WhatsApp wants you to silence unknown callers

Lately, there has been a growing number of spam calls, that have impacted many users, particularly in India where WhatsApp has over 500 million users.

A month ago, WhatsApp deployed a machine learning-based enforcement system that reduced spam calls impacting Indian users by 50%. The chat app is now providing another line of defence for users against spam calls that bypass the service’s automatic filters.

This week, WhatsApp introduced a new feature to automatically silence calls from unknown contacts in order to address the problem – which gives users more privacy and control of their account.

How to Silence Unknown Callers on WhatsApp

• To activate this option, you can navigate to the Settings menu and select Privacy
• Then, go to Calls and enable "Silence unknown caller."

While calls from unknown numbers will be muted, their calls will still appear in notifications and the app's call list in case they are from individuals you know but haven't saved their numbers in your contacts.

Additionally, WhatsApp introduced a "privacy checkup" feature accessible through the Privacy section. The checkup guides you through various steps to familiarize you with different privacy controls.

These include options to "Choose who can contact you," "Control your personal info," "Add more privacy to your chats," and "Add more protection to your account."

Through this process, you can add multiple privacy layers that strengthen the security of your messages, calls, and personal information.