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The iOS 10 Call Blocking & Identification Apps Thread
- Thread starter hank moody
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This is Mayur from Hiya. Here to answer any questions you guys may have. Here are some answers to questions raised in the thread so far
- Call blocking is broken in 10.0.2. it works on some devices but not all. Hiya is working with Apple to fix these issues in 10.1
- iOS cannot do live caller ID like android. All Callkit apps download a database to your device to identify spam and regular numbers. this ha a limit. larger data sets cause stability issues with Callkit, especially on older devices. So do not judge data coverage based on live caller id.
- Hiya downloads data sets tailored to your location (based on area code). this way we can maximize coverage without slowing down your device
- CallKit is not limited to 64bit devices. it used to be but apple changed their mind. The next Hiya update will support iPhone 5
- When autoblocking is enabled, Hiya blocks the numbers where we have high confidence. We do this because iOS gives you no indication that a call was blocked. We want to make user users do not miss calls. On calls where we do not have high confidence, we don't block - instead we identify them as such and let user decice
- Hiya has a built it dialer and number search. the more you use these, the better your caller ID will get.
If Hiya has it's own database, why do they need access to my contacts? I refuse to give any of these apps access to my contacts. So the first one that works without access gets installed on my device.
Jon - contacts is used to improve spam detection algorithms. If a number is addressbook, there is less chance of it being spam. Spam detection is a crowdsourcing problem. Hiya can detect new spam numbers with 10 minutes of spammers making it active. this is only possible when there is user contribution.
We do not make addressbooks searchable on the Web like some of the other apps mentioned in this thread. We do not charge money to let users contact users in your addressbook. We do not sell data in your addressbook to third parties.
The next version of Hiya will make contacts access optional. you can still use callkit functionality without providing contacts access but features that require contact access will be disabled (like dialer and search)
We do not make addressbooks searchable on the Web like some of the other apps mentioned in this thread. We do not charge money to let users contact users in your addressbook. We do not sell data in your addressbook to third parties.
The next version of Hiya will make contacts access optional. you can still use callkit functionality without providing contacts access but features that require contact access will be disabled (like dialer and search)
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and why do i need an account? i won't create any account, sorry. nor using facebook/google/etc account.
Then don't use the app...? I for one, love it and appreciate such an awesome app at no charge to me. I'm sure they won't lose any sleep over you choosing not to download their app.
I'm sure they won't either, but most companies would tell you that they prefer to know why potential customers won't use their product. It helps them determine what features to add (or requirements to potentially get rid of). Hiya may be an amazing tool, but if their requirements for use remain as is, there's a reasonably large subset of potential users that won't give them a try.
I too will not use a call blocking app that requires my contact list be uploaded to their general database. I'm more than willing to pay a reasonable fee (one time or subscription) to be able to block not only known spam calls, but ALL unknown or blocked ID numbers. And I'd pay an even higher fee to be able to just whitelist my contacts (without sharing the data) instead of blacklisting numbers, but that may not be possible via CallKit functionality. I'm using my first non jailbroken phone in five years, and losing the iBlacklist tweak is driving me nuts. I need an adequate replacement, and so far it seems there's nothing out there.
But then again, why not ask what the reasoning would be for an account and why can't the app be used without one?
Do Not Disturb functionality in iOS can be set up to do that, but unfortunately it will also silence other notifications as well. With CallKit integration perhaps there is (or will be) something that might be able to offer that type of functionality now.
Feedback is always welcome, even the negative ones! helps us improve. We actually do not create an account. We use FB accountkit to verify your phone number which is then used to download targeted spam lists. CallKit can theoretically store 1M+ numbers but it slows down the system dramatically. Instead of downloading millions of numbers, Hiya downloads couple of hundred thousand spam numbers that target a specific area code. This allows us to maximize coverage without impacting performance.
FB accountkit is a developer tool provided by Facebook. it allows us to do SMS verification in 100+ countries without needing to do our own SMS gateways.
[doublepost=1475642672][/doublepost]On a separate note, we are going to start beta for our next version which makes contacts access optional. if you want to try the beta, please fill out this form - https://goo.gl/forms/MNoXUmpstaWgXHiE3.
FB accountkit is a developer tool provided by Facebook. it allows us to do SMS verification in 100+ countries without needing to do our own SMS gateways.
[doublepost=1475642672][/doublepost]On a separate note, we are going to start beta for our next version which makes contacts access optional. if you want to try the beta, please fill out this form - https://goo.gl/forms/MNoXUmpstaWgXHiE3.
This explains why the caller ID feature is useless. This limitation makes these apps usefullness limited to spam protection. I was hoping to ID all incoming calls with an unknown number.
I believe somewhat different services like TrapCall might be able to help with something like that.
Both Truecaller and Hiya offers number search in the app. I was under the impression both did this in the same way. Since Truecaller pretty much finds any number I throw at it, while Hiya finds next to nothing, I was under the impression Truecallers database was much better.
If it turns out Truecaller looks up numbers online while Hiya searches locally on the client, then that explains a lot.
If local search is the only option when receiving a call, Truecaller may not be as promising as I initially thought.
The search feature in the app is not limited to local cache. It searches the entire Hiya backend. Depending on which country you are in, you will see varied results for caller id.
Callkit is limited to local databases. This is an iOS limitation and all apps will face it.
[doublepost=1475697438][/doublepost]
No, iOS does not allow for this to be implemented. On Android, the Hiya app can block private/unknown callers
Okay. So truecallers database is better then, at least for where I live. But at least Hiya has callkit enabled allready, so hopefully your database will improve.
i prefer to only tell you which country i am from! It's simpler and i don't need to give away my data.
add this option please.
Using Hiya, it seems to have recently lost the ability to tell me spam, etc. live. I've ignored several calls, copied the number into Hiya, searched, and seen it was in the database, so, great. But no notification on the incoming call screen. Anyone know what's up there? Running 10.1 beta2, if that matters. This isn't a blocking issue, I want to let all calls come in, but see the database info on them so I can ignore them!
If the reference above to 'certain areacodes' was that we can only check 'nearby' numbers, then this app is useless, as I think someone said. Anyone in the USA will get calls from any areacode in NANP, along with any of the 8XX tollfree ones. There is no 'local' in the USA for many years now. Unless you are talking 10-15 years past, everyone has nationwide longdistance and no one has ever paid for inbound calls.
We need a nationwide or larger database, or apps are not worth the time to even download.
If the reference above to 'certain areacodes' was that we can only check 'nearby' numbers, then this app is useless, as I think someone said. Anyone in the USA will get calls from any areacode in NANP, along with any of the 8XX tollfree ones. There is no 'local' in the USA for many years now. Unless you are talking 10-15 years past, everyone has nationwide longdistance and no one has ever paid for inbound calls.
We need a nationwide or larger database, or apps are not worth the time to even download.
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Can you implement it so numbers can be "shared" with the Hiya app? Instead of having to copy and paste the number into your app, it would be great if Hiya had a button there when I click "share contact" from the dialer app. TrueCaller does this, and it's easier to use.