Whitepages wants to end robocalls and spam texts once and for all. The online phone directory is spinning off Hiya Inc., formerly known as Whitepages Caller ID, to do just that.
Hiya pulls from a database of 1.5 billion numbers to identify a person or a business for incoming and outgoing calls to help with address book management. The app also signals to a user if the call is from a spam number and lets users block those callers. Hiya also shares news about the latest phone scams.
The company has been built for the last few years out of Whitepages, but founder Alex Algard said he'd identified more opportunity for the company to grow if it split from the core business. Hiya Inc. will now operate separately, based in Seattle, to further build on its software and lock down more deals with wireless carriers and phone manufacturers. It will operate with 40 of the 160 employees at Whitepages, the majority of whom are engineers.
Source: International Business Times
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