Edgar Cervantes / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Code throughout the Cellphone by Google app means that Google may very well be engaged on a shared telephone quantity blocklist for Android.
- The Cellphone by Google app might quickly block each calls and texts through the use of this shared telephone quantity blocklist as a part of a “new, simplified blocking” answer.
- Customers might get an choice to obtain voicemails or auto-delete them as effectively.
We’ve all been in conditions the place we have to block a spammer or harasser. There are many options out there to block calls on Android, and you are able to do the identical with textual content messages, too. However thus far, you need to select to dam a telephone name and a check message individually, and also you in all probability must do it throughout separate apps. Additional, in case you change your telephones, there’s a great likelihood that these blocklists don’t migrate, leaving you inclined to the identical cycle of harassment another time. Google seems to be working to alter that with a simplified blocking answer.
An APK teardown helps predict options which will arrive on a service sooner or later primarily based on work-in-progress code. Nonetheless, it’s doable that such predicted options might not make it to a public launch.
Cellphone by Google app, popularly often known as the Google Cellphone app, features a few fascinating strings. These strings are current in v118 and v117 (and presumably in even earlier variations), however Google appears to have eliminated them from v119 and v120. Whereas that doesn’t at all times imply that the characteristic is totally eliminated, it does imply that there may very well be extra modifications or delays earlier than the performance goes dwell.
However, listed below are the strings from the Google Cellphone app v118:
Code
<string title="migrate_blocked_numbers_dialog_allow_button">Permit</string>
<string title="migrate_blocked_numbers_dialog_cancel_button">@android:string/cancel</string>
<string title="migrate_blocked_numbers_dialog_message">To higher shield you, Cellphone wants to alter how blocking works. Your blocked numbers will now cease each calls and texts and could also be shared with different apps.</string>
<string title="migrate_blocked_numbers_dialog_title">New, simplified blocking</string>
The above strings point out that Google is engaged on a brand new “simplified blocking” answer. This answer will block each calls and texts whenever you add a quantity to the block listing. The blocklist may also be shared with different apps.
The string household rests underneath the “migrate” department, indicating that you can use the blocklist throughout Android telephones. That is constructed additional by a number of the following strings:
Code
<string title="block_list">Blocked numbers</string>
<string title="block_number_confirmation_message_new_filtering">You'll not obtain calls or texts from this quantity.</string>
<string title="block_number_confirmation_message_no_vvm">Calls from this quantity shall be blocked, however the caller should be capable of go away you voicemails.</string>
<string title="block_number_confirmation_message_vvm">Calls from this quantity shall be blocked and voicemails shall be mechanically deleted.</string>
<string title="block_number_confirmation_title">Block %1$s?</string>
<string title="block_report_number_alert_details">You'll not obtain calls or texts from this quantity.</string>
<string title="block_report_number_alert_title">Block %1$s?</string>
<string title="blocked_call_settings_import_button">Import</string>
<string title="blocked_call_settings_import_description">You beforehand marked some callers to be mechanically despatched to voicemail by way of different apps.</string>
<string title="blocked_call_settings_view_numbers_button">View Numbers</string>
There are strings for an “import” performance, which might open up the blocklist throughout different apps and, by extension, different Android telephones. The Google Cellphone app might offer you a option to both block calls and ship the caller to voicemail or block the voicemails by having them auto-deleted.
Having a standard and shared blocklist that every one apps might learn from can be extraordinarily useful in coping with spammers and harassers. It will want participation from different apps to succeed, however not having to individually block texts and calls would assist when a spammer or harasser is flooding you.
It’s at present unknown if the presumed shared blocklist can be shared past calling and texting apps, corresponding to on the spot messaging and social media apps. Nonetheless, if prolonged this far forward, the characteristic would wish extra granularity to permit blocking on some platforms with out blocking on others.