Best Spam Call Blocking App?

I've been on a mission to find the best call blocking app. I've tried just about them all. They key really is who has the largest most up-to-date database to not only identify who the caller is (even if their Caller ID number has no name associated with it in their carrier's database).

It basically has come down to Whoscall, Hiya, and Truecaller. All the others, the user base is too small to have that big of a database as these databases rely on users submitting names associated with the numbers or flagging calls as spam.

I used Whoscall but recently it seems to not block a lot of spam calls so I went back to the drawing board and revisiting all the major apps in this category.

Truecaller there's some bad reviews from the past that if you give it access to your contact list, it will download all your contact information and add it to their database. After some more digging, it appears this is no longer the case because they got such bad press. Allowing access to your contact list is only necessary if you want to block all incoming calls that are not in your contact list. I find that feature too heavy handed as you get a lot of legit calls that may not be in your contact list.

Hiya is less full featured, but unlike Truecaller it doesn't require you to make it your default dialer, which may or may not be attractive to some users. Supposedly it uses the same database as another popular app Mr. Number, which helps make the database larger by combining input from users of both apps. But it's interface and feature set is lacking compared to Truecaller. Truecaller appears to be by far the most installed app for spam call blocking.

What I ended up doing is installing both! And for the first few days, I was surprised with the results as I expected Truecaller to be more 'accurate' based on a larger installed userbase. It wasn't. Hiya gave more accurate names for the callers without a name on their caller ID so their database appears to be for whatever reason more accurate. In addition, a couple of the most annoying (always calling daily) spam calls I get, Hiya blocked them, Truecaller didn't.

I may uninstall Truecaller for a while to make sure it's not blocking the spam just because for whatever reason Hiya is blocking it before Truecaller has a chance to. I would be surprised if that's the case since Truecaller is my default dialing app for making/receiving calls and Hiya isn't.

I'd be curious to hear other people's experiences over time with any call blocking apps.

 

I currently have my device programmed to forward to my Google Voice number which is set on do not disturb. I like having the email notifications and voicemail transcriptions. I'd consider Youmail is the voicemail is on par with Google Voice.

 

I just reviewed the YouMail app feature description. Very impressive. I'm going to give it a try. I get 2-3 of the same spam calls a day. Of course they are from the same area code but varying numbers. If it blocks them as well as Hiya, then I think that will be the winner. Looks a lot more expensive than the other apps but I suppose that's because you're getting a vanity number along with your voicemail service so on par with other similar services I suppose.

 

Just found out the free plan can be used to block spam calls without having to signup for their plans. But sounds like you can't use the busy signal option, either forward spam to voicemail or disconnect/ignore call. Still, if their database is better than Hiya, worth a try.

 

So I installed Youmail. It wants to send codes to your carrier presumably to change your voicemail number. However I want to use the free version with my own voicemail. So I did all the other setup. Gave it all the permissions and did a test call from my Google Voice and it didn't even register the call in the history.

What I'm wondering if on activation is it enabling a forward all the time to their number and then they do the spam check on their numbers end when the call is automatically forwarded to them and if it passes the call though using VOIP to their app? If that's the case, no thank you. I'll stick with Hiya.