Android - what's in your pocket?

Doesn’t Android just have call blocking built in? Just a few days ago I got a call that said “suspected spam” and sure enough it was, and so now it’s blocked.

If I understand it correctly—which is by no means a sure thing—call blocking in Android itself varies by provider and/or the flavor of the OS.

I’ve looked where the “block this number” option should be on my very down-market Boost Mobile Moto E, and it is not there.

Seems it was induced in Android 7. Are you running that version?

No, I don’t think Motorola issued an update for the 2nd generation Moto E after 5.1 Lollipop.

I was going to say the same as Timex. I can even do it from the recent calls screen. Just select, hit the three dots, then “add to auto-reject list.”

If 5.1 doesn’t have that, that is a real bummer. It’s one of the features I use a lot on spam calls.

If you do end up trying one of those apps, I’d love to hear how well they work.

Motorola basically issues one update for their phones then abandons them. I have a Moto G3 that came out in 2015 and it isn’t getting the Nougat update . I’m going with someone else for my next phone.

Ya, I don’t think I can ever deal with another non Nexus phone… My to is awesome and gets updates instantly… Hell, I’m in the beta program and get them before release.

Nexus phones are where it’s at.

Sadly, those of us in Project Fi do not get our Nexus updates instantly. My phone is still on 7.0 in fact.

Eh, I’m on project fi. My Nexus 6p is currently running 7.1.2. i think project fi generally pushes out updates before anyone, doesn’t it?

I don’t think Project Fi matters either way on updates. The type of Nexus phone you have matters though. My 6p is also running the latest version. My wife’s 5x gets updates much slower. And my brother and dad’s Nexus 6 only recently got 7.0 compared to me.

It does matter, at least in some cases. I have a Nexus 6, and there is no 7.1 update available as an OTA or download for Fi users.

In contrast, the non Fi version of the N6 has 7.1 for download and it has also been sent OTA.

I now use Fi and google identifies calls itself, but i used to use this:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.flexaspect.android.everycallcontrol&hl=en

It worked pretty well. I could also custom add numbers with wildcards like 721-555-****. That helps cuz those debt collectors own up the entire exchange or whatever. My number was used by some person who owed money so I would get a lot of these annoying calls.

TrueCaller is similiar to that.

My S7 Edge (still running 6.something, FFS) has it built in. You tap on the number in the log and it gives you the option to block voice or SMS there. It also came preinstalled with something called Whitepages, which seems to do roughly the same thing as Truecaller.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I’m frankly surprised that there exists a phone under 10 years old that doesn’t provide for a killfile. Given that one does, it makes perfect sense that I ended up with it.

It doesn’t look like there’s a simple bozo filter out there, but Truecaller and Call Blocker both look like they’ll do the necessary. Maybe the various other features will be useful too.

Woohoo, the Nougat update finally got pushed to my phone. Only a few days after Android O was released to developers too.

The O update should be interesting, since it locks down background processes and prevents them from wasting your battery doing stuff.

That could be a good or a bad thing. iOS’s implementation of it made a lot of apps worse (than their Android versions) - eg background downloading in Pocket Casts.

Well, an example which was used to explain the problem, was that if you took a picture with your phone, you’d have a bunch of different apps on your phone which would all receive that notification, and then ALL start burning your phone up trying to do crap with it.

The changes don’t prevent background apps from doing stuff, but forces them to do so in a more orderly manner.

I have had an android phone in different incarnations for a couple of years now, currently use a Samsung S7. I do mostly e-mails and web browsing with the phone and the occasional video. I have seen little difference in performance over the last 2 years but I have seen an ever decreasing battery life based on on-screen time. In the UK the Lenovo P2 has just come out with middle of the road specs but amazing battery life, over double that of my existing phone, it only retails at around $300 as well. My question is why doesn’t one of the high-end Android phone manufacturers make a phone with high-end specs and great battery life. I don’t care if my phone is 2-3mm thicker if the battery life is doubled. Anybody that runs a business or commutes long distances would definitely appreciate a phone like this. Samsung, Google, etc. make it so!