Frequently Asked
Questions

You're seeing one notification from Kill The Call and one from Android's Phone app. They are separate systems.

Kill The Call's notification shows the caller's name, lets you call back with one tap, and keeps your call history inside the app. The Phone app's notification is generated independently by Android or your carrier.

On some devices and carriers — particularly Verizon — the Phone app generates its own missed call notification regardless of your notification settings. This is a carrier customization outside Kill The Call's control.

If the notification that opens is from the Phone app — labeled "Phone" at the top — then yes, it will open the Phone app when tapped. That notification belongs to Android, not Kill The Call.

Kill The Call's notification is labeled "Kill The Call" and will open the Kill The Call app with your Call Log when tapped. The "Call Back" action button dials directly without opening any app.

Kill The Call detects missed calls by watching Android's call log for changes. Android writes the missed call entry to the log a few seconds after the call ends — Kill The Call can't notify you before that happens.

This is an Android platform behavior and applies to all third-party apps. The delay is typically 2–5 seconds.

This is intentional. Kill The Call hides caller details on the lock screen to protect your privacy — someone glancing at your phone can't see who called you.

Once you unlock your device, the full notification with the caller's name and Call Back button is visible.

On Android 13 and later, apps must request notification permission explicitly. If you skipped that step during setup, notifications won't appear.

To fix: Go to Settings → Apps → Kill The Call → Notifications → turn on "Allow notifications." Or uninstall and reinstall the app to go through onboarding again.

Also check that Kill The Call notifications aren't set to Silent — go to Settings → Apps → Kill The Call → Notifications → Missed Calls channel and make sure it's set to Default or High importance.

A few reasons this can happen:

Call Screening is disabled. Check the main screen — if it shows PAUSED, go to Settings → Default Apps → Caller ID & Spam and select Kill The Call.

Emergency Mode is active. If you recently dialed 911, blocking is suspended for 60 minutes. Check the main screen for an Emergency Mode notification.

The number is whitelisted or in your contacts. Kill The Call allows calls from anyone in your contacts or whitelist. Check both in the app.

You have a Number Rule that matches. If you have Pro, check your Number Rules — an area code, exchange, or country rule may be allowing the number through. Use the Number Troubleshooter to diagnose exactly why.

Carrier routing. On some carriers, certain calls are handled at the network level before reaching Kill The Call.

VoIP calls. Calls via Skype, Zoom, WhatsApp, Teams, and similar apps bypass Android's call screening entirely.

This is normal on some devices and is not a malfunction. Android's Telecom framework shows the incoming call UI almost simultaneously with notifying Kill The Call. The blocking is still happening correctly.

This behavior is more noticeable on Samsung One UI and some other manufacturer skins. Kill The Call uses an in-memory contacts cache to respond as fast as technically possible, but cannot prevent the screen from briefly activating — this requires system-level permissions that only pre-installed apps can hold.

Android automatically revokes permissions from apps that haven't been used for an extended period. This is the most common cause.

To fix: Open Kill The Call and go through the permission prompts again. To prevent it from happening again, go to Settings → Apps → Kill The Call and disable "Pause app activity if unused."

Also confirm Kill The Call is still set as your Call Screening app under Settings → Default Apps → Caller ID & Spam.

Yes — when "Block Hidden Numbers" is enabled, calls with no caller ID (including *67 calls) are blocked. You can toggle this from the main screen.

On some carriers, *67 calls are handled at the carrier network level before reaching Kill The Call. In those cases the call may not be blocked — this is a carrier limitation outside our control.

The Whitelist is a list of specific phone numbers you want to always allow through — regardless of whether they're in your contacts. It's available to all users, free and Pro.

Common uses include business numbers, delivery services, doctor's offices, or any number that calls you regularly but isn't saved in your contacts.

Whitelisted numbers are checked before any other rule — they always ring through.

These are essential carrier service numbers — voicemail, account support, and billing lines for major US carriers including Verizon, AT&T, T-Mobile, and others. They are pre-loaded and protected so you never accidentally block your carrier's service lines.

They cannot be removed. You can always add your own numbers to your personal whitelist above them.

Contacts are managed by your phone's Contacts app. Any number saved there will always ring through Kill The Call automatically.

Whitelist is managed inside Kill The Call and is for numbers you want to allow through without saving them to your contacts. Perfect for recurring callers you don't want permanently in your contacts book.

Both are checked before blocking — if a number is in either one, it rings through.

Number Rules is Kill The Call's enterprise-grade firewall engine — a Pro feature that lets you define exactly who gets through beyond your contacts and whitelist.

Instead of allowing individual numbers one by one, you can allow entire groups at once: a whole country, an area code, a specific exchange, or callers whose name matches a keyword.

