Truecaller takes on SMS spam

    Stockholm-based Truecaller today announces the launch of Truemessenger, a replacement SMS app for Android phones.

    Today’s tech companies try to replace text messaging completely but it makes sense that Truecaller would target this market. Text messaging still reigns supreme – a 2015 Ericson report found that SMS is still the number 1 messaging tool in the U.S., and in general text messaging just works, no matter what messaging app or social network you (or your contacts) have installed.

    Truecaller’s crowdsourced directory of names and phone numbers is the big value add to this SMS app. Truemessenger puts a name to a number, and blocks and filters spam messages much like an email client.

    “SMS has lacked these essential components – until today”

    In our Arctic bubble we don’t see too many spam text messages, but according to Truecaller’s numbers, spam represents 15% of all SMS messages sent globally, equaling 1.2 trillion spam messages each year.

    it seems to be a big problem in India where Truecaller has great market penetration.

    “We know that spam calls and SMS are a major source of frustration for our users globally, and our users in India have been especially vocal in asking for a solution to this problem. Today, we begin our launch in India and are really excited to be able to offer Truemessenger into the Indian market to protect our users from spam, and help to streamline their communications. We look forward to subsequent launches globally in the near future,“ Mamedi continued.