TOKYO: TrueCaller for the longest time has been the defacto caller ID solution for Android. But now, it seems its in-store for some competition. And it’s not a start-up. The competition is coming from Facebook, which has released a new app called Hello for Android.
Hello instantly matches numbers to Facebook profiles and gives you information about whom you’re talking to and just like TrueCaller it will also identify commonly blocked numbers. To begin with, the app is rolling out in Brazil, Nigeria and US for public testing and will be available only on Android as iOS so far doesn’t let apps interact deeply with phone calls and the dialer.
It’s worth noting that while the public testing for the app is going on in the US, Nigeria, and Brazil, the app can be downloaded by anyone from the Play Store.
Hello is able to pull caller ID information and Facebook profile details on the fly as long as the person hasn’t changed the default privacy setting. This could turn into a major weakness for Hello as many people often do change their privacy settings.
Negating all the privacy concerns around the app, Facebook’s Andrea Vaccari, the apps product manager says, “When you get a call, Hello will show you info about who’s calling you, even if you don’t have that number saved in your phone. You will only see info that people have already shared with you on Facebook.”
However, the cool bit is, in case you get the call ID information, Hello will deliver each and every bit of publicly shared information – be it education, employment, or city.
Basically, Hello is running an immediate Facebook Graph search on any number you call or call you get. Hello also offers a smart business search feature, which means that it is also trying to mimic some of the functionality that is offered by Google, and Yelp.
