Samsung (KRX: 005930) just announced its partnership with Whitepages, which opened up the possibility of a spam-blocking caller ID in the new Galaxy S7. Users will be able to ignore unwanted calls and possibly scams directly in their phones.
The new service will be available in the Galaxy S7 and S7 edge users in 16 countries across the world and will provide functions, without the need of an app, like called identification, spam and scam detection and a nearby business search, according to a press release made by Whitepages.
The source for calling identification has a large database of more than 600 million U.S-based phone numbers and 1.5 billion phone numbers worldwide, which Samsung will make available as a source of security for its consumers.
“We are pleased to work with Samsung on one of the great issues currently impacting mobile users worldwide,” said Alex Algard, Founder and CEO of Whitepages.
Ensuring phone safety through user-friendly services is what they do at Whitepages, said Algard. The partnership will provide Galaxy S7 users the greatest phone experience possible and will increase their footprint worldwide, he added.
Whitepages also shared that of the 300 million incoming calls they scan per month in the U.S. more than 15 million are classified as “unwanted”. Besides that, the company released its annual report called State of Unwanted Call, which revealed a 35 percent growth in spam and scam calls in 2015 in comparison with 2014.
Samsung the second to partner with Whitepages
Samsung could be the biggest but not the first to partner with the Seattle-based company. T-Mobile announced last year its partnership with the company with the purpose of bringing the company’s caller identification and spam/scams protection app to T-Mobile phones.
The recent needs for the ID services are being perceived for Whitepages and the phone industry as a much needing service to try to stop the growing problem with the unwanted calls.
The Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 edge presented on February 21 at the “Unpacked” event in Barcelona, Spain.
Source: Business Wire