The FCC has openly warned all major US carriers that it will take action if they fail to make satisfactory progress in thwarting spam calls this year - or at least significantly curtail the volume down from the several-a-day annoyance they’ve become for so many of us. There’s also a guide for using Call Filter. To activate Call Filter, you can install Verizon’s dedicated app for it - here for Android and here for iOS - or just enable the protection as an account add-on in your My Verizon app or the company’s website. There’s also more control over calls with the ability to create a personal robocall block list, access to additional insights with the robocall risk meter and a spam number lookup feature. This enhanced product includes all of the great features included in the free version (spam detection, blocking and reporting), plus the ability to identify unknown callers by name. According to Verizon, this is what paying an extra $2.99 per month on top of your phone bill will get you:

That premium option actually still exists. Until now, Call Filter was only available for an extra charge. Unfortunately, Call Filter Free is completely unavailable to Verizon’s prepaid customers and is reserved for postpaid accounts only.Ī free layer of defense against spam is something that Verizon’s millions of customers have lacked until now, despite T-Mobile and other carriers already offering it. The company notes that “certain features will vary based on the type of phone that a customer has.” But everyone gets the core protection, as this comparison between the Galaxy S10E and iPhone XS Max shows: When activated, Verizon says the filter will let customers “get alerts when a call is likely spam, report unsolicited numbers, and automatically block robocalls based on their preferred level of risk.” The leading US carrier has rolled out its free call filter service to both Android and iOS customers. Well, maybe not new, but you won’t have to pay extra money to tell when the robots are calling anymore. Verizon is taking new steps to combat the unrelenting nuisance of spam calls.

Best free call blocking app