Recently we had an opportunity to speak with Anthony from Tamarin Ltd about Call Bouncer

Please share with us the backstory of what motivated you to create this app.

I'll bet you've done this a thousand times by now. Your phone rings, you take it out of your pocket and look to see who's calling and see 'Potential Spam' or maybe just a number you don't recognize and you ignore the call and put it back in your pocket. I did this all the time, and it bothered me that the call interrupted whatever I was doing at the time and that I even had to take it out of my pocket to look. So Call Bouncer was born. If I know I'm not going to answer certain calls then I don't want the phone to ring at all. They can leave a voicemail if it's important.

How is your app different than the rest of the market? Which unique need does it fill?

It's the only call blocking app that works. When I say that really I mean it's the only call blocking app that actually blocks calls that you want blocked when you want them blocked. Every other spam blocker I've tried to use in the past get's it wrong in my opinion. They all do one of two things 1) doesn't actually block the call and just tells you that you should not answer ('Potential Spam') 2) only blocks a small portion of the calls that come from numbers that have been reported as spam. Neither of those approaches is effective though. Go back to how we deal with calls, watch people get calls. When a person's phone rings they'll look at the phone and if they don't know the caller they'll ignore the call and send it to voicemail. The phone should just do that automatically, but it has to be flexible enough to give you a way to specify what calls you want and what calls you don't.

What is the coolest or most innovative feature of your app?

I think the app works the way that people are already treating unwanted calls but doing it automatically which I think is cool, but that's not a feature it's the whole app. As far as feature, the one I use the most is 'pause'. Say you order food delivery from dashgrubeats and you know they might call but you've no idea what number they would call from, pause Call Bouncer for 30 minutes and their call can come through and it'll automatically reenable itself after the set time so you don't have to remember to do it. It seems so minor but I use it all the time for things like call backs from businesses and such.

What has been the most rewarding aspect of the creation of this app?

I use the app, my family uses the app. Honestly Call Bouncer has made it so I don't hate my phone anymore. Also, my kids will hopefully never have to worry about navigating a world with spam, scam, and political calls and I know it's safe for them to answer when their phones ring.

What surprised you most in your journey to create this app?

It's a simple app, I was really more surprised that there was nothing else like it available in the market. It's so fundamentally necessary nowadays that I'm surprised the features of Call Bouncer aren't just part of the phone app that comes with your phone. If you can't block a call until after they've called you, what's the point in that?

How did you decide which platforms to release your app on and do you plan on releasing your app to other platforms?

I wrote the app because I wanted to use the app and I have an Android phone. We don't currently have any plans to release on any other platforms.

Which other mobile apps or technology have inspired you?

Anything with a clean interface and single purpose.

What features do you hope to roll out to your app in the future?

I'd really like to hear from users on what they'd like added. We've toyed with the idea of expanding Call Bouncer into SMS for blocking there as well but with RCS gaining traction in the Android landscape and Google not providing APIs for using that we've decided to take a wait and see approach to something that significant.

Do you have any recommendations or advice for others wanting to create a mobile app?

Create an app that you have a need for. If you can use it every day, that's an app that needs to be created and you should go for it.