AT&T's new feature tells you why a business is calling

A business number is calling you out of the blue – what do they want? With the new Reason for Call feature on the AT&T network, you will see a notification on the call screen that tells you just that.

When a business calls you, they will be able to add a short note explaining why they are calling: delivery service, upcoming visit, patient callback, refill reminder, appointment reminder, customer inquiry, customer service, etc.

AT&T launched Branded Call Display last year in partnership with TransUnion. This feature shows the name and logo of the business that’s calling. And it prevents abuse by using the curiously-named STIR/SHAKEN protocol to authenticate the origin of the call and prevent caller ID spoofing (which is commonly used by robocallers). Reason for Call is an add-on for Branded Call Display.

The Reason for Call feature in action

It shows the reason for calling on the call screen, so you can decide whether to pick up. Also, this information is stored in the call log, so if you miss the call, you will know who was calling and why.

People do use the name and logo display to decide whether to answer or not – 73% of people surveyed by TransUnion said they are likely to answer if they see the name of the business that’s calling. Most users still prefer to handle major things over the phone, things related to health care, high-value purchases, urgent situations like natural disasters and so on.

“Research shows consumers still prefer calling for communicating with businesses – especially for urgent, personal, or high-value issues. Now they can safely answer verified branded calls, knowing who’s calling and why,” said Erin Scarborough, AT&T senior vice president, Mass Markets Product Management.

Google’s Verified Calls feature

Interestingly, the Branded Call Display and Reason for Call features are only available for Android – and not for iOS. That’s a bit odd, considering AT&T is the original iPhone network. Anyway, this doesn’t require a special app or anything, it is based on Google’s Verified Calls feature, so it’s part of Android.

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