Make Google Call Screen talk to annoying solicitors and unknown callers on your Pixel phone – CNET

Robocalls are a nuisance. They make you second-guess each and every call from a number that’s not in your contacts, and you know answering a call from a scammer will only lead to more robocalls. Deciding whether to answer an incoming call shouldn’t be so stressfull. Enter this Android feature: Google Call Screen. Instead of answering the call yourself, you can have Google Assistant answer it for you and provide you with a real-time transcript. You can then decide if you want to talk to the person or end the call. 

Google has yet to expand Call Screen beyond its Pixel phone line, but hopefully we’ll see it come to more Android phones in the future.

You’ll need to have a Pixel 2 or newer in order for Google Assistant to answer your calls; if you have a Pixel 4, you can set it to automatically screen your calls without you having to do a thing. It’s a pretty cool feature and should be available on every phone. Yes, even the iPhone. 

Screen an incoming call with just a tap

Every time your Pixel phone rings, you’ll see the standard incoming call interface, but with a new Screen call button. You don’t need to enable the feature, it’s on by default. Tap on the button to immediately answer the call and have Google Assistant begin speaking to the caller. The beginning script for the call is always the same. 

Google Assistant tells the caller that you’re using a screening service, one that will provide you with a transcript of the call, and asks the person to state the reason for the call.

Once the caller begins talking, a transcript of the response will show up on your phone’s screen in real time. The transcript is presented as a text message conversation, complete with prefilled options along the bottom of your screen. If you want to ask the caller for more information or say you can’t answer the phone right now, just tap on one of the options and Google Assistant will continue talking on your behalf.

In addition to reading the responses, you can choose to listen to the caller by holding the phone to your ear or by pressing the volume button on the side of your Pixel to activate the speakerphone.

If the call is a robot or spam, you can report it as such and Google Assistant will end the call. If it’s someone you want to talk to, press the green answer button and start talking.

The entire experience is incredibly well done, impressive and straightforward.

You don’t have to do anything for suspected spam calls

More recently, Google announced that Call Screen was gaining the capability to automatically screen or block spam calls from ever reaching your phone. 

Right now, the more capable version of Call Screen is only available on a Pixel 4 or Pixel 4 XL. You’ll need to enable automatic call screening in the Settings of the Phone app. Open the Phone app, tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner and go to Settings > Spam and Call Screen > Call Screen. 

Go through each option in the Unknown Call Settings section, telling your phone which types of callers to let through, and which to have Google Assistant automatically screen.

Another Pixel 4-only feature is the option to save the audio recording of a screened call. If you enable the feature, your phone will keep only the audio from the person who called, not from Google Assistant or your side of the phone call should you decide to answer.

If you don’t have these options, make sure your Pixel doesn’t have any pending software updates and that the Phone app is up to date in the Play Store. Automatic call screening was part of the Pixel’s first “feature drop,” one of the promised routine updates to add features to the Pixel lineup.

Fine-tune your settings

If you don’t have a Pixel 4, you can still adjust how Call Screen will work on your Pixel phone. To view Call Screen’s settings, open the Phone app and tap the three-dot icon in the top-right corner followed by Settings > Call Screen. 

You’ll be able to change the Google Assistant voice that answers your calls, as well as see a demo of how the feature works.

Privacy first and foremost

Call Screen uses Google Assistant to monitor the call. Just as Assistant transcribes your requests, it also transcribes incoming calls. At no time during the call is any information sent to Google’s servers — it’s all handled on your phone.

Each time you tell Google Assistant to do something like send a message or play music, Google stores a recording of the audio in your Google account.

At launch, there was no way to view previous transcripts, but toward the end of 2018 Google added the ability to view Call Screen transcripts. You can read more about where to find your Call Screen transcripts here.

If you’re new to Android, be sure to change these five Android phone settings. Recently upgraded to Android 10? Get used to the new Android 10 gesture navigation, and then check out these Android 10 privacy settings you need to know about
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Originally published year before last. Updated with new information.