Call screening is the process of evaluating the characteristics of a
telephone call
A telephone call is a connection over a telephone network between the called party and the calling party.
First telephone call
The first telephone call was made on March 10, 1876, by Alexander Graham Bell. Bell demonstrated his ability to "ta ...
before deciding how or whether to answer it.
Some methods may include:
* listening to the message being recorded on an
answering machine
An answering machine, answerphone or message machine, also known as telephone messaging machine (or TAM) in the United Kingdom, UK and some Commonwealth countries, ansaphone or ansafone (from a trade name), or telephone answering device (TAD), ...
or
voice mail
A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows users and subscribers to exchange personal voice messages; to select and deliver voice information; and to process transactions relating to ind ...
.
* checking a
caller ID
Caller identification (Caller ID) is a telephone service, available in analog and digital telephone systems, including voice over IP (VoIP), that transmits a caller's telephone number to the called party's telephone equipment when the call i ...
display to see who or where the call is from.
* checking the time or date which a call or message was received.
*
prescreening callers to a
request line {{Unreferenced, date=October 2008
A request line or contest line is a telephone line which allows listeners to a radio station (or sometimes a TV station) to call the radio studio or TV studio directly. In radio, this is usually to request a song, ...
at a radio station or call-in
talk show
A talk show (or chat show in British English) is a television programming or radio programming genre structured around the act of spontaneous conversation.Bernard M. Timberg, Robert J. Erler'' (2010Television Talk: A History of the TV Talk Sh ...
before they are allowed on the air
In addition, in the US and Canada, Call Screen is the name of a
calling feature
A vertical service code (VSC) is a sequence of digits and the signals star (*) and number sign (#) dialed on a telephone keypad or rotary dial to enable or disable certain telephone service features. Some vertical service codes require dialing of ...
offered by the telephone companies that allows a customer to establish a list of numbers; anyone calling the customer from those numbers will receive an automatic message indicating that the call is not being accepted. Another name, not usually used for marketing purposes, is "Selective Call Rejection". There are also devices such as the
TeleZapper
The TeleZapper is a device designed to reduce the number of telemarketing-related phone calls a household receives by imitating the tone signal normally played by a phone company to indicate a line has been disconnected. The Telezapper was create ...
for screening telephone calls.
Android 11
Android 11 is the eleventh major release and 18th version of Android, the mobile operating system developed by the Open Handset Alliance led by Google. It was released on September 8, 2020. The first phone launched in Europe with Android 11 ...
have support for call screening with STIR/SHAKEN.
References
External links
'Call Screen' instructions from Bell Canada now combined with th
Call Privacy feature
Telephone service enhanced features
Caller ID
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