Find out how your cell phone can tell you who is calling and what is the reason. If you’re on the Robinson List and even that doesn’t stop you from getting spam calls all the time, don’t worry. We have found a solution, although only for users who use a Google Pixel (of whatever model). And is that what we will do will be to use the exclusive feature of these phones that allows you to filter calls with Google Assistant.
That way, Google Assistant will be able to answer calls for you and ask who is calling and why. You will know what the caller answers because the assistant will transcribe their answer so you can read it. Thus, you will quickly detect whether it is a spam call that you want to reject or not.
Interested in activating this feature on your Google Pixel? We’ll show you how to do it right away.
How to activate the automatic call filtering of the Google Pixel
First of all, you should know that this function can not filter your calls if you have activated a third-party app that records calls or the screen of your mobile. So disable any such app before proceeding. Also, you need to update the Google Phone app to its latest version (open it in Google Play Store and if it says “Update”, update it).
All set? Then follow these steps:
- Open the Phone app.
- Press the three vertical dots button in the upper right corner.
- Tap on Settings.
- Then, select Call & Spam Filter.
- Don’t forget to enable the View caller ID and spam option.
- Download the voice pack in your language.
- Then, tap Voice to choose the type of voice you want Google Assistant to speak with: female or male.
That’s it! The next time you receive a call you will see three options: answer, reject and filter. If you press the latter, Google Assistant will answer and ask who is calling and for what reason. You will be able to read a real-time transcript of the caller’s response. Based on the answer, you can pick up, hang up or ask one of the questions suggested by the assistant:
Is it urgent: “Do you need to talk urgently?”
Report as spam: “Delete this number from your email and contact lists. Thank you. Goodbye.
I’ll call you back later: “Can’t talk now, but will call you back later. Thank you. Bye.”
I don’t understand: “I’m having trouble understanding what you’re saying, could you repeat it?
By the way, this call filter does not use WiFi and does not consume mobile data, since it works from the mobile (it does not use cloud resources). Of course, the operator can charge for the call handled by Google Assistant, depending on your tariff.
Countries where the Google Pixel call filter is available
If when you enter the “Call Filter” option, you do not see a few steps to download the voice pack and activate the feature, it is because your device does not support it. Why? For one of two reasons: it’s not a Google Pixel or Google Call Filter is not available in your country. Here’s the list of countries where the feature is available:
- Australia
- Canada
- France
- Germany
- Ireland
- Italy
- Japan
- Spain
- United Kingdom
- United States
It is possible that Google will expand the support of this feature to more countries and devices, but we can’t give you any certainty.
If unfortunately you do not meet the requirements to use this feature, we recommend you try Truecaller (an app that tells you who is calling you and why) that works on any Android phone from any country.