{"id":616287,"date":"2025-11-03T15:00:14","date_gmt":"2025-11-03T13:00:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=616287"},"modified":"2025-11-03T15:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-11-03T13:01:15","slug":"best-apps-to-block-spam-calls-in-south-africa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/smartphones\/616287-best-apps-to-block-spam-calls-in-south-africa.html","title":{"rendered":"Best apps to block spam calls in South Africa"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

South Africans are facing a spam call epidemic, with many telemarketers actively violating the country’s regulations and various calls for the government to crack down on the scourge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, those with smartphones have several call screening and blocking apps available to them, including Truecaller, Hiya, and Call Control.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Internet Service Providers’ Association sounded the latest call for the Information Regulator and the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa) to address unsolicited marketing calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The organisation is particularly frustrated by the fact that many telemarketing call centres are using mobile numbers out of fixed premises in violation of the 2016 Numbering Plan Regulation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anton Kotze, a regulatory advisor at the Internet Service Providers’ Association, described South African consumers’ challenges with spam calls as an “epidemic”<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It is quite bad. It’s an exploitation by bad actors to leverage off the intimacy of a mobile number so that people take those calls,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“Global research shows that the answer rates on mobile numbers are much higher than on typical fixed-line numbers.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He added that many spam callers operating in the country violate the law by hiding their identities, thus making it more challenging for users to avoid their calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kotze said there are various ways in which telemarketers can hide their identities, with some being more legitimate than others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The most obvious is that they use SIM cards and what we call SIM banks, devices that have a whole lot of SIMs in them, and they use that to make calls,” he explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“The number you will see will be that number assigned to that SIM card.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another approach is to hide the number from which a telemarketer is calling and show a well-known or popular number in its place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Internet Service Providers’ Association wants industry regulators to put more pressure on telemarketers violating the country’s regulations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“What we should be doing is having an opt-out database under the Consumer Protection legislation,” said Kotze.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Department of Trade, Industry, and Competition is working on a national opt-out registry. However, Kotze said it isn’t being implemented well enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The department said it plans to launch its opt-out registry<\/a> for telemarketing by the end of the 2025\/26 financial year, which would put the launch at some time before 31 March 2026.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call screening and blocking apps<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Several call screening apps are available to South African smartphone users with iOS and Android devices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Truecaller, which is arguably the most popular of these kinds of apps, is currently under investigation<\/a> in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Information Regulator recently told MyBroadband that it had received a complaint against the platform, which it was investigating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“We are only empowered to determine if the manner in which Truecaller handles personal information is in accordance with the conditions for the lawful processing of personal information in terms of POPIA,” it said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This came after several companies and individuals lobbied the regulator to crack down on the platform<\/a> in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Legal experts had also raised concerns about whether Truecaller violates South Africa’s POPIA laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The legal concerns stem from Truecaller’s contact permission request, which it asks for when the app is first launched. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many believe that by granting it permission, you grant Truecaller access to the data in your contact list. This is problematic because many users in a contact list may be unaware that their data has been uploaded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, Truecaller rejected<\/a> this claim. A spokesperson recently told MyBroadband that this is a common misconception, emphasising that Truecaller doesn’t upload contact lists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, it uses contact permissions to check if a number exists in a recipient’s phonebook. If it does, then Truecaller doesn’t participate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With South Africa’s spam call epidemic and uncertainty about when regulators will address the trend, residents must rely on call screening apps to avoid unsolicited marketing calls.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While Truecaller is the most popular call screening and blocking app in South Africa, prominent alternatives are available.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truecaller is available to Android, iOS, and Huawei users, and is designed to notify users if a call is spam before they answer it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its basic functionality is available for free, albeit with some limitations. For example, it implements a number lookup limit for free users, which resets every 24 hours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Users can sign up for Truecaller Premium for R29 per month or R199 a year for the individual plan or R49 per month or R299 per year for the family plan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truecaller also offers a Premium Gold subscription for R1,490 per year. These subscribers receive additional benefits, including live chat support and a Gold Caller ID.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Truecaller alternative Hiya<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One Truecaller alternative is Hiya, which is designed to identify robot and spam calls from a database of known spammers and scammers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It also detects calls associated with fraud and other illegal activities, and Hiya currently serves more than 400 million users worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hiya offers free spam call-identifying functionality, including spam detection with daily updates on incoming calls, spam reporting, and blocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It offers a Premium subscription for R69.99 per month or R439.99 per year, providing benefits like a premium caller ID, three daily spam call updates, and 200 premium business and personal caller ID lookups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another suitable option is Call Control. Call Control is a crowdsourcing-driven call screening and blocking platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It uses a feature called “CommunityIQ”, leveraging community reports and Do Not Call complaints to identify spam callers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Free users get access to its call identifying and blocking capabilities, number lookups, and the ability to connect a compatible landline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Call Control Premium is available with quarterly or annual subscription terms. The quarterly subscription costs R154.99, while the yearly plan costs R469.99.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Premium offers several benefits, including CommunityIQ blocklist protection, 10 premium lookup credits per month, priority support, and ad-free use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Spam call blocking app comparison<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Feature<\/th>Truecaller<\/th>Hiya<\/th>Call Control<\/th><\/tr><\/thead>
Free option<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>
Android<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>
iOS<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td>Yes<\/td><\/tr>
Huawei<\/td>Yes<\/td>No<\/td>No<\/td><\/tr>
Premium monthly<\/td>R29<\/td>R69.99<\/td>\u2014<\/td><\/tr>
Premium quarterly<\/td>\u2014<\/td>\u2014<\/td>R154.99<\/td><\/tr>
Premium annual<\/td>R199<\/td>R439.99<\/td>R469.99<\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Until such time as the South African government actively cracks down on unsolicited spam calls, the country’s residents rely on call screening apps to avoid such calls.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341076,"featured_media":492327,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17934],"tags":[101669,92899,92897,47502,18268,35997,92859,43552],"class_list":["post-616287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-smartphones","tag-anton-kotze","tag-call-control","tag-hiya","tag-information-regulator","tag-internet-service-providers-association-ispa","tag-spam-calls","tag-telemarketers","tag-truecaller"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616287"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341076"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=616287"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616287\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":616506,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/616287\/revisions\/616506"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/492327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=616287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=616287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=616287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}