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cellioWow, that was convoluted. Having solved the problem, I'm recording it here for future-me or anybody else out there who stumbles across this post when in need.
Like everybody else, I've been getting lots of spam calls on my cell phone, most of which use caller-ID to lie (no you are not local...) or mask their identities. I don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, but it's still annoying.
Sometime in the last several weeks, my phone (ZTE Axon 7 running Android Nougat) offered me some settings for dealing with incoming spam, including a shiny checkbox for blocking calls from private numbers. I've never gotten a legitimate call from a private number on my cell phone, so I checked it.
Yesterday I was in a Google Hangout with somebody, which involved much audio fail that I will save for another time. Rather than continue to debug while the clock was ticking, I said "hey, how 'bout I join the hangout from my phone?" (so, using video and screen-sharing from my computer and phone for audio). I couldn't figure out how to join the hangout. No problem, someone on the other end said, I'll invite you by phone.
Except he blocks his phone number, so his calls were auto-rejected before I even had a chance to pick up. Bloody nuisance. Hey look -- my first legitimate private call!
We solved the hangout problem, but afterwards I wanted to turn off that setting. And could find nothing in my phone settings. That checkbox was nowhere to be found. I went to the rejected call in my call log, found a settings menu, and chose "unblock", but doing that has no effect. (Next time I looked, it was blocked again.)
Some googling told me that I was probably dealing with an app named Hiya, which ZTE apparently bundles with Android. The app doesn't show up in the usual place where you go to launch apps, though. Some more googling led me to Settings -> Apps -> System Apps, where I found it -- but my choices were force-stop and disable, but no "run" or "open".
Ok Hiya, you are -- somewhere! -- holding some configuration settings hostage. Out with it!
More googling led me to this comment explaining how to open the Hiya app: find a blocked-call notification in the log (an actual number, not "private") and open it, which brings up a "limited" part of the Hiya app. This limited app includes settings, so I was finally able to find my way to that checkbox and uncheck it.
Who thought that was a good idea? Un-freaking-believable. Is it so hard to include a hook for Hiya settings somewhere in the phone app (which it is obviously modifying already)?
It's possible I'll need this information again within the lifetime of this phone and I sure won't remember that. Hence this post.
Like everybody else, I've been getting lots of spam calls on my cell phone, most of which use caller-ID to lie (no you are not local...) or mask their identities. I don't answer calls from numbers I don't recognize, but it's still annoying.
Sometime in the last several weeks, my phone (ZTE Axon 7 running Android Nougat) offered me some settings for dealing with incoming spam, including a shiny checkbox for blocking calls from private numbers. I've never gotten a legitimate call from a private number on my cell phone, so I checked it.
Yesterday I was in a Google Hangout with somebody, which involved much audio fail that I will save for another time. Rather than continue to debug while the clock was ticking, I said "hey, how 'bout I join the hangout from my phone?" (so, using video and screen-sharing from my computer and phone for audio). I couldn't figure out how to join the hangout. No problem, someone on the other end said, I'll invite you by phone.
Except he blocks his phone number, so his calls were auto-rejected before I even had a chance to pick up. Bloody nuisance. Hey look -- my first legitimate private call!
We solved the hangout problem, but afterwards I wanted to turn off that setting. And could find nothing in my phone settings. That checkbox was nowhere to be found. I went to the rejected call in my call log, found a settings menu, and chose "unblock", but doing that has no effect. (Next time I looked, it was blocked again.)
Some googling told me that I was probably dealing with an app named Hiya, which ZTE apparently bundles with Android. The app doesn't show up in the usual place where you go to launch apps, though. Some more googling led me to Settings -> Apps -> System Apps, where I found it -- but my choices were force-stop and disable, but no "run" or "open".
Ok Hiya, you are -- somewhere! -- holding some configuration settings hostage. Out with it!
More googling led me to this comment explaining how to open the Hiya app: find a blocked-call notification in the log (an actual number, not "private") and open it, which brings up a "limited" part of the Hiya app. This limited app includes settings, so I was finally able to find my way to that checkbox and uncheck it.
Who thought that was a good idea? Un-freaking-believable. Is it so hard to include a hook for Hiya settings somewhere in the phone app (which it is obviously modifying already)?
It's possible I'll need this information again within the lifetime of this phone and I sure won't remember that. Hence this post.
(no subject)
Date: 2017-09-27 12:30 pm (UTC)I mean, the Settings pattern is hard--most old-school apps have this junk-drawer approach with fifty tabs of settings that are organized poorly--but this approach turns it into a real scavenger hunt. I feel like it'd never survive if we didn't also have an infinite number of monkeys, err, netizens, finding out how to do things and posting it online.