How many times have you seen an unknown telephone number appear on the display of your mobile phone? Since it is not present in the address book, the telephone software cannot display the caller’s name. How many times have you seen an unknown telephone number appear on the display of your mobile phone? Not being present in the address book, the telephone software cannot display the caller’s name, limiting itself to displaying, in some cases (as in the most recent versions of Android), the geographical area from which the call originates.
How is it possible to recognize unknown numbers automatically on Android smartphones? How can I make Android display caller names for unknown phone numbers? The solution exists and consists in installing an app that interfaces with the Android address book and which, when a call arrives from an unknown number, is activated immediately to trace the name of the caller, be it a private individual or a company. Let’s start by saying that all the applications we have tested up to now have shown far from perfect behavior.
Even when the call comes from a fixed number, sometimes the caller is not recognized correctly.
Furthermore, for the Android app to search for the caller’s name before answering, the Internet connection (Wi-Fi or 3G/LTE) must be active and functioning. Among the Android applications that allow you to recognize unknown numbers, TrueCaller has shown overall good behavior.
Of course, don’t expect TrueCaller, at least at present, to work miracles. However, the app should promptly display the caller’s name, at least for most fixed numbers.
In the era of social networks and “everything on the cloud”, TrueCaller uses an innovative approach based on the drafting and continuously updating of a collaborative telephone directory. The Android application uses various online data sources (in addition to its database) to trace the name of who is calling from a telephone number not present in the address book. The developer of TrueCaller ensures that the numbers in the phone book will never be made public or searchable. After installing TrueCaller, the application requires you to specify your mobile phone number: it will be used as a “username” for each Access to the service.
After a few seconds, you should receive an SMS from Truecaller containing an authorization code. This code should be automatically read and recognized by Truecaller. This check allows you to check that the telephone number specified by the user is correct and associated with his mobile user. Access to the service will therefore occur using a Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn account or creating a TrueCaller account. The Access to my information screen allows you to determine who can see the user’s information (first and last name, telephone number, and other shared data).
The most restrictive choice is the last one ( Always request ) because anyone interested in viewing the user’s information must first request explicit authorization. At this point, by “tapping” on the icon in the upper left corner, then on History and finally on Unknown, Truecaller should display a name corresponding to all telephone numbers not present in the Android address book. The same investigation can be done on outgoing calls, incoming calls, SMS, missed calls, blocked calls, etc. The numbers used by potential nuisances can be entered at any time in a “blocklist” accessible from the main menu of TrueCaller by clicking on the Unwanted item.
From the main screen of TrueCaller, it is possible to search for the telephone number of any user simply by typing his name and surname (and possibly place or address). It is a pity that the reverse search starting from the telephone number is still imperfect. In other words, even when typing a landline number, TrueCaller cannot always display the name of the subscriber.
It’s a shame because, without information from the sources on which Truecaller is based, the application could carry out a trivial query on Google or, in any case, on the main services that allow you to launch a reverse search.
