Truecaller will allow users to set a reason for calling, which will be displayed on the phone of the person they call, the company announced on Wednesday. Users will be able to choose from three different call reasons which they can customise. The options — which the company calls “reason picker” — will appear before a user places the call; it is not mandatory for them to choose a reason. However, there are certain caveats with this feature — most notably, that the company has no way to keep a check on abusive messages being sent as call reasons (more on that below). The feature is free to use, but will currently be available only to Android users. On iOS, it will be rolled out by early next year, the company said. It is worth noting that in early September, Google had launched an exact same feature for Android phones, where businesses could display their name, logo, and reason for calling while placing a call to a customer. At the time, MediaNama had pointed out that with this feature, Google had essentially pitted itself against Truecaller, and in that context, Truecaller’s new feature looks like an obvious business decision. Also, it is worth mentioning that Google’s feature is available only to verified businesses, whereas, Truecaller’s call reason feature can be used by all of its users. If it works as advertised, the feature may help to filter spam calls even more, which are a huge problem in India. On an average, an…
