# An Indian indie dev's caller ID app: 80 days in, 300k installs, but a rival on the same chart is growing 6x faster · Mobile app

> Source: https://stringers.io/en/apps/play_com.contacts.dialer.phone.html (Stringers / 什么值得做, generated 2026-11-08)
> Stringers answers one question every day: what small product can one or two people build in a few months and actually make money from. Numbers come from 15 databases we collect daily, each with source and date.
> For agents: these verdicts and the underlying databases (verified revenue, App Store / Google Play charts, ad libraries, GitHub, Product Hunt…) are queryable live over MCP — tools today / hot / products / directions / direction / data. Setup: https://github.com/komako-workshop/stringers (the user logs in at stringers.io → "配置 agent" to get a personal URL). Site index: https://stringers.io/llms.txt

> Spam calls are rampant in India and Africa, so caller ID searches run all year. Its name and package name claim big keywords like phone, caller ID, and dialer. With staged ad pushes (inferred), it climbed the communication free charts in several emerging markets.

[Mobile App](https://stringers.io/en/apps/index.md) · Android · written 11-6

Phone Call - Caller ID · ToonBoon

# An Indian indie dev's caller ID app: 80 days in, 300k installs, but a rival on the same chart is growing 6x faster

**What it is** A free, ad-supported caller ID and spam-call blocker app. Actual calls still go through the phone's built-in dialer.

**Why it's trending** Spam calls are rampant in India and Africa, so caller ID searches never stop. Its name and package ID grab the big terms (phone, caller ID, dialer), and a series of on-off ad campaigns (inferred) pushed it up the free Communication charts in several emerging markets.

**C** **How you could approach it** Don't build another copy of the same shell. A team that runs a tool portfolio and already buys users can test it cheaply across several names. If you want to stand out, build the large-font version for older users that reviewers keep asking for, or an AI assistant that actually answers spam calls for you.

Grade C: the playbook is clear, cheap, and learnable, but dozens of near-identical packages launched the same quarter, its own rank is slipping, and its rivals grew 6× faster over the same period. Without a number database there's no moat, so jumping in isn't worth it. Few people know about this yet

Data (updated daily) · first launch 2026-08-18 · 11-07 installs 305,051

Android · Total installs worldwide

Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations). Google's detail page only refreshes install counts every other day, so a flat day doesn't mean nobody installed.

Android · Ratings count (cumulative)

Data 2026-10-29 → 2026-11-07 (10 days, 10 observations)

Phone Call - Caller ID is a caller ID app from Indian developer Nishant Parmar, published under the name "ToonBoon". It launched Aug 18 and had 305k installs by Nov 6. There's nothing new in it, and actual calls still go through the phone's built-in dialer. It took off for three reasons: a category people search constantly, a name that claims the big search terms, and waves of ad spend. The playbook is easy to copy, and because it's easy to copy, the lane is already crowded.

### A review with 56 likes

On Sep 26, a user named Kelly Anderson left a comment on its Google Play page: "Make print larger so I can read it." By Nov 6 it was the most-liked review, with 56 people finding it helpful. Third place went to Riggy Riggs (Sep 15): "I get that you need ads, but ads in the dialer make the app pointless." (18 likes)

The two reviews pretty much sum up the app. People installing it want something simple, readable, and able to block spam calls. The developer wants to put ads on that. There isn't much else in between.

### What it is

The store listing describes a full feature set: caller ID, blocking and labeling spam numbers, call history, favorite contacts, a dial pad, plus a "post-call" screen that pops up after you hang up, showing call counts and duration with one-tap block or save-number buttons.

But read closely and two sentences stand out: "When saving a contact, the system contacts page is used" and "When making a call, your phone's default dialer app handles it." So it isn't a full replacement dialer, just a shell over the system phone. The upside is little development work, and it avoids the Google Play review round covering the default phone app role and call log permissions (inferred).

One more thing worth noting: its Data safety section says "no data collected, no data shared with third parties." An app claiming to recognize "unknown numbers not in your contacts" that collects no data has to get its number info from somewhere. The listing doesn't say where. Most likely its unknown-number recognition is weak and relies mainly on the local contacts list plus blocklists you add yourself (inferred).

