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App With Robocall Deflection and Real Person Verification?

A

A-Train

Newbie
I recently read an article online from a news website about many individuals employing systems that verify that a person is real before the call is transferred to the intended recipient. From the article I saw this, "...only lets callers through if they press 1 -- something a "robocaller" can't do."

I've spent about an hour looking through the marketplace for such a system and I must not be searching the right keywords because I'm not coming up with what I want. Is there not an app out there that does this - answers the caller, asks them to press 1 to continue, then hang up if they don't? And if they do press 1 and nobody answers, have it go to voicemail or have it record a message onto the phone?

There's got to be an app like that on the market. What am I doing wrong?
 
AFAIK there is no such app. Even Google Voice cannot do what you want. There are some commercial services that charge a monthly fee that will.
 
You want an app that answers a call, then accepts an input, then sends the call to 1, 2, 3 or whatever. This requires switching capability which cannot be done by a cellphone. That's why there's services people are willing to pay for to provide such capabilities.
 
Is that statement the same as... ?

an unknown caller calls me, my phone auto answers, a pre-recorded message plays, says that to continue, they must press 1...

If They:

Press 1, my phone rings
- no answer - send to voicemail (if that is not possible, then have the phone record the conversation after a pre-recorded greeting plays.)

Does no press 1, hangs up.
 
If I understand correctly neither of those options in GV does what A-Train wants. They both require him to deal with the call. He wants the system to accept and deal with the call without him having to answer or check the screen.

Not possible with just an app.
 
Ah, @Crashdamage you're completely right - GV's approach puts the onus on the receiver of the call rather than forcing the caller to press a button or similar. With that in mind, you're right again that it would require a PBX or similar setup to provide the service that @A-Train seeks - it's something that has to be done before the call actually gets around to ringing your phone.

And I could be wrong, but I don't think it's possible for an app to automatically answer a call without user intervention - I'd love to be proven wrong on that though, I can think of a lot of fun things to do with that if it's possible. :D
 
Root has nothing to do with the functionality you want. It's simply not possible with a cellphone app rooted or not, Android, iOS or whatever.
 
codesplice said:
@electricpete Google Voice does offer a few features that I think would accomplish what @A-Train is after, but I'm not 100% sure that they would exactly meet the defined needs:

- Screen Calls
- About ListenIn

Maybe this will help? :)
Click to expand...
Thanks, screen calls is what I was thinking about.
In Google Voice on pc: Settings , Calls, Screening... "Ask unknown callers to say their name"
I'm thinking a Robocall might not get through the "say their name" part. Especially if it asks for a # afterwards.
I'm not prepared to mess with my voicemail to check it out, but seems like it might work.
 
What if I answered the phone on a number I don't recognized (not on my contacts), could an app take over from there? Or no?
 
I don't see how whether or not a caller is in your contacts matter once you answer a call, but maybe I'm just thick-headed this morning...
 
A-Train said:
What if I answered the phone on a number I don't recognized (not on my contacts), could an app take over from there? Or no?
Click to expand...
My gut says no - Android generally prevents apps from interfering with that whole phone thing. That's also why a lot of alternative dialer apps are just a pretty interface that then makes the call using the built-in dialer.

Again, I'd love to be proved wrong, I just don't have the opportunity to do any testing in that area.
 
codesplice said:
My gut says no - Android generally prevents apps from interfering with that whole phone thing. That's also why a lot of alternative dialer apps are just a pretty interface that then makes the call using the built-in dialer.

Again, I'd love to be proved wrong, I just don't have the opportunity to do any testing in that area.
Click to expand...

That.. actually explains a lot. It explains why my dialer one uses the stock dialer for the actual call. This makes me sad gentlemen!
 
Keep in mind that as I said before, what you want is not possible with a cellphone regardless of what operating system it uses. You can only do exactly what you want with a paid service.

My wife and I both run businesses from our cellphones and I've wished for the same thing. Checked into it before and it just is what it is.
 
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