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Hiding caller ID

T
Theun
Mobicoach BV (MSP Account)

A client of ours is asking if we are able to hide their mobile phone number in outgoing calls. Their truck drivers deliver goods to customers and some customers want the truck driver to call them when they arrive. No problem. Yet our client does not want the customer to be able to call back. If anything's wrong with the delivery, the customer should call our client's customer service instead of harassing the truck driver. 

They're using Zebra TC56 devices, running on Android 6.1.2. The thing is, I know it's possible to hide the caller ID and I also know where to find it. But can you help me automate this process? To make sure we're talking about the same setting, I mean:

"Phone" application > Settings > Call settings > Additional call settings > Additional settings > Caller ID > Hide number

I tried "watchsettings on" to find out what setting it is, but I didn't get anything back from the device. I guess this is because it seems to be a setting of the dialer application (com.android.dialer) or phone services application (com.android.phone) and not of the regular device settings.

After reading a bit about this on Google, I came across a few people struggling with the same issue. They seem to be able to open the "Additional settings" part by using the following intent:

Intent additionalCallSettingsIntent = new Intent("android.intent.action.MAIN");
ComponentName distantActivity = new ComponentName("com.android.phone", "com.android.phone.GsmUmtsAdditionalCallOptions");
additionalCallSettingsIntent.setComponent(distantActivity);
startActivity(additionalCallSettingsIntent);

But they still rely on the user to manually select "Caller ID" and "Hide number". I'd rather not go through this struggle, as truck drivers aren't the most tech savvy and I've got no feasible way of verifying whether the Caller ID is actually hidden.

So... any ideas? Thanks in advance.

7 years ago
Android
ANSWERS
RC
Raymond Chan Diamond Contributor
7 years ago (edited 7 years ago)

What brands/models of devices are you using?  On what device platform(s) and what MobiControl server version?

T
Theun
7 years ago

They're using Zebra TC56 devices running on Android 6.1.2. The MobiControl server version is 13.3.0.3454.

RC
Raymond Chan Diamond Contributor
7 years ago

The function you want is often a service provided by telephone company, and is unlikely to be controllable by MDM/EMM software.   For a small set of brand in specific device platform(s), it is possible for the MDM/EMM such as Soti MobiControl to disable Caller-ID of the incoming call to be displayed, so that the user of the managed device cannot see the incoming caller ID.  Unfortunately, Zebra devices do not seem to be in this category. 

I just checked Zebra MX Feature matrix on-line and could not find anything you want.  So, I think the remaining option for you is likely to be checking with the telco to see if they provide blocking of caller ID for outgoing call(s).   In Hong Kong, we can opt-in for such service for free, and can either block all outgoing calls by default, or block on a per-call basis by dialling a 4-digit prefix before the phone number to call. 

T
Theun
7 years ago (edited 7 years ago)

Thank you for your elaborate answer. I checked with the mobile service provider but they don't seem able to (or at least don't want to) automate this for a specific range of phone numbers and keep referring me to the device settings.

Adding the 4-digit prefix on a per-call basis isn't that bad of an idea, actually. We might be able to incorporate that into our software so that the prefix is added everytime a call is made. Thanks, we'll look into this.

Another remaining option is to send an intent to the devices outside of working hours and have a key user of some sort press "Caller ID" and "Hide number". Not the fanciest solution, but we'll make it work.

RC
Raymond Chan Diamond Contributor
7 years ago

Many of the latest Android phones have their phone-related settings pages simplified/hidden that I've nearly forgot there're such settings to hide/show/use-network-default option for caller-ID.  A moment ago, I just got into the hidden page on a Samsung phone running Android 7.x, and manage to find the corresponding script command argument that should have worked in the past running older Android firmware and with earlier agent versions.  However, my test confirmed that it doesn't work any more on this device with the latest v13.5.1 Samsung ELM agent., possibly because of some missing permission(s) not granted to this device agent in this Android version.   

Maybe Matt Dermody can help you and confirm if what you need for your Zebra devices can be done with Zebra MX or other trick.

T
Theun
7 years ago

Sounds interesting, it'd make a nice feature for future versions. I can imagine there are more use-cases out there where people would like such a feature built-in to their mobile device management solution.

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