Free, with ads. The listing says "contains in-app purchases," but no prices are shown (Google Play listing, 11-06). It hasn't charted in any country's top grossing. Money almost certainly comes only from ads.

### How the 300k installs happened

Based on third-party daily estimates, its cumulative installs climbed in these stages:

| Timeline | Total installs | Shape |
|---|---|---|
| 8-18 | 112 | Just launched |
| 8-21 | About 3,500 | First growth |
| 9-03 | About 20k |  |
| 9-10 | About 53k | Over 30k added in one week, averaging about 8 thousand a day |
| 9-23 | About 137k |  |
| 10-04 | About 179k |  |
| 10-05 → 10-23 | Barely moving | A few hundred to 2,000 a day |
| 10-25 → 11-03 | About 289k | Accelerated again, 4–7 thousand a day |
| 11-06 | 305,051 | +78.5k in the last 7 days |

Figures come from Google Play install counts and third-party estimates, 11-06. Play install counts refresh only every few days (from 10-29 to 10-31 it sat at 226k, then jumped 23k at 11-01), so we look at weekly totals.

Apps that grow through word of mouth show a curve that bends upward slowly. This one goes "open, pause, open" and stays nearly flat for 20 days in the middle. The most likely explanation is that ad budgets were switched on and off (inferred; we found no ads for it in public ad libraries, but those only cover part of the advertisers, so not finding them doesn't mean there were none).

Two other traffic sources are confirmed:

- **Store search** . The name is "Phone Call - Caller ID" and the package ID is com.contacts.dialer.phone. It covers five big category terms: phone, call, caller ID, contacts, dialer. The description repeats Caller ID and spam call blocker. In this category, many people simply open the store and search "caller id."

- **Category chart exposure** . It has only charted on the Communication free charts in India, South Africa, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, markets with a lot of spam calls and a low bar to chart. In India its ranks 10-29 to 11-01 were #41, then it dropped to 48 and 55,11-06 was 57 (Google Play India Communication free chart).

Ratings rise steadily by 100–200 per day, which doesn't match the install steps. It looks like an in-app prompt is nudging people to rate. 5,593 ratings against 300k installs is about 1.8%, close to Truecaller, so nothing unusual. Nothing about it turns up on X, TikTok, or in online coverage.

### Who makes it

The Play developer page's "About the developer" section lists Nishant Parmar, India. The website is a blogspot, the support email is Gmail, and the privacy policy is hosted on a CDN. Under this name there are 5 apps: a calendar (launched June 2024, 889k installs), two photo apps, and two caller ID apps: this one, and another called "Caller ID & Spam Call Blocker."

One person with two packages in the same category, different names and icons targeting different search terms, is standard practice for small tool developers. Calendar, photos, dialer: all things the phone already has, but people still go to the store to search for another one.

### Who it's competing with

On Nov 6, three of the top ten free Communication apps in India were caller ID apps: #3 Truecaller, #7 "Call Blocker: Caller ID, SMS" by Nonari Tec, and #9 TrustCall by A CUBED. This one was at #57.

| Product | Launched | Cumulative installs / last 7 days | Compared with alternatives |
|---|---|---|---|
| Truecaller | 2012 | 1.91B / +3.56M | A number database built from hundreds of millions of users, sold as subscriptions. #2 in India's Communication top grossing. |
| CallApp | 2012 | 434M / +850k | A full replacement dialer with recording and subscriptions |
| Eyecon | 2016 | 153M / +290k | Caller ID with photos, branded |
| Equal AI - Call Assistant | — | 15.7M / +1.38M | #5 in India's Communication free chart, building AI call answering rather than another shell |
| Call Blocker: Caller ID, SMS(Nonari Tec) | 2026-09-11 | 543k / +472k | Launched three and a half weeks later, and this week's volume is 6× its own |
| TrustCall(A CUBED) | 2026-07-25 | 219k / +110k | Same template, launched in more countries |
| CallZZ | 2026-08-14 | 202k / +70k | Launched almost the same day, similar scale |
| Callora | 2026-10-21 | 75k / +74k | Caught up to a quarter of its size in two weeks |
| HangUp(Nord Security) | 2026-06-23 | 230k / +23k | From the team behind NordVPN, focused on privacy and security |
| The phone's built-in spam filtering | — | Preinstalled | Google Phone, Samsung Smart Call: free, no ads |

Figures are Google Play install counts, 11-06.

