Part of the company’s continuing plans to make things safer and easier for its customers, the new tool called Neighborhood Filter looks out for any phone numbers that are calling with similar area codes and numbers to your own. Once it detects one, it allows Verizon customers to send those calls directly to voicemail, meaning they can skip straight ahead to screening calls instead of having to deal directly with anything suspicious. Already topping our best cell phone providers (opens in new tab) list, it’s these little things that should ensure Verizon remains best of the best for a long time to come, alongside fast and reliable speeds. To use the safety feature, you simply need to use the company’s Call Filter app. It’s possible to use Call Filter Free here which offers basic filtering of persistent spam calls and should cover all the bare essentials. Alternatively, you can sign up to Call Filter Plus for $3 per month per line (or $8 per month for three or more lines) and provides you with additional options such as access to a database of over 100 million spam numbers, a personal block list, as well as a spam risk meter for real-time call assessment. Both app options offer the Neighborhood Filter although iOS users will need to remember to jump into their Call Blocking and Identification settings to toggle it on. Verizon launched Call Filter back in 2019, at a time when other cell phone providers such as T-Mobile (opens in new tab) and AT&T (opens in new tab) already offered similar tools for less. The new Neighborhood Filter tool could be a valuable option for making it stand out a bit more amongst the competition given a growing number of spoof calls that rely on looking more familiar than the obscure numbers we’ve seen before. Compatible with pretty much all iOS and Android-based phones so you won’t have to stick solely to the latest and best smartphones (opens in new tab), the new Call Filter tool (opens in new tab) is available now to customers. There’s certainly no harm in giving the free version a try and you should gain some extra protection for nothing. If you’re curious about Verizon’s network strength in your area, you can check out our cell phone coverage maps (opens in new tab) article too.
