Orange Telephone's anti-spam blocked several million calls | iGeneration

Orange gave some figures on the use of its Orange Telephone app, designed to detect and block unwanted calls (such as cold calling). Available on iOS and Android, it works, for its primary anti-spam function, even when you subscribe to another operator.

Since September 2019, Orange says it has blocked some 10 million calls in this way from the one and a half million users of its app, on both platforms and in the 26 countries where it is offered. According to the operator, iOS users account for roughly 1/6 of the total, which would be around 250,000 people.

This volume of blocked calls must even be higher since this app was launched, without fanfare, a year ago. However, an update dated September corrected a bug which sometimes made this automatic blocking inoperative… Which may explain why Orange does not go back further.

Beyond this application, the operator claims to have blocked for about three months no less than 101 million unwanted calls directed to both mobiles and landlines.

The application takes advantage of an existing system function since iOS 10, located in "Settings" > "Telephone" > "Call blocking and identification" where Orange Telephone is designated as a call filter. When a number already referenced by the operator or by users of this app contacts you, its potentially unwanted status appears on the call screen. It's anti-spam.

If you get caught by a number like this, you can, afterwards, from the Telephone call log, report it to the app through the iOS sharing panel. Your report will contribute to the establishment of this database.

The app is free and all subscribers, regardless of their operator, can use this anti-spam. Orange customers are also entitled to an automatic blocking upstream, so as not to be bothered at all, and to a reverse directory.

On the other hand, these filters can do nothing against hidden numbers or SMS solicitations.