Current Caller ID by White Pages makes caller ID social

The folks at White Pages have released their new app for Android. They’re calling it Current Caller ID and it aims to bring everything you’d want in a caller ID service as well as everything you didn’t think you’d want.

White Pages pulls information from its database of 300 million phone numbers to give you information on who’s calling you as the phone rings. For the occasional instance where it doesn’t have any information it’ll at least offer up the area the number originates from.

The app also gives you interesting information such as how many times you’ve called or accepted calls from a particular number. That’s the standard stuff — what about that extra stuff?

It’ll show recent status updates from whoever’s calling from Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, and it will also show the same info as you’re calling them.

Other information can be fed to you like the weather and news in the caller’s area in case you want to get that “how’s the weather” small talk out of the way, and more.

The best part is that all of this — even the caller ID stuff — is free. You might as well give it a try and see if you like it in the Google Play Store. Read on for full press details.

Seattle, WA, August 8, 2012 – The era of caller ID simply being a name and number has officially ended with today’s introduction of Current Caller ID by WhitePages (www.whitepages.com). Available in the Android App Store, Current Caller ID not only displays recent status updates by friends and social contacts from Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but it also identifies nearly any incoming or outgoing call or text instantly for free. Taking innovation even further, Current Caller ID includes live local info from the caller or texter’s location, such as weather and news, as well as fun infographics that provide instant insight into the communication relationship between users and the people they contact the most.

“Between Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter, consumers are overwhelmed with too many connections and status updates, said Lori Roth, director of mobile products at WhitePages. “By marrying call and text ID with social status, we created a single useful service that makes it easy for people to stay up-to-date with the people they communicate with the most.”

According to an online Harris Interactive Study commissioned by WhitePages in May 2012, 88 percent of smartphone owners use an app like Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter to stay in touch on their smartphone with their contacts. About 76 percent of the smartphone owners who were surveyed claimed to use two or more mobile applications. In fact, of those smartphone owners who use mobile apps/functions to stay in touch with contacts on a mobile phone, nearly 60 percent use these apps at least five times a day, which suggests that an increasing number of smartphone owners are trying to avoid a communications breakdown of missing important updates from real friends in an era where online friends outnumber real friends 7 to 1.

Current Caller ID: Staying in the Know with People You Call and Text the Most (Real Friends) In one easy-to-use app, Current Caller ID effortlessly streams social status updates just as people are about to communicate. Users can then ignite highly engaging phone and text conversations about relevant topics such as social events, travel, accomplishments like promotions and graduations, or a recent concert attended. The app seamlessly integrates Android’s call log and text history with the user’s social graph to provide timely, relevant statuses for most callers and texters – all without having to lift a finger. Through a clean interface, the app provides users with a detailed snapshot of callers and texters connected to their social networks, including recent status posts on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, as well as profile photos, job description, workplace, weather and news. For example, on an inbound call, Current Caller ID users could see a recent Facebook post about a friend discovering a baby boy is on the way, falling for a new love, or notice that a friend is attending a party, and decide to answer the call immediately.
For business contacts, a user might discover a former colleague is attending the same conference, recently changed jobs, or will be in the area via a LinkedIn status, and build a stronger relationship by knowing this information before returning a call or text.

Current Caller ID also features game-like infographics in real-time that displays communication patterns between users and their contacts, including how often and when they most frequently engage with their contacts, and number of calls and texts accepted, missed and made. For example, users can easily see a fun consolidated view of call and text interactions with their contacts to learn the best time of day to call or text them to get a response.

WhitePages’ new social caller ID capabilities build on the company’s long-standing leadership in helping mobile users identify nearly any unknown call or text, including hard-to-find mobile and some VoIP numbers. WhitePages was the first to bring caller ID to mobile in 2008 for Android phones and has been the market leader in caller ID ever since, having identified over 700 million calls to date. With the survey results showing that more than 70 percent of those who screen their calls on their mobile phone don’t answer the phone because they don’t recognize a number, Current Caller ID helps users overcome the unknown and decide on the spot whether or not to answer a call or text. In addition, Current Caller ID makes it easy to update missing contact information using the WhitePages contact database of over 200 million U.S. adults.

Customers of existing WhitePages Caller ID apps can easily upgrade to the new Current Caller ID app for free. To learn more, watch the video or follow the new app on Twitter @currentID. For more information about all WhitePages mobile products visit: http://www.whitepages.com/mobile.

Survey Methodology This survey was conducted online within the United States by Harris Interactive on behalf of WhitePages from May 22-May 24, 2012 among 2,208 adults ages 18 and older. This online survey is not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables please contact Liz Powell at [email protected].
About WhitePages WhitePages is the leading provider of contact information for people and businesses in the U.S. With over 40 million unique monthly users and powering over 2 billion searches per year on over 1,500 sites including MSN and the United States Postal Service, only WhitePages offers consumers one-click access to more than 200 million adults, also providing them with the ability to edit and control their own listings. The company’s suite of mobile products includes a top-50 mobile website and popular Android, iPhone, BlackBerry, webOS and Windows 7 applications with over 7 million active monthly users. For more information, please visit www.whitepages.com or check out the WhitePages blog at blog.whitepages.com.

WhitePages and their respective logos are trademarks, registered trademarks, or service marks of White Pages. Other products and company names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective owners.