Caller identity platform Truecaller recently launched a new feature that lets one person become an admin of a family group, get alerts about fraud calls received by other members, and even end a call on their behalf if they suspect a family member might get scammed.
The company, which has over 450 million users, first launched the feature in December in a handful of countries like Sweden, Chile, Malaysia, and Kenya. Truecaller said that after seeing promising results, it decided to roll it out worldwide, including in India, the company’s biggest market. The feature is free, and users can create groups even if they are not on a paid Truecaller plan.
With this feature, the tech-savvy member of a family or friends group can become the admin of an up to five-member group. Once the other members join the group, the admin can get alerts about potentially fraudulent calls those members receive. If the admin believes that the call could harm the member, they can remotely end the call as well. While the admin can get alerts for fraud calls when a member is using iOS or Android, they can only end calls for members on Android.
On Android, members can also grant permission to the admin to detect real-time activity such as walking or driving, battery level, and phone sound settings (to check if the phone is in silent mode). Truecaller said this is helpful for admins to keep tabs on elderly members and to only call them when they are not walking or driving.
The admin can also block certain numbers and international calling codes, and share a blocklist with group members.
Truecaller noted that the admin can’t see the non-spam call history or SMS history of group members.
“I think, unfortunately, all of us know somebody or another in our families or friends who have been impacted by fraud,” Kunal Dua, VP of Product, at Truecaller, told TechCrunch over a call. “In that sense, it’s a fundamental shift for Truecaller in terms of what we’ve been focusing on as a problem,” he added.
Techcrunch event
San Francisco, CA
|
October 13-15, 2026
Last year, Truecaller introduced a voicemail feature for Indian users featuring an AI assistant that listens for calls when a user is unavailable and provides a summary of the transcript. The company is exploring a similar AI approach for family protection to potentially alert the admin about what kind of fraud call a group member is receiving.
The company is also exploring using AI to screen calls and automatically disconnect them when certain words associated with scams are detected, such as “digital arrest” — a tactic in which perpetrators impersonate law enforcement officers to extract information or money from call recipients.
In India, scam calls have risen over time and caused financial losses across the country. Truecaller said that it identified over 7.7 billion fraud calls last year. Indian authorities have launched multiple initiatives, including a controversial policy called SIM binding that could hamper the working of apps like WhatsApp and Telegram.
Truecaller is facing headwinds. Its stock has dwindled by over 80% in the last 12 months. During its Q4 2025 report, the company said that its EBDITA– a measure of operating profitability — dipped 49% year-on-year, with ad revenue declining 31%. The company is also facing challenges from India’s Caller Name Presentation (CNAP) system, which displays the name of the caller as registered with their phone carrier. Truecaller has maintained that just displaying a caller’s name won’t reduce spam calls, arguing that its platform goes further by offering community-based reports.
“In India, there has been much talk about the imminent rollout of CNAP,” Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala said during the Q4 2025 earnings call. “CNAP is partially rolled out, and so far, the impact on our user growth is limited. As we have said in the past, we expect that CNAP might have some impact on user growth, but that remains to be seen as CNAP reaches a full rollout.”
Continued Jhunjhunwala, “Our focus continues to be on delivering a superior product, and as you are aware, the consumer can choose to have CNAP and Truecaller in parallel, where we provide a lot more information and a lot more context and various other solutions, for the consumer.”
Source link
#Truecaller #lets #hang #scammers #behalf #family #TechCrunch
Post Comment