Marco Angelo D'Souza
New Delhi: Social networking giant Facebook has launched a new app called 'Hello' for Android. Hello instantly matches numbers to Facebook profiles and gives you information about whom you're talking to and just like TrueCaller it will also identify commonly blocked numbers.
This app from the Facebook Messenger team leverages the Facebook contact database to do everything from identifying incoming cellular calls to enabling you to block unwanted calls and to search for people and businesses; all from within the app itself.
Here’s how it works: when you receive an incoming call, Hello will access Facebook’s information about the calling party and display it even though you may not have their contact details saved. Facebook states that only people who have shared their contact details with Facebook--in accordance with their own individual privacy settings--will be accessed by the app. (Note: You may want to visit your Facebook Privacy settings to ensure you’re not unconsciously sharing your information when you don’t want to.)
The app also enables users to directly search for businesses and people on Facebook, and even place a call to them. The app also displays additional information about establishments such as business hours, addresses, reviews and ratings.
Regarding its TrueCaller-challenging functionality of blocking unwanted calls, you can edit the app’s settings to block specific numbers and also decide whether you want to blanket-block commonly barred numbers. These blocked calls are diverted to voicemail that can be subsequently reviewed in your recent calls.
Facebook states that all of this app’s functionality respects existing privacy filters; you’ll only be able to access information you would otherwise be able to on Facebook itself.
Keen to check it out? Right now it’s only available for Android and it is listed at the Play Store here, but it isn’t available for download to Indian devices yet. However if you really and truly can’t wait to try out the app check out the instructions on this website. Proceed with caution though, as you’ll be downloading and manually installing an APK file.
