A search technology company, Truecaller, has introduced ‘Truemessenger’, a revolutionary app, aimed at making text messages experience smarter and more social.
The Truemessenger app, which is now available for download on Google Play, is an SMS replacement app that “magically” puts a name to any number.
“Another unique feature of the Truemessenger app is its ability to filter and block spam SMS by tapping into a vibrant community of more than 150 million members who help protect one another from annoying intrusions,” Truecaller said in a statement.
It said the app pulls information from social networks and automatically assigns photos, nicknames, and other contact information to incoming texts.
“With the Truemessenger app, mobile phone users are able to establish SMS spam rules, a functionality which was only available on the email. SMS spam is then either filtered out of the inbox or blocked, thereby keeping the inbox clean,” it added.
According to statistics, spam accounts for 15 per cent of all SMS messages sent globally, representing 1.2 trillion spam messages each year.
Nigeria has a high mobile penetration rate, with the SMS being one of the easiest ways of reaching a large number of its citizens.
The Nigerian Communications Commission, the country’s telecoms regulatory authority, has directed all mobile network operators to charge a flat rate of N4 for SMS to other Nigerian networks. This makes the SMS a cost-effective medium of message dissemination, but also an attractive medium for telemarketers and fraudsters to reach a wide audience.
The messages from fraudsters come in the form of gift card offers, marketing promotions and phishing frauds, and often lead to “serious misuses of personal information and identity theft.”
Truecaller stated that Truemessenger aimed to attack this problem head-on. It said, “With the new app, users can take advantage of an organized inbox where a name can be assigned to a number, and spam SMS messages are seamlessly blocked and filtered. As a result, the mobile phone user now has the option of avoiding messages from unwanted numbers and contacts.”
Speaking on the introduction of the Truemessenger app, the Chief Executive Officer and Co-founder of Trurcaller, Alan Mamedi, said, “We are at a crossroads of sorts, in terms of spam messages we receive on our mobile phones.”
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