Blockr, Block Unwanted Calls on Your Android Phone

Description

If you are being hounded by a caller who you don’t want to hear from any longer, then this solution will take care of your problem.  Blockr is a Tasker profile that disconnects a call from telephone numbers of your choice.  It provides you with very robust matching capabilities which will allow you to block calls from multiple phone numbers, all hidden telephone numbers, all unknown callers, and specific area codes.

You Will Need

– Tasker application for Android
– A former significant other, a stalker, a tax collector, an intrusive boss, or the like

Solution

You will set up an Incoming Call context that evaluates the telephone number for each incoming call.   If the incoming call matches the number(s) in your blocked caller list, the call will automatically be disconnected and will not be sent to voicemail.

Start with These Steps

• Open Tasker
• Create a new Profile and name it Blockr
• Select the State context menu and the Incoming Call context from that menu
• Keep this screen open and follow the instructions below to indicate which calls you would like to block on your phone

Programming the Blocked Telephone Numbers

You have the option to enter a single number, multiple telephone numbers, any number that is not listed in your contacts, or any number that is not listed as a favorite in your contacts.  Any combination of the above options can be included in the blocked call list.  Multiple numbers are separated by the ‘/’ symbol which indicates ‘or’ in Tasker’s pattern match.  You can also use the * symbol to indicate a match with any number of characters in the telephone number to create area code (or country code) call blocks.  Here are examples of what you need to enter in the Caller field of the Incoming Call context dialog box in order to create each type of call block list:

1. To block a single caller with the number 123-456-7890 enter:

1234567890

2. To block two telephone numbers, enter the telephone numbers with a / symbol between them:

1234567890/1234567891

3. To block three telephone numbers, enter all three telephone numbers with the / between them:

1234567890/1234567890/1234567892

4. To block calls from individuals who are using a caller ID blocking feature enter the number zero:

0

5. To block calls from individuals who are not in your contact list, a pre-configured variable that matches all numbers in your contact list is used (C:ANY) with the exclamation point.  The ! indicates ‘not’ and is literally interpreted as all callers that are not the number that you enter.  In this case, all numbers that are not part of your contact list:

!C:ANY

6. To block calls from both callers with caller ID blocked and those who are not listed as your contacts enter:

0/!C:ANY

7. To block a number of a specific caller and individuals with caller ID blocked enter the number, the / separator, and zero:

1234567890/0

8. To block calls from all numbers except for one caller, enter an exclamation point before the number of the caller that you want to allow.

!1234567890

9. To block calls from all callers except those who are in your favorite list, enter:

!C:FAV

10. To block all calls from an area code, use the * symbol to indicate that any number of characters can be matched following the first three digits (US area code) that you enter.  In the following example, any telephone number from the 123 area code would be blocked:

123*

11.  Block all calls from two area codes.  Simply use the / symbol to combine the area code match in example 10.  In the following example, all calls from numbers with area codes 123 or 321 will be blocked:

123*/321*

Attach the Call Blocking Action

• Click Done on the Incoming Call context window
• Select New Task from the top of the Task selection window that is displayed
• Name the task CallBlock
• Click the (+) button at the bottom left hand of the screen to add a new action
• Select the Phone action menu
• Select the Take Call action from the Phone action menu
• Click Done
• Click the (+) button at the bottom left hand of the screen to add a new action
• Select the Phone action menu
• Select the End Call action from the Phone action menu
• Click Done
• Click Done again on the Task Edit window
• Make sure that the green check mark is displayed next to the Blockr profile on the Profile screen
• Click Apply

Tasker will close and Blockr will begin to actively watch your incoming calls for those numbers in your call block list.  When an incoming call with one of the matched numbers is detected, the call is disconnected and your ringer is silenced.  You set the actions up to briefly answer and immediately disconnect the call so it is not sent to your voicemail.

Modify Blockr to Direct Calls to Voicemail

If you would prefer to send the calls to your voicemail rather than simply disconnect the caller, eliminate the Take Call action from the CallBlock task and only use the End Call action.  With this modification, your phone will silence the ringer and immediately send the call to voicemail for any matched telephone number(s).

Testing

In my testing on a Motorola Droid against a single telephone number match, the call was disconnected after a single ring on 10 out of 10 attempts.  It works!