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Caller ID app Truecaller<\/a> today blocks between 38 and 40 billion spam calls annually for its 374 million+ users. Now, in hopes of getting more people to sign on to its premium tiers, it\u2019s turning up the dials on its filtering tech. A new \u201cMax\u201d update for Android premium subscribers uses AI to block every single call that doesn\u2019t come from an approved contact, or that its AI determines might be spam, TechCrunch has learned, even if they\u2019re not already listed on Truecaller\u2019s database. Previously, blocking and other actions were guided by how numbers were listed on that database, combined with individual\u2019s proactive screening.<\/p>\n The update is Android-only: Apple does not allow Truecaller (or other caller ID services) to check callers\u2019 spammer status to block calls automatically on iOS. Thus, Truecaller has a more basic service for iPhone users based around CallKit.<\/p>\n The moves come at a critical business moment for the company. In Q4, Truecaller saw a 4% year-on-year revenue dip<\/a>, on $41.52 million in sales. Meanwhile, in India \u2014 Truecaller\u2019s biggest market with 259 million users \u2014 the Indian telecom regulator recently proposed<\/a> a Truecaller-like caller ID service, to be implemented across all<\/em> telecom networks in the country, in a bid to better tackle spam. For now, the proposal has seen opposition<\/a> on privacy and technology grounds, but if put in place, it would pose a direct competitive threat to Truecaller.<\/p>\n The new feature underscores how Truecaller believes there could be a business opportunity banking on people fed up with spammers\u2019 insidious ways \u2014 even if a fix could come at the expense of missing calls from unknown numbers and non-spammers that might actually be welcomed.<\/p>\n Truecaller is also leaning on the current interest in all things AI: Caller ID and spam protection are Truecaller\u2019s two core features, and it\u2019s betting that any reservations about AI could be outbalanced by curiosity about how well it could work to get Truecaller\u2019s main job done\u2026 while also growing premium sign-ups in the process.<\/p>\n The app\u2019s premium tiers range between $9.99 per month and $99.99 per year, depending on factors like number of users covered.<\/p>\n The new feature is also a signal of how Truecaller is playing around with ways to bring in more proactive automation \u2014 and subsequently expect less proactive engagement from users themselves. Truecaller has always offered subscribers a list of all the calls it can potentially block, which includes international, hidden and unknown numbers not listed in a user\u2019s contacts. But to get the best out of the app, users have to engage and tweak their own lists. Now, everything ID\u2019d as iffy will be blocked by default.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s something that, at least, some people have asked for \u2014 people who understand the app very well,\u201d claimed Kunal Dua, vice president of search at Truecaller, in a call.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t the first AI feature at Truecaller: it provides\u00a0an AI assistant<\/a> that screens calls to identify why the caller has dialled the user. (Other non-AI features include cloud telephony and call recording.)<\/p>\n The AI powering Max has been in the works for a while. Truecaller has been testing \u201cmultiple dozen algorithms\u201d across its markets identify spam numbers, and each of these machine learning algorithms is also learning from the user feedback, said Dua.<\/p>\n