back button to return to the homescreen instead. Inside the Preferences menu, some options were labeled with capital letters while others were fully lowercase.
91 Locker is a much simpler app and replaces your lock screen with a more customizable option. In order for the app to work as best as possible, you need to give it access to your notifications so they can be displayed on the lock screen as well as your camera so you can take advantage of the quick launch feature. In the app itself, you can select from a ton of different lock screen themes that you can add your own pictures to. One thing I would like to see is the option to search for a theme as the only options currently are to pick from the latest or trending themes.
Since you have to disable your stock lock screen to get the best experience, you might be worried about losing your security, but 91 Locker has you covered with some passcode options. There are two very reminiscent of iOS’s number pad and Android’s pattern lock, but the others add a bit more style. While the rest are all in the passcode style, instead of the standard grid of numbers you can choose between several shapes and even add pictures to each of the buttons for a more personalized and probably more secure lock screen.
As far as using the lock screen, I had mixed feelings. While the customization features were a welcome addition, I missed the ability to unlock my phone with my fingerprint. Also, the “quick launch” camera option takes considerably longer than I expected. In fact, I don’t think you’re saving much time over just unlocking your phone and opening the app that way. That being said, 91 Locker does exactly what it promises and adds a nice dose of personality to your lock screen, and those looking for that will be pleased with the options this app offers.
Samsung is kicking the rewards program in big style, by announcing it’s also awarding “Instant Win” prizes. The first includes trips to Napa Valley and Las Vegas, so get your Samsung phones out, shoppers!
If you manage to take the number of transactions up to 30 or more, you’ll be granted Gold status and your points will triple with every purchase. To make it to Platinum you need to log in at least 31 monthly transactions, which multiplies your points four times times on every purchase.
Google is probably looking to promote its own Android-related services and products through this account, but for the time being only 6 posts have been made (which make up a collage) welcoming followers to the page.