I averaged four robocalls a day last year. Four. Every single day. The “extended car warranty” people alone called me twice a week. My phone became a device I dreaded looking at. I nearly paid for a robocall-blocking app — they all want three to five dollars a month — before I found out both iPhone and Android have free built-in tools that do the same thing.

iPhone: Silence Unknown Callers

Go to Settings → Phone → Silence Unknown Callers and toggle it on. That is it. Any number not in your contacts, not in your recent outgoing calls, and not in Siri Suggestions goes straight to voicemail. Your phone does not ring. It does not vibrate. The call appears in your recent calls list as a missed call, and if they leave a voicemail, you get a transcription.

The downside: you miss calls from numbers you want but have not saved — like a doctor confirming an appointment or a delivery driver. Most legitimate callers leave voicemails. Robocallers rarely do.

Android: Call Screening and Spam Protection

Open the Phone app → three-dot menu → Settings → Caller ID & Spam. Turn on both “See caller and spam ID” and “Filter spam calls.” Filtered calls go straight to voicemail without ringing.

Pixel phones have an extra feature: Call Screen. When an unknown number calls, tap “Screen call.” Google Assistant answers for you, asks who is calling, and shows you a real-time transcript. You can pick up, hang up, or mark as spam. It is the most satisfying thing I have used on a phone in years. Watching a robocaller hang up on my robot assistant instead of the other way around — chef’s kiss.

Carrier-Level Blocking

All major carriers offer free spam-blocking at the network level. You have to enable it:

• Verizon: Call Filter (free tier is enough)
• AT&T: ActiveArmor
• T-Mobile: Scam Shield

These block known spam numbers before they ever reach your phone. Between carrier blocking and built-in phone settings, I get maybe one robocall a week now. Still not zero, but four a day down to four a month is a win.