Broader context: among Google Play apps with caller id, dialer, spam call, or call block in the title, we counted 129. 37 of them launched after June 2026, and 54 gained more than 20k this week. It isn't an original that got copied. It's one of many riding this wave.

### Where the money comes from

Ads only. Caller ID is a natural fit for ads: every call received or ended is a chance to open the app, and the post-call screen is the ad slot. Installs in India and Africa are cheap, and one user seeing a few interstitial or app-open ads can pay back the install, so spend gets reinvested (inferred; actual costs and revenue aren't visible).

The cost shows up in the reviews too: "ads in the dialer make it pointless." Users of this kind of app are not loyal. The system's built-in filtering keeps improving, and when spend stops, installs stop too.

### If it were you

**C.** It's a craft you can learn, not a position worth fighting for. The demand is real and the playbook is public, but dozens of near-identical packages launched in the same quarter, it keeps sliding down the charts, and its rivals grew 6× faster.

**Who it fits** : small teams already running a tool portfolio, with several ad-monetized apps, who can buy Google App Campaigns, calculate cost per install, and know how many days to payback. Caller ID becomes one more package in the portfolio to test.

**Who it doesn't fit** : first-time indie developers; people who can't buy installs and rely on organic store search (the big terms in this category are already taken by hundreds of packages); and anyone hoping to build a long-term product here (no number database means no moat).

**How to do it** : don't build the 130th identical shell. Either copy its lean approach (skip the default dialer, just do the floating caller ID, blocking, and post-call screen, ship in two to three weeks, and run two or three packages with different names at once to test search terms), or build what it skipped. Kelly Anderson's ask (large text, simple, easy to read) points to a large-font caller ID and spam blocker for older users, which reviewers are already requesting. Or, like Equal AI at #5 on the chart, build something that actually answers spam calls for you.

**How to get users** : the big keywords are taken, so use Google App Campaigns in countries where installs are cheap (India, Nigeria, South Africa, Southeast Asia). Start with a small budget to see cost per install and 7 days of ad revenue, and only scale up once the numbers work. After breaking into a country's category chart top 50, chart exposure brings in a bit of organic traffic.

**When to move before others** : there's no fixed date. The window depends on Google Play's stance on call-related permissions and ads on the post-call screen. The sooner you test, the sooner you'll know whether the numbers work.

**Signs you've misread this** : ① it stops updating and drops off India's charts, yet installs keep rising steadily, meaning there's real organic demand and a shell can survive, with a lower bar than expected; ② conversely, Nonari Tec and TrustCall both fall to a few thousand a week within a month or two, meaning this wave of spend has stopped paying off, so stay out; ③ Google Play tightens permissions for caller ID apps or restricts ads on the post-call screen, and the whole route closes at once.

### Data and sources

- App info, reviews, developer info, and data safety notes: Google Play listing com.contacts.dialer.phone (11-06, US and India stores)

- Installs, ratings, and chart positions: Google Play, 10-29 to 11-06 daily; daily installs since launch are third-party estimates

- Apps under the developer: Google Play developer page ToonBoon (11-06)

- Competitor installs and rankings: Google Play, 11-06

- X, TikTok, web search: no related discussion or coverage in the last 30 days

[Android store page ↗](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.contacts.dialer.phone)

