At the Mobile World Congress, Whitepages announced a partnership with Samsung that helps Galaxy S7 users identify unknown callers and protects them against spam and phone scams.
Whitepages, a company specialising in caller identification and phone spam detection services in North America, has announced a partnership with Samsung that will provide Galaxy S7 users with a live service that helps to identify unknown callers and protects them against the increased threat of phone spam and scams. The new service will initially be available for Galaxy S7 users in 16 countries across North America, South America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, providing an overall better phone experience that includes:
· Caller Identification: By leveraging Whitepages’ proprietary data set that includes more than 600 million active mobile and landline phone numbers in the US and over 1.5 billion unique numbers globally, users will be able to make informed decisions about whether or not to answer an incoming call.
· Spam and Scam Detection: With Whitepages’ state of the art phone reputation service, users will have much needed context for unsolicited spam and scam calls, giving them peace of mind when answering or ignoring a call. The service also includes a spam button for users to easily report spam numbers which will in turn, help other users from falling victim to fraudulent calls.
· Nearby Business Search: Powered by a global database of local business information, users will be able to search directly within the native dialer to easily find nearby businesses for any and all of life’s purchases and curiosities.
The issue of caller identification has come to the fore in recent years as phone scam and text spam has significantly increased due to a lack of filtering at the carrier level and a rise in automated VoiP /OTT platforms that have driven the cost of communication down to fractions of a cent. Of the 300 MM incoming calls that Whitepages scans per month in the US, more than 15 MM are classified as “unwanted”. In December, Whitepages released its annual “State of the Unwanted Call” report which revealed a 35 percent growth in spam and scam calls in 2015, as compared to 2014.
“We are pleased to work with Samsung on one of the great issues currently impacting mobile users worldwide,” said Alex Algard, founder and CEO of Whitepages. “Ensuring phone safety through user-friendly services is what we do at Whitepages. We are happy to have worked with Samsung on the Galaxy S7 to provide their users with the greatest phone experience possible and further grow our footprint in the international arena.”
The new Whitepages caller identification and spam and scam detection features will be available when the Galaxy S7 launches in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Italy, Mexico, Philippines, Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with additional countries to come.
The Samsung partnership adds to Whitepages’ suite of Caller Identification apps from its Whitepages Caller ID for Android to its Caller ID for iPhone to its recent revamp of its Mr. Number app.
