WhatsApp Introduces New Feature to Enhance User Protection: Automatically Screens out Spam and Unknown Calls
In response to a significant increase in incoming international spam calls reported by WhatsApp users in India, the company has introduced a valuable solution. The latest feature enables users to enjoy increased protection by automatically screening out spam, scams, and calls from unknown individuals.
With this new feature, unknown callers will no longer ring on WhatsApp users’ phones. However, users will still have visibility of these calls within their call lists. This functionality aims to alleviate the inconvenience caused by spam calls while ensuring that important calls from known contacts are not missed.
By implementing the Unknown Callers feature, WhatsApp seeks to address the growing concern of spam calls and prioritize user safety. This update demonstrates the company’s commitment to enhancing the overall user experience and reinforcing the platform’s security measures.
WhatsApp, a messaging service owned by Meta, has recently introduced a new feature that allows users to automatically silence incoming calls from unknown contacts. The feature, called “Silence Unknown Callers,” has been designed with the aim of providing users with increased privacy and control over their incoming calls. In a blog post, WhatsApp emphasized that this feature helps to automatically screen out spam, scams, and calls from unknown individuals, ultimately offering enhanced protection to its users.
With the Silence Unknown Callers feature enabled, calls from unknown contacts will no longer cause the recipient’s phone to ring. However, these calls will still be visible in the users’ call lists, ensuring that they can review and manage them as necessary.
In addition to the new call silencing feature, WhatsApp has also introduced a “Privacy Checkup” functionality. This feature is intended to ensure that users are well-informed about the available privacy options on the platform. Through the Privacy Checkup, users will be guided through important privacy settings, enabling them to select the appropriate level of protection that aligns with their preferences.
These recent updates by WhatsApp reflect the company’s commitment to enhancing user privacy, offering more control over incoming calls, and providing an overall safer messaging experience.
WhatsApp Takes Action Against Spam Calls: The Saga of Tackling Unwanted Calls
Following a sharp increase in incoming international spam calls reported by WhatsApp users in India, the messaging platform has introduced a new feature called “Unknown Callers.” Many users took to Twitter to express their frustration with a significant number of spam calls originating from country codes such as Indonesia (+62), Vietnam (+84), Malaysia (+60), Kenya (+254), and Ethiopia (+251), including video calls.
The scammers targeted unsuspecting users with various fraudulent schemes, ranging from fake job offers to promising money for simple online tasks. Many spammers utilized temporary mobile numbers, easily switching to new ones when blocked by the app. Websites offering temporary numbers made it convenient for them to continue their spamming activities.
In response to the escalating issue, Rajeev Chandrasekhar, the Minister of State for Electronics and Information Technology, announced that the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) would issue a notice to WhatsApp, urging action. Subsequently, WhatsApp agreed to deregister mobile numbers used for fraudulent activities.
To combat the problem, WhatsApp also revealed plans to enhance its artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) systems. These efforts aim to significantly reduce spam calls, with the company expecting a minimum 50% decrease in the current calling rate through these enforcement measures.
In addition to addressing spam calls, WhatsApp recently launched the Channels feature, providing admins with a streamlined means of sharing updates and information through one-way messaging.
Considering India’s status as one of WhatsApp’s largest markets, with nearly 500 million users and 15 million business users, the impact of spam calls on Indian users is significant. WhatsApp has already faced scrutiny from the government on data privacy and other issues.
The company remains committed to improving user experience and security. However, it is worth noting that in October of the previous year, WhatsApp experienced a two-hour service disruption, which led MeitY to request a report on the incident, seeking an explanation for the disruption.