**Research notes: competitor table, acquisition evidence, full research report**

Competitors

| Name | Where | Launched | Scale | How it differs from this one |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truecaller | Android | 2012 | 1.91B installs, +3.56M in the last 7 days, #2 in India's Communication top grossing | Has its own crowdsourced number database and subscription revenue; ToonBoon has no number data and no brand |
| CallApp | Android | 2012 | 434M installs, +7k in the last 850 days | A full replacement dialer with recording and subscriptions |
| Eyecon | Android | 2016 | 153M installs | Branded, caller ID with photos |
| Whoscall | Android | 2010 | 75.5M installs, #4 in Taiwan's top grossing | Has a number database, monetizes via subscription |
| Call Blocker: Caller ID, SMS(Nonari Tec) | Android | 2026-09-11 | 543k installs, +472k in the last 7 days, #7 on India's Communication Top Free | Same play, went live 3 weeks later, 6× the volume |
| TrustCall(A CUBED) | Android | 2026-07-25 | 219k installs, +110k in the last 7 days, charted in 22 countries | Same play, spread across more countries |
| CallZZ(Sweet Pet House HK) | Android | 2026-08-14 | 202k installs, +7k in the last 70 days | Launched almost the same day, similar scale, no real difference |
| HangUp(Nord Security) | Android | 2026-06-23 | 230k installs | Backed by the NordVPN brand, leaning on privacy and security |
| Google Phone / Samsung Smart Call spam filtering | Big-company features | Already around | Preinstalled | System-level, free, no ads; it only catches people who search the store for third-party dialers |

Where users come from

- **Verified** **Store keyword search (ASO)** : the title Phone Call - Caller ID and the package name com.contacts.dialer.phone take the big terms phone / call / caller ID / contacts / dialer

- Inferred **Paid acquisition (Google App Campaigns / ad networks)** : the install curve opens and stops in stages (after 9-10, 9-23, 10-25), like a campaign budget being switched on and off; ad monetization can cover acquisition cost. Our Google / Meta ad libraries don't track it

- **Verified** **Emerging-market category charts** : only charted on the Communication Top Free charts in India, South Africa, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia (India 41→57)

- Inferred **Developer portfolio (a second package in the same category + calendar / gallery)** : ToonBoon has 5 apps, including callerid.phoneapp, which is also caller ID; the calendar app has 889k installs

- Inferred **Content / creators / media** : zero mentions on X or TikTok, no press coverage found online

## Why Phone Call - Caller ID (com.contacts.dialer.phone, ToonBoon) took off

> Research date 2026-11-06. Data comes from our googleplay database (agent-im server, DuckDB) unless noted; the curve since launch is `app_day_ext` (AppstoreSpy estimates).

### Bottom line

This is a classic **utility clone** in a "high volume, low price" market like India or Africa: a small developer account (ToonBoon, nearly invisible through public channels) shipped another ad-monetized version in the caller ID / spam blocker / dialer category, which is already crowded. It most likely scaled through paid acquisition (Google App Campaigns / ad networks) plus store search. The product itself shows no visible differentiation; 300k installs is mid-to-low for this category. That it took off only shows the route can be copied, not that it has a moat.

### 1. Data

| Metric | Value | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Launched | 2026-08-18 (store launch date) | googleplay.app |
| Total installs | 305,051 (2026-11-06), store tier 100K+ | app_snap / Play page |
| Installs in the last 7 days | +78,528 | app_profile |
| Rating | 4.55,5,593 ratings (7 days +1,188); store page 4.6 stars / 5.64K | app_snap, Play page 2026-11-06 |
| Charts | India Communication Top Free 57 (10-29 to 11-01 at #41, then steadily down); South Africa 109; Nigeria 180; Saudi Arabia 175→190, then dropped off | chart_rank |
| Monetization | Contains ads, lists in-app purchases but offers_iap=False in the database with no iap_range; charted on no grossing charts | app_snap, Play page |
| Version | 1.1.4, last update 2026-10-13, release notes are boilerplate "Performance Improvement / Minor Bug Fixes" | app |

**Curve since launch (AppstoreSpy estimates)** : 8-18 only 112 installs → 8-21 to 3.5k → 9-03 20k → **9-10 down to 53k** (averaging about 8 thousand a day between two observations) → 9-23 137k → 10-04 179k → 10-05 to 10-23 a clear slowdown (a few hundred to two thousand a day) → 10-25 speeds up again to 4–7 thousand a day → 11-03 289k → 11-06 305k. A shape of stop-start stages with sudden slowdowns looks much more like a paid campaign switched on and off than like the gradual climb of organic word of mouth (inferred, not verified).

Note: Play's install counts are steps that refresh only every few days (10-29 to 10-31 unchanged, then 11-01 jumps +23k), so don't trust single-day increments; the 7-day total is what matters.

