Blocking Unwanted Calls With Tasker
I have been using Tasker to read the name of a phone caller. It's very similar to the Read SMS Sender task I set up and described earlier. The only differences are that I use "%CNUM" (incoming phone number) instead of "%SMSRF" (incoming text phone number) and if I result in a name (someone in my contacts after I do the lookup) I repeat "Call from <name>" 3 times instead of just once like with a text.
But the real purpose of this post is to talk about blocking an incoming call. I have been getting a couple calls a day from a scammer. At first, I used the built-in feature to block the incoming call. That worked all right except for 2 things. First, my Tasker task still read the number even though the phone didn't ring (that part is easy to fix). Second, the call went directly to voice mail and they left a voice mail twice a day. So they aren't really "blocked" as I would define it.
Tasker to the rescue. In that same task that reads the caller info, I added a big "if" block at the start. If the caller number "%CNUM" is my spammer's phone number, then do the following steps:
(1) Take the call - answer the call
(2) Wait 500 milliseconds - wait 1/2 of 1 second
(3) End the call - hang up
(4) Stop the task from doing anything more
If the number isn't my spammer's phone number, then proceed like normally. I was able to test this out by putting in my home phone number first ("if %CNUM = my home phone") and then calling my cell phone from my home phone. My cell phone started to ring - a very quick buzz but no audible ring and I never got to my voice mail message or anything.
Works great. Note that there is a Tasker option to "block call" but that sends the call directly to voice mail like the built-in Android feature to block a call does. This task answers and hangs up so there's no chance they can leave a message.
The only drawback is that you still have the spammer's number in your call history, but that's a pretty small price to pay in my book.
But the real purpose of this post is to talk about blocking an incoming call. I have been getting a couple calls a day from a scammer. At first, I used the built-in feature to block the incoming call. That worked all right except for 2 things. First, my Tasker task still read the number even though the phone didn't ring (that part is easy to fix). Second, the call went directly to voice mail and they left a voice mail twice a day. So they aren't really "blocked" as I would define it.
Tasker to the rescue. In that same task that reads the caller info, I added a big "if" block at the start. If the caller number "%CNUM" is my spammer's phone number, then do the following steps:
(1) Take the call - answer the call
(2) Wait 500 milliseconds - wait 1/2 of 1 second
(3) End the call - hang up
(4) Stop the task from doing anything more
If the number isn't my spammer's phone number, then proceed like normally. I was able to test this out by putting in my home phone number first ("if %CNUM = my home phone") and then calling my cell phone from my home phone. My cell phone started to ring - a very quick buzz but no audible ring and I never got to my voice mail message or anything.
Works great. Note that there is a Tasker option to "block call" but that sends the call directly to voice mail like the built-in Android feature to block a call does. This task answers and hangs up so there's no chance they can leave a message.
The only drawback is that you still have the spammer's number in your call history, but that's a pretty small price to pay in my book.
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