Spam calls have always been one of those things that instantly ruin a good mood.
Even though there have been repeated regulations and rules targeting them, the effect still feels limited. Sometimes you’re finally resting, the phone rings, and it turns out to be nothing but a sales pitch or some other annoying call. It’s hard not to feel irritated. Most of the time, all you can do is say, as politely as possible, that you’re not interested.
I once had the Bank of Communications call me five or six times in a single morning. That was the kind of thing that really makes you lose patience.
Later, I started blocking all numbers beginning with 400, 95, and similar prefixes. That helped a bit, but the callers adapted too. They stopped using landlines and switched to mobile numbers instead. Before, telecom numbers were more common; now both Unicom and Telecom mobile numbers show up. My approach became simple: every time I answered one of these calls, I blocked that number right away. As the blacklist grew, the number of spam calls dropped noticeably. Still, a few slipped through.
And sometimes, after you pick up, the other side isn’t even a person — it’s a robot.
A while ago, I changed to a Redmi phone and noticed an AI Call option on the incoming call screen, later renamed XiaoAI Call. It includes an auto-answer feature for spam calls. As long as you choose the anti-harassment categories and mark those calls as that type, XiaoAI Call will pick them up automatically.
I’ve tried it for the past couple of days, and the result is pretty good. Before, I was the one getting annoyed and hanging up on other people. Now it’s them hanging up on their own calls.
Looks like the only thing that can beat magic is magic after all.