### 2. Developer: ToonBoon

- The Play developer page lists 5 apps: **Phone Call - Caller ID** , **Caller ID & Spam Call Blocker (callerid.phoneapp, 385 reviews, 4.7 stars)** , Calendar (calendar.agenda.planner.app, launched 2024-06, 889k installs), and two Gallery photo apps (com.gallery.photogallery.photos.tbn, gallery.gallerylock.vaultgallery.hidepictures). Source: play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=ToonBoon (read via Jina 2026-11-06).

- The developer website is on Blogspot (toonboonapps.blogspot.com) and the email is Gmail (toonboongame@gmail.com); the calendar app's email is galleryphotoapp@gameadzone.com, and its privacy policy is hosted on b-cdn.net and Google Sites. This is the typical setup of a small "tool portfolio" team: no brand, just generic utilities (calendar, gallery, dialer) plus ads.

- It has **two apps in the same category** (Phone Call - Caller ID and Caller ID & Spam Call Blocker). This is the sock-puppet / multi-package testing play: same codebase, different package name, icon and title, each chasing different store keywords.

- Searching ToonBoon online mostly returns Toon Boom, a Canadian animation software company, which is unrelated; X (x-radar, last 30 days) shows zero mentions; TikTok search has no relevant videos.

### 3. Competitors: caller ID / spam blocker / dialer

The category is very crowded. The googleplay database has 129 apps with caller ID / dialer / spam call / call block in the title; **54 of them gained over 20k installs in the last 7 days, and 37 launched after 2026-06** (googleplay, 2026-11-06). These apps keep launching and scaling in batches; ToonBoon is just one of them.

| Product | Type | Launched | Scale (cumulative / last 7 days) | How it differs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Truecaller | Category leader | 2012 | 1.91B / +3.56M; #2 on India's Communication Top Grossing | Has its own crowdsourced number database and subscription revenue; ToonBoon has no number data of its own |
| CallApp | Long-established | 2012 | 434M / +850k | A full replacement dialer + call recording + subscription |
| Eyecon | Long-established | 2016 | 153M / +290k | Caller ID with photos, branded |
| Whoscall(Gogolook) | Veteran, Taiwan | 2010 | 75.5M / +150k | Has a number database and subscriptions; #4 on Taiwan's Top Grossing |
| Call Blocker: Caller ID, SMS(Nonari Tec) | Same-period new app | 2026-09-11 | 543k / **+472k** | Went live 3 weeks later but 6× the volume, #7 on India's Communication Top Free |
| TrustCall(A CUBED) | Same-period new app | 2026-07-25 | 219k / +110k | Same play, across more countries (22) |
| CallZZ(Sweet Pet House HK) | Same-period new app | 2026-08-14 | 202k / +70k | Launched almost the same day, comparable scale |
| Callora(Appevo) | New package | 2026-10-21 | 75k / +74k | Caught up to a quarter of its installs in half a month |
| Caller ID: Trust Call & Alerts(EZLife) | New package | 2026-09-10 | 203k / +75k | Same utility + ad model |
| Ringlo / Ringwise (tranquilmind, one team, two packages) | New package portfolio | 2026-08 | 280k / 67k | Like ToonBoon, one team running several packages |
| HangUp(Nord Security) | A big company's new product | 2026-06-23 | 230k / +23k | Backed by the NordVPN brand, leaning into a privacy and security story |
| Caller ID & Spam Call Blocker (ToonBoon's other package, callerid.phoneapp) | Own clones | Not verified | 385 reviews | The same developer's second package in the same category |
| System dialers (Google Phone's caller ID and spam filtering, Samsung Smart Call, ColorOS's ODialer) | Big-company features | — | Preinstalled | System-level, free, no ads; third-party apps have to compete on the low-friction promise of "install once and it just works" |

Verdict: **it has no differentiation** . Its feature list (caller ID, blocking, spam flagging, call log, post-call quick actions) matches dozens of same-category packages; the store page even says calls are "handled by the system default phone app", so it isn't a full replacement dialer, just a shell. A package launched around the same time, from Nonari Tec, grew 6× faster.