There are five rule types, from broadest to most specific:

🌍 Country Code — Allow all calls from a country. Example: +1 for USA/Canada, +44 for UK.

📞 Area Code (NPA) — Allow all calls from a 3-digit area code. Example: 480 allows all (480) XXX-XXXX.

🔢 Exchange (NPA-NXX) — Allow all calls from a specific 6-digit exchange. Example: 480555 allows (480) 555-XXXX.

🔧 Custom Number — Allow one exact phone number.

🏷️ Caller Name — Allow callers whose name contains a keyword. Example: "Veterans Affairs."

More specific rules always win. Full priority order:

0. Emergency Mode active — all calls allowed through (60 min after 911 dial).
1. Emergency numbers — always allowed.
2. Whitelist — manually whitelisted + carrier numbers.
3. Contacts — anyone in your phone's contacts.
4. Custom Number Rule — exact number match.
5. NPA-NXX Exchange Rule — 6-digit exchange match.
6. Area Code Rule — 3-digit area code match.
7. Caller Name Rule — name keyword match.
8. Country Code Rule — country dial code match.
9. Default — BLOCK — if nothing matches, silently blocked.

Open the Main Menu → Number Rules → tap "+ Add a Rule" at the bottom. A chooser appears letting you pick the rule type, or tap "I know what I want to type" for smart input — type anything and Kill The Call figures out the right rule type automatically:

• 3 digits (e.g. 480) → Area Code Rule
• 6 digits (e.g. 480555) → Exchange Rule
• 10+ digits (e.g. 4805551212) → Custom Number Rule
• +1, +44, etc. → Country Code Rule
• Text (e.g. Veterans Affairs) → Caller Name Rule

A live preview shows exactly what the rule will do before you save it.

When a call comes in, some carriers transmit a CNAM (Caller Name) string. Kill The Call checks this name against your Caller Name Rules. A rule matches if the incoming caller name contains your pattern — not an exact match.

Use at least 4 characters to avoid accidentally matching unrelated callers.

The Number Troubleshooter is a free diagnostic tool that tells you exactly why Kill The Call would allow or block any phone number or caller name. Enter a number, a name, or both — and it checks every rule in your setup and shows you every reason a call gets through, numbered in priority order.

Find it in Settings → Troubleshooting Numbers → Number Troubleshooter, or tap "Check Here" at the bottom of the Number Rules screen.

Kill The Call refreshes its contacts cache automatically every time you open the Number Troubleshooter. If you added a contact and immediately ran a check, the new contact should appear.

If it still doesn't show, close the Troubleshooter completely, reopen it, and run the check again. The cache is rebuilt fresh on every entry.

Yes — the Troubleshooter's single input field handles both numbers and names. Type a name and tap Submit. It searches your contacts for anyone whose name contains the search term and checks your Caller Name Rules (Pro), showing every match across both.

Free users: Emergency numbers, Whitelist (your numbers + carrier numbers), and Contacts.

Pro users: All of the above plus all five Number Rule types — Country Code, Area Code, Exchange, Custom Number, and Caller Name Rules.

If you're on the free plan and the Troubleshooter shows "BLOCKED — No Allow Rules Match," upgrading to Pro lets you add Number Rules to allow that caller through without saving them to your contacts.

The moment Kill The Call detects an outbound 911 call, it immediately activates Emergency Mode and suspends all call blocking for 60 minutes.

This ensures that when the 911 dispatcher calls you back, their call rings through — regardless of what number appears. Public Safety Answering Points (PSAPs) call back from administrative lines that vary by jurisdiction and are not identifiable in advance, so the safest approach is to allow all calls through after a 911 dial.

A persistent notification appears showing Emergency Mode is active and when it expires. You can manually re-enable blocking after a minimum 30-minute window.

Kill The Call creates a permanent emergency log entry containing:

Timestamp — exact date and time of 911 detection, in both UTC and local time, accurate to the millisecond.

GPS coordinates — latitude, longitude, accuracy, and altitude captured at the moment of detection (requires location permission). Device GPS is typically 2–5 meter accuracy — more precise than the 100–300 meter cell-tower triangulation carriers provide to 911 dispatch.

Street address — reverse-geocoded from GPS coordinates automatically.

All inbound calls during the Emergency Mode window — number, timestamp, duration, and whether the call was answered. This includes any PSAP callback calls.

SHA-256 integrity hash — allows verification that the record has not been altered since creation.

Exclusively on your device. Emergency logs are stored in an unencrypted database in Kill The Call's private storage. They are never uploaded to any server, never transmitted, and never accessible to MyChatVault LLC or any third party.

They exist in one place — your phone. For one purpose — your protection.

MyChatVault LLC has zero access to these records and cannot produce them independently. In response to valid legal process, we can provide technical documentation of the log format to assist authorized forensic extraction from the device. See killthecall.app/legal for the full law enforcement access procedure.

