Apps and extras

These are the pieces the other pages in this series don't cover. Some are worth ten minutes. One of them deserves a long hard look before you touch it, and that's the one about apps.

The words in bold are exactly what's on the screen.

Checked in October 2026. Menu names change when a phone updates, so the words on your screen may differ a little from the ones here.

Blocking a number after it calls

Every phone can do this, and your phone company can too. You find the call in your recent calls and block the number.

What it costs you. Almost nothing. Here's the thing though: it gains you almost nothing either, and that's not how it's usually sold.

A scam operation changes its number constantly. Often it's a fresh number for every call. You block the one that called you, and the next call comes from a number that's one digit different. You can do this for months and never get ahead.

When it really is worth doing: one person who keeps calling from one number. A harasser, an ex, a collection agent who won't stop. Block that number and the calls stop, because there's only one number to block.

So do it. Just don't count it as protection.

Reporting a scam text

Forward the message to 7726. Those four digits spell SPAM on the keypad. It's free on every major phone company in this country.

Don't reply to the message, and don't tap the link in it. Forward it, then delete it.

What this does, and what it doesn't. It tells your phone company about the message. That's all it is.

It does not reach anybody who will call you back. No one will look into your case. No one will get your money back. If you've lost money, that's a different job, and it starts at the three steps.

What forwarding does is feed the thing that labels the next message, for you and for everyone else on that network. It takes about a minute. It's a small favor to the next person, and it costs you nothing.

Call-blocking apps from other companies

This is the section to slow down on.

The app stores are full of call blockers. Some of them are good. But look at what an app like that needs in order to work: your call log, and very often your contacts. Some of them upload your address book to their own computers.

Sit with that for a moment. An app that sees every call you make and every call you take is a lot of trust to hand over. You're reading this site because you're being careful with your information. Giving your whole address book to a company you'd never heard of last week is the other thing.

Ask these before you install one

• Who makes it? Is there a real company, with a real address you can find?
• What does it cost? Is it one price, or a charge every month forever?
• Does it ask for your contacts, and does it say why?
• Does your address book leave your phone? Where does it go?
• Does it say what it does with your list of calls?
• Can you delete your data and close the account when you want to?

If you can't answer those from the app's own page, you have your answer.

The part most articles leave out

Everything else in this series is free. It comes from Apple, from Google, or from your phone company. Those companies already hold your call records. They hold them because they connect your calls. Turning on a setting they already built costs you nothing new.

A new app is a new company with a new copy of your life in it.

We're not naming an app here, and we're not calling any of them safe. We haven't checked them ourselves. A name on this site would read as our word for it, and we don't have a word to give.

The Do Not Call list

donotcall.gov is real, it's free, it's run by the government, and it takes a couple of minutes. Do it.

Now here's exactly what it does. It stops honest sales callers, because the law says they have to check the list. It does nothing at all to criminals. They're already breaking several laws, and one more list doesn't worry them.

What it costs you. Not money. The cost is in your head, and it's the same one the rest of this series keeps warning about.

After you sign up, a call can start to feel safer. You're on the list, so surely this must be legitimate. That's backwards. The sales calls thin out, so a bigger share of what still gets through is the bad kind.

Being on the list is a reason to trust a cold call less, not more.

Night modes, for sleep and naps

Every phone has a mode that holds back calls except the ones you allow. On an iPhone it's under Focus. On Android it's Do Not Disturb. Either one can be set to let calls through from your contacts only.

This is the blunt instrument, and at two in the morning it's the right tool.

What it costs you. It's blunt, exactly as it sounds. While it's on, a call from any number you haven't saved doesn't ring at all. That's the hospital. The on-call doctor. A neighbor calling from a phone you don't know.

One exception to know about. Many phones let a caller through if they ring twice within a few minutes. Scammers redial, so look for "repeated calls" in the same settings and decide whether you want it on.

At night, fine. All day, no. Set it for the hours you're asleep and let it end in the morning.

Where this fits

None of this is the main event. The settings on your own phone and the free service from your phone company do more than anything on this page, and they're free.

Start there: the series.

Then read the part no app can do for you, which is hearing the call for what it is while it's happening: how the call goes.