OUR DIFFERENCES
While modern smartphones offer many cool and productive features, perhaps their most important benefit is that they allow users others to stay in contact with anyone, even when they are away from home or the office. Always being available for others can be inconvenient when phone owners are involved in other tasks. There are certain types of calls we can get that are totally unwarranted and present the worst nuisance of all. What to do about them? Read on.
Are you getting random calls from companies that begin their schpeel with a recorded message, telling you about a great deal you are missing out on? Maybe you’re getting a bunch of calls for someone who previously owned the number you now have, and you’re beginning to wonder if the person who had your phone number first had anyone they didn’t know, as the calls just keep on coming, and from different people all the time. You could have been given a phone number of someone who was in poor credit standing, which means that you will be receiving a plethora of calls from collection agencies and creditors.
If you are in the middle of an important conversation or meeting, the last thing you want is a call from a salesperson or a person with whom you do not wish to speak. Many modern cellphones allow you to block calls from specified numbers rather easily. However, with some other phones, you may have to install an application or use a third-party service to stop unwanted phone calls from interrupting your activities.
To avoid unsolicited sales calls from salespeople or telemarketers, enroll your number in the “Do Not Call” registry. Registration with the National Do Not Call Registry is free and you can complete the entire process online in a few simple steps (link in Resources.)
If you have an Apple iPhone, you must jailbreak the phone before you can enable features that enable you to block calls from specific numbers. Jailbreaking your iPhone does not violate any laws but does void your Apple warranty. If you want to add or enhance your iPhone, though, jailbreaking it allows you to do so. After you jailbreak your phone, you can download and install iBlacklist on your iPhone. After you install iBlacklist, you can open the app and select those in your phonebook you want to block or add blocked numbers to the blacklist manually. PC World magazine has an online tutorial that shows exactly what you need to do to jailbreak your iPhone.
With Android phones, use the “Send calls directly to voicemail” option does not work for numbers not in your contact list. To block calls by number, and not contact name, install a third-party app such as Mr. Number on your Android phone. Mr. Number is a free Android app that you download and install free from the Google Play Store. Simply type “Mr. Number” into the Google Play search box to go to the download page for the app.
With some phones that offer native blocking features, your wireless carrier may charge for stopping incoming calls on your blacklist from reaching you. This does not apply to all carriers, but check with your wireless phone company just to be sure. This also does not apply to Android users because the software on the phone manages and rejects calls from the number on your blacklist and not the wireless carrier.
