A Simple Android Application to block incoming Spam and marketing calls
Around 2018 for some unknown reason, I started receiving way too many spam/marketing calls, even though I had enabled "Do Not Call"(DNC) which gives you a choice about whether to receive telemarketing calls. I thought of using apps like Trucaller which use a common database with user's flagging spam calls. I wanted something that was local, something that could work on the mobile itself and require no internet connection. Also make it a bit of non-intrusive(not sharing my data) if possible.
One thing I noticed after blocking a few numbers was that the phone numbers of the spam callers that I was receiving in particular all had the same initial/starting numbers(first three or four digits) and digits after that changed. This meant blocking an individual number won't help for too long. So I exploited the initial same number feature and wrote the code to check if the incoming call started with a particular sequence and if yes I programmatically decline the call and notify the user that the call was blocked.
I was planning to submit my app to Google Playstore once I had a basic working but soon the whole Android API scene changed(this is the best way I can put it at least). Quite a few Android API's I used changed or got restricted, privacy issues(like what permissions you can ask or could get) and battery optimizations from Android OEM's. I could work around all the issues by the user going through extra steps and essentially doing more work just to get the app to run(too much hassle). Hence, I dropped this idea.
- Basic Animations
- Material Design (How to and what are the guidelines in general)
- Battery Optimization on Android is not implemented well. More info about it here
- Except for the App Image(check Credit section below) everthing else is MIT License
- tfKamran for his help and guidance
- App Icon made by Freepik from www.flaticon.com is licensed by CC 3.0 BY Creative