AT&T just pushed out a free service that automatically blocks robocallers

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Robocalls are literally the worst. I know it. You know it. We all know it. Thankfully, things are being done to prevent them from ever reaching your phone. For example, back in June, the Federal Communications Commission unanimously voted to let carriers block robocalls by default.

One of the first carriers to put this into play is AT&T. The carrier is enabling its Call Protect service feature by default to all new and existing lines. New customers have it enabled by default, and existing customers should see it available “in the coming months,” according to a press release on the company’s site.

Here are some of the things AT&T’s Call Protect is capable of

Robocalls come in many shapes and sizes, so to combat the variety of spammers dialing into your phone, Call Protect has three major functions to protect you from robocallers.

• Automatically identifies and blocks fraudulent calls
• Labels spam and telemarketer calls as “Suspected Spam” anytime a suspected robocaller rings your phone
• A personal blocklist is generated where you can individually maintain a list of numbers you want blocked

AT&T’s Call Protect feature isn’t anything new. The carrier had this around for quite some time now. The only difference was that it was only available to postpaid AT&T customers, and users had to download a separate app to enable it. Now, AT&T turns it on for you by default.

If you don’t want to wait, you can always manually turn it on too if you have an existing AT&T account. For those of you who don’t mind the robocalls, you’ll have to opt-out of the service.

With this news, this makes AT&T the first major carrier in the US to enable some sort of free call blocking feature since the FCC’s ruling. T-Mobile and Verizon did something similar, but it isn’t as sophisticated as the Call Protect feature. If you’re an AT&T customer, give it a try.

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Editors’ Recommendations:

• The FTC is finally cracking down on those scummy robocallers
• Robocalls are flooding hospitals at a rate that might literally be killing people
• The FBI says that Chinese robocall scam is making its rounds again
• Americans received 26.3 billion robocalls last year and the numbers are still climbing

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.