Launched in 2016, Hiya is a free caller ID application with 3+ million users and an impressive rating of 4.5+. The app has analyzed over 13 billion calls to date. It supports 196 countries. The company that has developed Hiya has partnered with over 100 major telecom service providers worldwide to provide accurate phone number lookup and caller ID service. Is the three-year-old Hiya app an alternative to the 10-year-old Truecaller application? Is it effective in blocking spam calls? Here’s my honest review of the Hiya app:
Hiya caller id review
Getting started
The Hiya app’s size is 13.4 megabytes. It asks first-time users to accept terms and conditions. The application also prompts users to make it a “default phone app” and grant “draw over other apps” permission. Once you grant this permission, the app takes 20 to 30 seconds to read and display the call logs on its main interface.
UI
Hiya has a tabbed interface that flaunts a search function and five options – calls, block list, keypad, premium, settings.
Calls
Users should open this interface to see the list of dialed numbers and incoming calls. The call log interface is similar to that of other dialer apps. Incoming calls on this interface are denoted by a grey icon. A red phone icon depicts outgoing calls.
To see the location of the person who has called or to block or report a phone number, tap the number. When you do so, Hiya will display the caller’s history, options to share, block, report the number and the city of the caller in a new interface.
While reporting a number, the app will ask you to select the profession of the caller.
Caller ID
When you receive a call, Hiya will look up the number in its database to check if it needs to be flagged or not. If the number is suspicious, it will display a warning message so that you can reject the call.
Search
The search utility lets you find local businesses and restaurants in your city by their name. The user should enable location access permission to use this feature. Hiya will display suggestions only if people residing nearby you are using it.
Blocklist
This interface lets users manage blocked phone numbers. Hiya allows you to block all calls from numbers beginning with certain digits. Users can also block numbers that they’ll find in the call logs and the phonebook with this interface.
Keypad
Hiya has a built-in phone dialer tool that you can use to either dial a number or perform reverse phone number lookup operations.
Premium
Here, you’ll find details of the premium version of Hiya. If you want to use the free edition of this app, ignore this section.
Settings
Hiya provides basic options in the settings interface. By default, it will display a caller ID for each call. It will not show a caller ID when the caller’s number is in the phonebook. You can change this behavior from the settings interface.
Hiya can automatically record and send the calls from telemarketers/scammers to voicemail so that you can listen to them later. You’ll have to upgrade your account to premium to enable this feature.
Hiya’s settings interface allows you to delete the entire call history. It also allows you to enable/disable a unique feature called Call Screener. When this feature is active, Hiya will reject calls from suspicious phone numbers, and it will send a text message asking the caller to identify themselves. Once the user identifies himself, you can whitelist him to receive calls.
Screenshots
Performance
Caller ID apps run in the background to reject unwanted calls. When Hiya was running on my device, I received about four calls. The app successfully blocked 2 telemarketing calls. It used a 2% battery within 24 hours and about 500 Kb mobile data.
Pros
- The caller ID feature works like a charm.
- Huge directory of numbers.
- No advertisements.
Cons
- The user interface is not customizable.
- A bit slow in processing call logs.
Final thoughts
Hiya is an excellent alternative to Truecaller, Eyecon, and other reverse number lookup apps. It has some interesting premium features, a caller ID function, and a call blocker utility.
