Verizon to Begin Auto-Enrolling Android Phones in Their Robocall Blocking Service

Verizon’s Call Filter service is coming to your Android phone as early as today. Even if you haven’t manually signed-up or installed the Call Filter app, there is a chance that Big Red will now auto-enroll you. Here’s what that means.

Verizon Call Filter is a service that tries to “make it even harder for robocallers to get through to you.” It detects spam calls, blocks some spam, and provides clearer caller details like name, picture, city, and state. It’s there to protect you from all the damn spam and robocalls that have flooded our phones in recent years that carriers have be slow to do anything about.

As an Android phone owner, Verizon apparently has the power to go straight to auto-enrollment, while iPhone owners will still need to download the Call Filter app on their own phones.

What happens when you are enrolled? This:

• If they receive a call from a number that’s been reported as fraudulent, that call will be blocked by the app and forwarded to voicemail.
• If a customer receives a known spam or nuisance call, they will see “Potential Spam” label instead of a name on the incoming call screen. This is essentially a warning of a potentially unwanted call, and they have the option to turn on blocking for these types of calls.
• If they receive a call from a known contact, nothing changes. Their contact’s name will appear on the screen, the same as it does today.

Which Android phones are supported by this auto-enrollment? Well, basically every Android phone that works on Verizon supports Call Filter, so yeah, your phone will probably be enrolled as early as today.

If you want nothing to do with Verizon’s Call Filter, you can turn it off by visiting My Verizon.

// Verizon