If the hassle of telemarketing and robocalls—those prerecorded phone calls that strike at ever-inconvenient moments—is hitting you on a regular basis, Nomorobo can offer relief.
Nomorobo uses a list of more than 1.5 million phone numbers associated with spam callers to either block calls from those numbers or let them through while flagging them as spam, depending on which action you choose. Nomorobo does this without requiring any access to your contacts or collecting any personal information, such as who has called you and when.
Crucially, legitimate automated calls—like school closings, weather alerts, doctor’s office reminders, prescription pickups, and tornado warnings—still get through.
By using Nomorobo, you actually help the company making the app, Telephone Science Corporation, identify numbers placing spam calls. Each time a phone number calls hundreds or thousands of Nomorobo users, the app can add that number to its list of spammers—again, without identifying you and who’s calling you in the process.
The list of spam numbers Nomorobo relies on is updated multiple times a day. If a robocall slips through, there’s a report tab to flag it to Nomorobo, helping other users.
According to the developer, the app has prevented nearly 1 billion spam calls over the past few years. That’s a lot, but it’s worth noting that the Federal Communications Commission estimates roughly 4 billion automated calls are placed each month (as of 2018).
Nomorobo does require a subscription, but comes with a free trial.