advanced Do Not Disturb function

[TJWatson]

Hi Folks!

everyone I know has the same issue with unwanted spam calls.
for those who must answer the phone, they are life's bother.
for many individuals, there is no reason not to make such calls simply disappear.

Blocking a number is fruitless and useless - the spammers spoof their Caller ID for (nearly) every call.

Do Not Disturb mode has changed over time, in the latest I had it set to allow only calls from My Contacts. Oddly enough, altho phone calls come through from Contacts, no alerts for text messages from Contacts comes through. Why Apple decided I might want them to be able to call me but not text me is one of those great corporate mysteries....

Next, downloaded and set the default ring tone to Silence, set a ring tone for each Contact - which lets me ignore spam calls. then had to turn Vibrate OFF because, unlike Text alerts which can't be turned on for Contacts, Vibrate cannot be turned OFF for non-Contacts.
similar suggestion here:
Do Not Disturb mode as a call blocker

What would make my day is an app which screens calls and unless the number in in My Contacts:
it doesn't ring
doesn't display
doesn't alert / does not do Reminders
does not appear / gets auto-deleted in Missed Calls
allows non-Contact caller to leave a voice mail.

anyone with a legitimate need to contact me will leave a voice mail; and some without a legitimate.....oh well...
but other than that I don't want to know about or have to deal with deleting multiple/many spam "missed" calls a day.

the Missed Call list is apparently finite - it will fill up. and the Delete All function, altho quick and easy, deletes the records of all inbound/outbound calls - some of which I might want to keep.

anyone aware of an app that does this?
is it possible for 3rd party apps to address/manage that level of the iPhone system?
who wants to write an app for that?

 

[lmccluer]

I gave the same problem as you. I use an app called “Call Protect”, it’s an ATT app, but as far as I know, anyone can use it. While it does not keep everyone of the spam callers out, it does jerk the majority out. One way it works is when you get a call from a number you don’t recognize, just hit your power button to silence it. If it’s someone that wants to talk to you, they can leave a msg. If not, then when it’s done, go into the “call protect” app, but the block button, then hit the report button. This puts that number into a registry and when it gets so many reports, then the app starts automatically blocking them for anyone using the app. It has cut way down on the number of spam calls, and telemarketers. However, as you know, these stupid people do these spam crusades every such number of months, and you might have to block them. As well, the app will only block that number for 6 months I think, unless you go in and hit continue to block.

It’s a shame that our government can figure out ways to listen in on everyone, but they can’t figure out how to make a do not call program work. If you remember, we was promised the do not call system was going to work 100%, we would not have to worry about the unwanted calls anymore. So much for that.

Other than this app, I don’t know if any other that works. This one works by people like you and me blocking and reporting them.

 

[TJWatson]

the difference in the approach is fairly straightforward -
- call blocks need a list of numbers to block (aka "black list")
- I'm look for an app that uses my list of numbers to let through (aka "white list")

there is no way any of the blockers can keep up with the tens of thousands of numbers 'pfished' everyday - relying on users to flag them is probably the best method - but some still get through.

however note that in both cases, callers can leave voice mail.
in the white list case, no action from any user is required - no databases to maintain, no 'renew this block' issue, no 'accidental' blocks, on and on.

it doesn't work for people who must answer the phone - businesses for example. but for the average user on their private phone, how many calls from people not on your contact list do you actually want to hear from?

the white list approach is a killer app - if I had any experience with iOS I'd be working on it, but I'm an ole' DOS fuddy-duddy.

 

[Old Goat Ninja]

My problem with the DND option is I don't want to be disturbed by anyone, contact or not, when I'm sleeping. My phone automatically goes into DND at 8 and does turn off until 6. I wish there was more settings in DND and I could have DND on on all day and only receive stuff from contacts during the day, but then at 8pm-6am, nothing comes through.