TrueCaller: Automatic CallerID Lookup
TrueCaller allows data-connected smartphones to fill in missing callerID information.
Slowly but surely, cellular phones are replacing landlines. In the US, 20% of Americans households no longer have a landline, instead only using their cellphones. While Canadians have yet to see the unlimited nationwide plans available south of the border, there are now unlimited in-network plans, cheap long distance packages and unlimited incoming features.
I recently discovered a new (free) program for data-enabled smartphones called TrueCaller. When you receive an incoming call from a phone number not in your contact list/phone book, TrueCaller queries online databases and fills in information such as name, address, city, etc.
It will also go through your existing contact list/phone book and based upon the phone number already stored, fill in missing information like address, city, etc.
As someone who does a lot of on-site technical work, I’m always getting calls from businesses, private clients, etc. and TrueCaller allows me to quickly identify and screen calls.
TrueCaller has one obvious limitation: it can’t identify other cellular phone numbers (since there is no public database).
It currently works in 28 countries, including Canada.
It currently available for Android, Symbian/S60, and Windows Mobile.
It is available for the iPhone, but only as a manual lookup tool.
BlackBerry support is coming soon.
Check it out at www.truecaller.com
Hey Jeremy, according to their TOS: http://www.truecaller.com/?p=terms_of_use
“Users in the following countries will need to purchase the software for continued usage after the 14-days trial period is over:
United States
Canada
Sweden
Denmark”
Have you passed the 14-day period and if so, how much will it cost to continue using it?
I’m also a little concerned about the section on “Integrity” which says:
“You guarantee that the device that is using the application is your device. You also agree to let us know your country position, a device unique number, the information about the number you are identifying, your operating system, your operator and the version of the used application.”
I read that to mean that even if the app hasn’t had to lookup a number (beacuse it was already in your phonebook) it will still transmit the info associated with that number back to TrueCaller – which means you may be sharing the contents of your phonebook with them.
Sounds a little invasive :-\
I’m on day 4. It is $6.99 USD to purchase.
I haven’t used the phone book/contact list integration but if that’s the case, it’s definitely very invasive. I’m sure everyone’s got contacts/numbers that their owners don’t want getting out.
I guess I’ll stick to using Thunderbird/Exchange and its offline address book completion tools and syncing.
*uninstall*
Hi all,
Just to clear things here, when you receive a call that is saved in your phonebook, TrueCaller does not send any requests to our servers.
When you use the “Update phonebook” feature to complete missing information from your phonebook, TrueCaller sends all your numbers to our servers to check if their is any information available BUT we do not receive the name of your contacts and we do not store the numbers in our system.
After 14 Days it costs $6.99 which is a one-time fee and is locked to your specific device.
Thanks!
Best regards Alan
Excuse me, but that’s just extremely stupid – when ppl get a new phone, they’ll have to pay again :/
Thank you for clearing that out Alan.
Are you a developer of TrueCaller?
Hi Simon.
Yes, I’m working with the development of the back-end system and also the co-founder.
Yesterday we also launched a new feature for TrueCaller that displays the area code of the incoming number if any matches can’t be found. Check out our blog at truecaller.com/blog
//Alan
This is most useful to all of us.
____________
Jennifer
This is most useful and helpful to all us.
____________
Jennifer
Hi
I’ve used nokia last year, and I bought True Caller paid version. It was working perfect about call blocking, caller ID instant .
I replace to my phone from nokia to Iphone. I setup True Caller Free edition from Iphone store but Nothing work about caller ID and Call Blocking. What is problem ?