### 4. Growth tactics

| Channel | Evidence | Confirmed? |
|---|---|---|
| Store keyword search (ASO) | The title Phone Call - Caller ID and the package name com.contacts.dialer.phone take the high-volume terms phone, call, caller ID, contacts and dialer; the description repeats caller ID / spam call blocker | Confirmed as its approach; how much it contributes can't be quantified |
| Paid acquisition (Google App Ads / ad networks) | Installs come in steps (9-10, 9-23, 10-25 and so on) with pauses in between, the typical rhythm of a set ad budget. It monetizes through ads, and buying installs to earn ad revenue is the standard model for this kind of app. Our Google and Meta ad libraries don't have it, but both only track a fixed list of products, so not finding it there doesn't mean it isn't running ads. | Inferred, unverified |
| Emerging-market category chart | Only on the communication free chart in India, South Africa, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, falling from #41 to #57. These markets have lots of spam calls and a low bar for charting. | Confirmed (chart_rank) |
| In-app rating prompt | Ratings grow steadily by 100–200 a day, out of sync with the install steps. The rating-to-install ratio is about 1.8%, close to Truecaller's (about 1.6%), so not unusual. Some top reviews are empty, like "app installing is very easy." | Signs of it, but not proof |
| Cross-promotion within the developer's own portfolio | The same developer has a calendar app (889k installs) and two photo-album apps, which can promote each other. There's also a second app in the same category. | A portfolio exists; whether they cross-promote is unverified |
| Content / creators / media / social | Zero mentions on X, no related TikTok videos, and no press coverage in search. | Confirmed none |

### 5. Retention and payment

- Monetization is basically ads only. The second most-liked review says "a dialer with ads in it is just not acceptable" (18 people found it helpful). The most-liked one says "text too small" (56 people). Play page 2026-11-06.

- It isn't on any top-grossing chart, so revenue can't be big. But this type of app works on this math: installs are cheap in India and Africa, and showing interstitial or app-open ads a few times per user is enough to pay back, so they keep spending.

### 6. How many people know about it

Nobody knows. No public revenue, no press, and no discussion on X or TikTok. But the "caller ID disguise app" playbook is openly known in the industry, with dozens of companies running it in the same month, so "nobody knows about it" doesn't mean this is a blue ocean.

### 7. Copycats

No one is copying it specifically. It's riding a wave of its own: 2026 or more caller ID and dialer apps have launched on Google Play since June 37 (per the googleplay library), including Nonari Tec, TrustCall, CallZZ, Callora and Ringlo.

### 8. What to borrow

- A tool-portfolio playbook: "proven category + new app + emerging market + ad monetization." One codebase ships several apps, titles and package names target the big category keywords, and they chart in countries where the bar is low.

- It skips building a full default dialer (leaving calls to the system), which avoids many Play policy reviews (default phone handler and call log permissions both need approval). It only does a caller ID overlay and blocking, which keeps development cheap.

- Risks: it's too similar to others and its ranking is already sliding (India #41→#57), so install volume stops once spending stops. Truecaller and the system's built-in spam filters also cap its ceiling.

### 9. Still unclear

- Whether it runs ads, where, and how much it spends. None of this is in our ad libraries.

- Install share by country (we only see the India, South Africa, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia charts).

- Where the caller ID data comes from (its own number database, a third-party API, or just the device contacts).

- Whether it cross-promotes with those 5 apps.

- In the rating distribution, the 2-star count is exactly 0 ([342, 0, 228, 684, 4337]). But about 22% of apps in the library with over a thousand ratings look like this, so it's more likely a scraping or Play display issue. We don't treat it as evidence of fake reviews.

### Sources

- googleplay library: app_profile / app / app_snap / app_day_ext / chart_rank / developer (2026-11-06)

- Play app page: [play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.contacts.dialer.ph…](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.contacts.dialer.phone) (2026-11-06)

- Play developer page: [play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=ToonBoon](https://play.google.com/store/apps/developer?id=ToonBoon) (2026-11-06)

- Their own same-category app: [play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=callerid.phoneapp](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=callerid.phoneapp)

- x-radar search for "ToonBoon caller id" over the past 30 days: 0 results. TikHub search on TikTok: no related videos. Jina web search: only Toon Boom, an animation company with the same name.

- googleads / metaads libraries: this developer and app are not listed.

This article was written by AI from public data and the data we collect daily. Numbers are sourced, and inferences are labeled.