Truecaller told Reuters on Monday that it will soon start making its caller recognition service available on WhatsApp and other messaging apps to help users spot spam calls online.
Truecaller CEO Alain Mamedi said the feature, which is currently in beta, will be rolled out globally later in May.
Telemarketing and spam calls have increased in countries such as India, where users receive about 17 spam calls per month on average, according to a report issued by Truecaller in 2021.
India’s telecom regulator in February directed mobile networks such as Jio and Airtel to start blocking incoming telemarketing calls through their networks using AI filtering techniques. Truecaller said it is looking with telecom companies to implement a similar solution.
“Over the past two weeks, we have seen an increase in users reporting from India about spam calls on WhatsApp,” Mamedi said, noting that telemarketers’ shift to using online calls is new to the market.