No. Emergency logs cannot be deleted by the user or by any app function. There is no delete option in the application — not hidden, not behind a confirmation, simply not there.

This is intentional. Emergency logs are a protective record that exists for your benefit. Logs persist through all app resets and reinstallations. They are only lost if the device is factory reset or wiped.

Go to Settings → Emergency Logs → Export for Legal Proceedings.

The export is a CSV file containing all logged fields, a SHA-256 integrity hash for each record, a chain of custody statement, and the export timestamp. You can share it via email, cloud storage, or directly to your attorney or law enforcement contact.

The SHA-256 hash allows forensic verification that records have not been altered since creation, meeting digital evidence admissibility standards.

Yes — through two pathways:

Voluntary export — use Settings → Emergency Logs → Export for Legal Proceedings to generate a court-ready CSV and share it directly with investigators or your attorney.

Forensic device extraction — with a valid search warrant or court order authorizing access to the device, forensic examiners can extract the emergency log database directly. It is unencrypted SQLite accessible via standard mobile forensic tools.

Law enforcement agencies seeking technical documentation should contact [email protected] with their jurisdiction, agency, and case number. MyChatVault LLC will respond within 3 business days and provide full technical documentation to assist extraction.

No. Kill The Call works exclusively within Android's native Telecom framework. VoIP apps like WhatsApp, Zoom, Skype, Microsoft Teams, Signal, and Telegram manage their own call stacks and cannot be intercepted by Kill The Call.

Standard carrier calls and VoLTE calls are fully covered.

Kill The Call requires Android 10.0 (API 29) or later and works on any non-rooted Android smartphone with Google Play access.

Pixel devices offer the cleanest experience — stock Android, no carrier modifications, fastest call screening response.

Samsung One UI devices work well but may show a brief screen flash on blocked calls due to Samsung's call UI behavior.

A VoLTE-capable device and carrier is required for full call waiting interception.

Kill The Call will work for standard incoming calls on CDMA and non-VoLTE networks, but call waiting interception may not function. This is an Android platform limitation — not a Kill The Call bug.

No. Absolutely not. Kill The Call processes everything entirely on your device. Your contacts are checked using Android's on-device lookup and never leave your phone.

We have no servers that receive or store your contacts, call history, or blocked call log. MyChatVault LLC has zero visibility into your calls.

Never. Kill The Call contains no advertising and will never sell, share, or rent your data to any third party under any circumstances.

Our only revenue is the optional $4.99 one-time Pro upgrade. No subscriptions, no ads, no data deals.

Your email is used solely to respond to your support request. It is never sold, shared, or used for marketing. Support ticket records are retained for 12 months and then permanently deleted.

Providing an email address when submitting a support ticket is entirely optional.

Kill The Call's Call Log pulls name information from your device's contacts at display time. If a name appears incorrect, your contacts app may have an outdated or duplicate entry for that number.

Check your contacts app directly and update or merge any duplicate entries.

The Blocked Calls Log is a permanent history of every call that was blocked — including calls that came in before you added that person to your contacts. Kill The Call blocked that call correctly at the time because the number wasn't in your contacts yet.

If you recognize someone on the list and added them to your contacts after the fact, their contact name will now appear on the entry and the subtitle will show "Now in contacts" — but the historical record stays intact because it accurately reflects what happened.

The free version displays calls from the last 30 days. Calls older than 30 days are not shown.

Kill The Call Pro includes unlimited call log history plus configurable auto-delete — set your own retention to 7, 14, 30, 60, or 90 days, or never delete.

Kill The Call requires the Read Call Log permission to display incoming calls. If this permission was denied or revoked, only outgoing calls will appear.

To fix: Go to Settings → Apps → Kill The Call → Permissions → Phone → make sure "Read call log" is allowed. Then reopen the app.

Kill The Call Pro is a $4.99 one-time purchase via Google Play — no subscription, no recurring charges, no nonsense. Pay once, own it forever.

Beta testers selected to participate receive Pro free forever as a thank-you for their feedback.

Everything in Free, plus:

Number Rules — allow by country code, area code, NPA-NXX exchange, caller name keyword, or exact number.

Smart Scheduling — per-day blocking schedules with multiple time windows.

Encrypted Backup — AES-256 encrypted backup of your settings, whitelist, and Number Rules, protected by a 6-digit PIN.

Export Call Log — export your full call log as a CSV file.

Unlimited Call Log History — no 30-day limit. Configurable auto-delete retention.

Priority Support — your support tickets go to the front of the queue.

No — your Pro purchase is tied to your Google Play account. Install Kill The Call on your new device, sign in with the same Google account, and your license will be restored automatically.

Use the Encrypted Backup feature to transfer your whitelist, Number Rules, and settings to your new device.