{"id":752534,"date":"2013-05-22T06:33:27","date_gmt":"2013-05-22T10:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gigaom.com\/?p=648078"},"modified":"2013-05-22T06:33:27","modified_gmt":"2013-05-22T10:33:27","slug":"truecaller-api-lets-third-parties-tap-into-database-of-600m-phone-numbers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/752534","title":{"rendered":"Truecaller API lets third parties tap into database of 600M phone numbers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Remember Truecaller<\/a>, the Swedish phone directory service we reported on<\/a> earlier this year? It’s a service for combatting phone scams \u2013 the user gets to see who’s calling them, with Truecaller identifying the caller by their phone number. It’s big in India, apparently.<\/p>

Anyway, Truecaller now has 600 million partly crowdsourced names and phone numbers in its database, which is quite a lot, and it’s decided to open up this information to third parties that can make good use of it. “Great,” you might think, “what a boon to telemarketers.” But no, Truecaller is rather sensibly hand-picking those developers who get to tap into its newly-launched, 3scale-managed<\/a> API, and telemarketers are not welcome at all.<\/p>

As for potential uses for this reverse lookup service, that’s up to the developer’s imagination. Here’s what Truecaller CEO Alan Mamedi suggests:<\/p>

“Among many other scenarios, the Truecaller API could be used to save time in call centres. Each call centre minute is connected to a cost. By using our API, both local and global, call centres can identify who is calling even before starting the call. Win-win.”<\/p><\/blockquote>

Truecaller’s database is populated by two main sources: traditional phone directory services and users who are willing to upload their address books. This latter source means it can contain numbers that are unlisted, including pay-as-you-go phone numbers. Numbers in the database come with two types of scores: a “spam score” to rate how likely it is that they are associated with telesales or robocalls, and a “true score” to denote importance.<\/p>

Importantly, name search will not be a function associated with the API \u2013 it will only be available on the mobile app, meaning the API can only be used for reverse lookup purposes.<\/p>
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