Ever wondered how Truecaller pops up the caller information even before the phone rings? Itโs because the service is using Wi-Fi/data to retrieve the caller information from one end and displays to others, which the regular cellular networks do in a slow way. While it seemed helpful, itโs suspicious too.
The worldโs largest caller identity service has a typical feature that no one thought could be possible. Letting users know whoโs calling even before the phone rings are surprisingly, and seemingly helpful. Truecaller calls it as Caller Alert, and itโs just milliseconds faster than regular ringing.
Moving From Cellular Networks To Data/Wi-Fi
If youโre just staring at a screen and notice the alert, you can plan your reaction accordingly. Truecaller said as,
โWhen you see the alert, you can either put your phone on silent, ignore it or move to a quieter place if you want to speak.โ This will need the user to enable notifications in settings and if not interested, can be disabled.
This was made possible by leveraging Wi-Fi/data connections than relying on cellular networks. As internet connectivity is way better than regular tower signals, itโs reasonable to depend on them. The cellular networks are so poor that, major telecoms around the world have already enabled Wi-Fi calling feature to their users. Other would eventually follow this as Wi-Fi/data call is found to be more effective than regular cellular connectivity.
Helpful, But Skeptical
Though Truecaller claims this feature to be secure, we can still be sceptical considering its past allegations. Itโs reported that Truecaller is sharing its userโs data with third parties without their permission and itโs even being set up for sale in Dark web once!
Truecaller was found suspicious ever since it was asking too many permissions to function. This led the app to register users onto UPI service by reading OTPs from banks. Later, Truecaller blamed a bug that led this enrollment and has rectified.
Source โ The Quint