There is a scene that repeats itself every day on millions of phones: a call rings, the number is unknown, and for a few seconds we hesitate. Will it be important? Will it be another electricity offer? A scam? Most of the time, we already know the answer.
In Spain, the problem has stopped being anecdotal and has become routine. According to data from the OCU, More than 90% of consumers say they have received unsolicited commercial calls in the last monthand more than a third admit to having received more than ten in just 30 days. For many, furthermore, it is not something occasional: close to 60% say that they receive them practically daily.
And most revealing: even after laws and restrictions, the phenomenon has not disappeared. Up to 99% of users admit to having been a victim of this type of calls at some point. In theory, unsolicited commercial calls have been limited in Spain for years. The most recent regulations have even attempted to go further, prohibiting certain practices and requiring companies to identify themselves. But the reality is more complex.
On the one hand, Companies continue to find loopholes or assume sanctions as part of the cost. On the other hand, many calls come from abroad or use number spoofing techniques, which makes them difficult to control. In fact, operators have blocked tens of millions of fraudulent calls in just a few months, which gives an idea of the magnitude of the problem.
The result is a paradox: although telephone spam is, in theory, prohibited, in practice it is still part of the daily landscape. That’s where the new feature of the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra comes into play. Instead of limiting itself to silencing or blocking unknown calls, the device introduces a different idea: that the phone itself answers for us.
When a call comes in from an unknown or private number, the voice assistant can automatically answer, start a basic conversation, and ask who is calling and for what purpose. Meanwhile, we can read the transcript of that interaction in real time and decide whether to intervene or not. It is, in essence, a smart filter. But also something else.
Until now, defense against spam was passive: block numbers, activate blacklists, silence calls. This system proposes the opposite: intercept the call, understand it and decide. That has several interesting implications. On the one hand, it eliminates the anxiety of “what if it was important?”, because the call is answered, although not directly by the user. On the other hand, It forces the interlocutor, whether human or automated, to identify themselves, something that many spam systems are not prepared to do.
The function is reminiscent of systems that had already appeared in other ecosystems, but here it is integrated more naturally into everyday use. Thus, we do not need to install applications or configure complex lists: the device itself manages the interaction.
The interesting thing is that, in many cases, the call never really becomes “annoying.” If the system detects that it is an irrelevant or suspicious communication, it can filter the conversation before we even have to think about answering.
It’s another layer of intelligence applied to something as basic as a phone call. Although the immediate objective is to stop unwanted calls, The function opens a broader door: that of delegating small everyday interactions to automated systems.
The next step will be to ask ourselves if we want to insist on a call to request a doctor’s appointment if they had not responded to us, automatically verify the veracity of messages we receive through applications (and give us the real sources) or use the selfies for health tips.