If there's one thing people with iPhones and Android phones can agree on, it's this: Robocalls suck. They're annoying autodialers at best and illegal scams at worst, and they're part of an ongoing problem the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has been trying to crack down on for years.
A report conducted by the visual voicemail and robocall-blocking software company YouMail estimates that about 52.8 billion robocalls were placed to U.S. consumers in 2024, which worked out to nearly 200 robocalls for every adult with a phone throughout the year. That's down from a pre-pandemic peak of 58 billion robocalls placed in 2019 thanks to FCC enforcement actions in recent years. But it's still enough to make unwanted calls the agency's single largest source of consumer complaints and No. 1 consumer protection priority.
"The FCC knows that these calls are a major concern of millions of Americans, and scam calls in particular can result in very real financial losses and serious consumer frustration," the agency writes on its website.
The FCC has extended its efforts to robotexts in recent years, calling them a "growing problem" and one of the "latest scamming trends." It received more than 24,000 consumer complaints about unwanted texts in the first 10 months of 2024.
You may think you'd be savvy enough to know whether someone trying to reach you about your car's extended warranty is a scammer. But as robocalls have increased in frequency over the past few years, they've gotten more convincing, too. In its latest U.S. Spam & Scam Report, the robocall-blocking app Truecaller called out scammers' increased use of artificial intelligence to make robocalls and robotext scripts "sound more realistic and effective." The report noted that one in four Americans reported losing an average of $452 to phone scams in 2023.
What is the best way to stop robocalls and robotexts?
Then-FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel created a dedicated Robocall Response Team in 2021 "to leverage the talents of enforcers, attorneys, policy makers, engineers, economists, and outreach experts" in the agency's fight against robocalls. Since then, the FCC has required phone companies to implement caller ID authentication, enacted rules that stop international robocalls from entering American phone networks, and expanded the restrictions of the Telephone Consumer Protection Act to count AI robocalls as illegal "junk calls." Most recently, it proposed a fine of nearly $4.5 million against a communications provider that appeared to allow robocallers posing as FCC staff.
But federal efforts alone won't be the answer to all of our robocall woes. "Advances in technology have unfortunately allowed illegal and spoofed robocalls to be made from anywhere in the world and more cheaply and easily than ever before," the FCC concedes. "That's why it's become more of a problem for consumers and a more difficult problem to solve." Bad actors' constant rule-skirting has created an infinite game of whack-a-mole.
There's also the issue that many robocalls you get are, in fact, legal, and maybe even wanted — think appointment reminders and emergency alerts. (A robocall's legality depends on several factors, including the technology used to make it, whether it's to a landline or mobile number, and whether it's from a telemarketer who's gotten your consent.) Weeding out illegal calls in real-time without blocking lawful calls is the "most complex part" of the agency's robocall smackdown, it says.
So where does that leave consumers? Along with ignoring calls from unknown or unfamiliar numbers (then blocking them) and listing your phone number on the National Do Not Call Registry, the FCC says consumers can also utilize robocall-blocking apps and services.
Many major phone carriers offer apps for dealing with unwanted calls (ex: AT&T's ActiveArmor, Verizon's Call Filter, and T-Mobile's Scam Shield), so check with yours to see what's available. Phone manufacturers like Apple and Google offer opt-in silencing services that prevent unknown numbers' calls from ringing, too. But if you don't think those tools are powerful enough — most don't actually stop robocalls; they just identify their sources or send them directly to voicemail — you've also got the option of downloading a third-party robocall-blocking app that's purpose-built to stop scammers in their tracks.
What's the best robocall blocker app?
First, some important fine print about these third-party solutions. The pros: Upfront costs for your average call blocker app aren't exorbitant, and most don't require much storage space on your phone. Oftentimes, you won't even be able to tell the app's there. (Some of them are capable of screening and blocking unwanted calls before a user's phone even rings.)
But as former Mashable tech reporter Ray Wong reported, that convenience comes at a cost:
"According to TechCrunch and Dan Hastings, a security researcher at NCC Group, many top robocall-blocking apps share your phone number with analytics firms and [upload] device information such as device type and software version to companies like Facebook without your explicit consent."
To further quote Wong: "Yikes!"
Not every robocall-blocking app is an offender, but even if the one you use doesn't share or sell your data under the table, it probably still collects it. (Many apps rely on a crowdsourced database of numbers to cross-check anonymous callers with already-identified culprits, and those numbers have to come from somewhere — i.e., users' contacts lists.) It's safe to assume, then, that when you're using a third-party blocker app, you're putting personal information like your name, your IP address, and/or your smartphone's name, model, and operating system up for grabs.
All of that being said: If you can get past those privacy concerns, installing a third-party robocall-blocking app remains one of the best and most reliable ways to prevent robocallers, telemarketers, and even pesky political campaigns from reaching you on your smartphone. Just be sure to do your due diligence and pore over its privacy policy first so you know exactly what you're signing up for.
Here are four robocall-blocking apps and tools that we recommend looking into based on their features and user ratings.
