Block spam calls on Android — free
Android's built-in spam defenses are genuinely good — Google has been screening calls longer than anyone. Here's every free switch on Pixel, Samsung, and everything else.
1. Turn on Google's spam filter
Open the Phone by Google app → ⋮ → Settings → Caller ID & spam → turn on See caller and spam ID and Filter spam calls. Filtered calls never ring — they go straight to voicemail and appear only in your call history. This runs on Google's number-reputation database, which is one of the largest in the world.
2. Pixel owners: Call Screen
On Pixels, Google Assistant can answer unknown calls for you, ask who's calling, and show you a live transcript. Phone app → ⋮ → Settings → Call Screen. It's the original conversational screen and it's genuinely useful — with two honest limits: the robotic Assistant voice makes many humans hang up assuming they hit a machine, and seasoned phone crews recognize it instantly and just redial. Screening works better when the caller doesn't know they're being screened.
3. Samsung: Smart Call
Samsung phones use Smart Call (powered by Hiya): Phone app → ⋮ → Settings → Caller ID and spam protection → on. To go harder, Settings → Blocked numbers lets you block all unknown/private numbers — same big hammer as iPhone's Silence Unknown Callers, same trade-off: the plumber calling you back gets silenced too.
4. Block and report repeat offenders
In Recents, long-press the number → Block / report spam. Reporting matters more than blocking — every report feeds the shared database that protects everyone else. (Spam Slayer's crowd database works the same way, except every call the crew takes becomes a report automatically.)
5. Texts: spam protection + 7726
In Google Messages → your profile → Messages settings → Spam protection → on. Forward junk texts to 7726 (spells SPAM) — a free carrier reporting shortcode. Full playbook: stop spam texts.
6. Stack the carrier layer
Network-level filtering catches spam before your phone rings at all: AT&T ActiveArmor, Verizon Call Filter, T-Mobile Scam Shield.
The gap
Google's filter is reputation-based: it only knows numbers that have already burned someone. Fresh spoofed numbers ring through (see why they look like your own area code). Spam Slayer's screen is conversational — it tests the caller, not the number — and when the caller turns out to be a scammer, the crew takes over and your afternoon stays yours.