Truecaller announces big change
Truecaller has rolled out artificial intelligence (AI) functionality that it says provides deeper contextual insights on incoming calls received by users, going beyond showing the caller’s name.
It flags potential fraud, identifies likely spam, and suggests relevant business categories. Truecaller says the information is delivered instantly and powered by advanced AI classification models.
The caller ID service, which is popular in South Africa, said millions of daily reports continuously enrich this additional information about incoming calls and include AI summaries of user comments.
Truecaller said this would help people understand who is calling and the intent behind every call. It added that it has a global community of over 450 million active users.
“People hesitate to answer unknown calls because they lack context, and in today’s world, context is everything,” said Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala.
“Truecaller was built to solve this: not just to identify who’s calling, but to help you understand why. Is it someone from your network, a delivery, a business or a scam?”
Truecaller explained that its Caller ID service is powered by an AI-driven engine that interprets billions of signals from calls, messages, and user feedback across the globe.
Unlike traditional systems that depend on static databases or delayed telecom updates, Truecaller said it delivers real-time intelligence.
It said the information it provides can evolve with user behaviour, communication patterns, and emerging global spam and fraud threats.
“This continuous learning loop ensures that users are always equipped with the most relevant, up-to-date context, transforming the way we understand and respond to incoming calls,” it said.
Truecaller said this allows it to do more than identify a number:
- It can indicate whether the caller is a known fraudster or part of a scam network
- It can tell you if the number is “likely a business” or “likely important”, even if there is not enough community feedback
- It can classify the type of business — for example, Delivery, Customer Support, or Insurance
- It can alert you about suspicious behaviour, even before that number has been widely reported by the community
- It can provide a single-line AI summary of hundreds of user comments, while the phone is still ringing
“While the company also offers a Verified Business badge for official brand identities, the majority of contextual insights shown to users are generated dynamically by AI,” Truecaller said.
“This requires no manual labelling or business registration.”
Truecaller under investigation in South Africa
South Africa’s Information Regulator says it is investigating complaints it has received against call screening platform Truecaller.
This comes after several companies and individuals lobbied the regulator to crack down on Truecaller in South Africa.
Agrieved business owners have said that Truecaller has harmed their companies by flagging their numbers on the platform and charging them a fee to be whitelisted.
One business identified itself as a “small ISP”, while another appeared to be an Internet telephony provider. Others who complained did so anonymously.
None of the complainants provided details about their telemarketing strategy or their relationship to direct marketing.
“I hope that they get banned in South Africa,” the small ISP stated.
“They create a platform where they allow anyone to say anything about your business, good or bad, even swear words.”
Truecaller then offers a setting in the app that blocks all calls flagged as spam by default. However, businesses say they can pay for their calls to be allowed through.
“For a ridiculous fee — $590/month for 5000 calls — they will whitelist your number so your business can get through to clients again,” the ISP stated.
It said the fee amounts to R2.18 per call extra that South African businesses must pay for customers’ phones to allow their call.
“Neither we as a small ISP, nor our customers, can afford this. Why should the South African businesses be blackmailed and extorted like this by a foreign company?” they said.
Truecaller denies strongarming claims
Truecaller has denied the allegations that it extorts businesses into paying to allow their calls through to customers.
A spokesperson told MyBroadband that although the company offers enterprise subscriptions, user reports can still cause these businesses to appear as spammers.
“It is a paid service, but when the businesses come on board and become partners, customers of Truecaller, we tell them that the spam marketing is not our call,” the spokesperson said.
“If you make calls that the customers or the phone users don’t want to receive, they’re going to mark you as spam. We don’t have control over that.”
Therefore, paying for Truecaller’s verified business calls product won’t remove spam labels or “whitelist” businesses that have been marked as spam.
“The primary problem that the verified business product is solving is impersonation. It’s addressing the issue of trust,” they said.
They explained that the product works similarly to verification on social media platforms like X and LinkedIn, where users can pay to verify their profiles.
They added that Truecaller first vets these customers by requesting various documents and confirmation of the numbers these businesses use.
The spokesperson said Truecaller’s other paid enterprise product, Priority Call Status, is only for important and time-sensitive calls.
For example, a credit card provider may register priority numbers on Truecaller for incidents relating to credit card fraud, where they need to reach a customer quickly.
They explained that Truecaller colour codes calls based on whether numbers are marked as spam, are verified businesses, or have priority call status.
Regular calls without spam labels will appear with a blue background, while those with significant spam reports will appear with a red background.
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