138k installs, zero ratings: a caller ID app and the pile of clones behind it

On Google Play there is a caller ID app called Callog, launched in Sep 9. From Oct 29 to Nov 5 its installs grew by 95k. As of Nov 6 it had 138k installs in total, yet its store page has not a single rating. It has no notable features. It is made by a small team running nine utility apps at once, and at least twenty-plus similar apps in the same period used the same approach to build volume. Below: what it is, where the traffic came from, where the money comes from, and why the opportunity is not in the app itself but in the playbook behind it.

An icon left over in the store screenshots

On Callog's store page, the second screenshot is an iPhone incoming call screen: the caller number (555) 123-4567, with a red box in the middle reading "SPAM Incoming Call", and large text above it saying "Spam Blocker Call Alert". In the bottom right corner of the screenshot are two small icons left in place, one for the App Store and one for Figma. They were probably from a design template and never removed before launch.

An Android app's promo image contains iPhone and App Store icons, which shows how fast this was made. The first screenshot shows a family of three generations laughing around a phone, with "Protect Family & Friends" and "Say Goodbye to Spam" written on it. The people in the photo look South Asian, which matches the places where it later charted (Saudi Arabia, UAE). Large South Asian labor populations live in Gulf countries (inference).

What it is

A free, ad-supported caller ID tool with in-app purchases ($1.39–29.99 each). The store description lists six things: caller ID, spam call alerts, call log, contact search, favorites and speed dial, and contact management. The wording is careful: caller ID means "showing available caller info when there is information", and spam alerts mean "helping identify possible spam calls". It does not say how big its number database is, nor does it mention AI answering or anti-fraud data. Those are exactly what the established players like Truecaller and Whoscall sell.

The description has a dedicated paragraph explaining why it needs the "read call log" permission. The Play data safety page says it shares contacts with third parties, for purposes including "advertising or marketing", while the same page says "the developer states this app does not collect user data" (Google Play data safety page, 11-06).

Where the traffic came from: 95k in one week, but only on small Gulf charts

(Install counts publicly shown on Google Play; the store page updates every few days, so the numbers jump in steps.)

It gained 95k in one week, but it only charted in two tool-category free charts: its best rank was #109 in Saudi Arabia and #121 in the UAE (both in 11-01), then it slipped to around #160, and from Nov 4 it dropped off the Saudi chart. It did not appear on the charts of the other 28 countries.

Taken together:

• Installs are spread across many countries. Nearly 100k installs in a week, yet no major country's chart picked it up, meaning each country got only a small share. Traffic from search or one viral video usually concentrates in one or two countries. This pattern looks more like paid acquisition running in many countries at once (inference).
• 138k installs, 0 ratings. Real users who use an app for a while usually leave a star rating. Zero means most people who installed it barely opened it. That is the usual look of bought or ad-network traffic (inference; whether incentivized installs or fraud are involved cannot be confirmed).
• No content footprint at all. Searching "Callog" on TikTok only returns game and foot-care videos, nobody on X has mentioned it in nearly 30 days, and the web only has auto-indexed pages from download sites. Meta and Google ad libraries return nothing for the name, but neither library is complete, so not finding it does not mean it wasn't advertised.

The store search side is visible: the title "Caller ID Spam Blocker" packs in the two highest-volume search terms. The category choice is also deliberate: most competitors sit under "Communication", while this one sits under "Tools". The tools category has a lower bar for charting in small Gulf countries, so it's easier to get on the chart. But chart rank here looks more like a side effect of paid acquisition, and the ranking itself brings little volume.

The people behind it: a matrix of nine utility apps

The developer is called Great Leaps; its website leapuptech.com calls itself "LeapUp Tech — Apps that make everyday life easier", says it builds "Android apps across multiple consumer categories", and relies on "experiments, design, AI, and fast iteration". The site says it intentionally stays "lean"; the team page is a 404, and the contact email is Gmail.

Its apps on Play include: AI photo editing Snapic (500+), AI language practice Fluenta (1K+), app lock SafeLock (1K+), two colorful SMS apps (5K+ each), a deleted-message recovery app WARes (5K+), a beauty camera, a speaker cleaner Speaker Cleaner (100K+), and Callog. Of the nine, only two passed 100k; the rest stayed below a few thousand.

This is the standard playbook of tool-app studios going global: one template, relaunched across categories, and budget goes to whichever one shows good numbers. Callog was the one of this batch selected to receive more money (inference).

Where the money comes from

The store page mentions "contains ads" and in-app purchases. The most common way this category makes money is the "call-end screen": after each call ends, a full-screen page appears showing who just called, with ads on it, and then an upsell for an "ad-free / premium blocking" subscription or one-time purchase. Calls happen every day, and every call is an ad impression, so this type of app can pay back its acquisition cost. Whether Callog uses this approach, and how much it earns per month, cannot be seen from outside and has not been verified.

There is one possible additional revenue stream: the data safety page says contacts are shared with third parties "for advertising or marketing". Who gets them, and what they're paid, is equally unknown.

Who it's competing with

(Public Google Play data, 11-06.)

Above are two layers of competitors. One layer is the established players with over a decade of history and number databases; users asking "who is this unknown number" can only get answers from them. The other layer is the new clones that surged in the second half of 2026: names containing caller id, spam, call block, or dialer, launched this year and gaining over 25k a week. There are more than twenty of them on Play. Callog is not a leader; it ranks mid-pack in this group.

Above that is the system itself: Google's phone app has built-in spam call warnings, Pixel has call screening, and Samsung has Smart Call. All of these are free and need no extra install.

Why now

This batch of new clones all started gaining traction in the second half of the year. Three visible reasons:

1. Big demand, hot keywords. Spam calls happen everywhere in the world, and "caller id" and "spam blocker" are search terms people use all year on the store. A new app can capture some search traffic just by getting its title right.
2. Every call is an impression. The call-end screen gives this category a high-frequency ad slot. As long as the users you bought don't uninstall, you keep getting impressions every day. So multiple teams are willing to pay for this category's traffic at the same time, with anywhere from 50k to 470k installs a week.
3. Fast to replicate. The features are nearly identical; change the name and swap the screenshots and you have a new app. Callog's screenshots still include a Figma icon.

If it were you

C: worth learning from, not worth copying. Callog grew on category plus paid acquisition, with no real differentiation. In the same month more than twenty teams bought the same keywords and the same users, and it still ranks mid-pack among them.

Who it suits: Teams already running a tool-app matrix, with ad accounts and a payback model, can test caller ID as one more cell in the matrix, as long as they can work out how much each install costs and how much a call-end ad earns back per user.

Not for: indie devs who haven't run paid acquisition and are hoping organic search will carry them. There's no organic traffic here, and the 0 rating suggests users barely open it. It's also a bad fit for anyone building "a better caller ID": the number database is something Truecaller and friends spent over a decade building, and the system's built-in feature is free.

How to approach it: If you must enter this category, don't build another generic wrapper. Find a small language or small region that established players cover poorly (for example, scam scripts or local number ranges specific to one country) and build recognition that is actually useful. Alternatively, turn the call-end screen into something else (call recording transcription, incoming-call notes) to give users a reason to stay. Keep ads and in-app purchases as well.

How to acquire users: Traffic in this category is mostly bought through Google app ads. Add hot keywords to the title and pick a category with less competition. Test with a small budget in one or two countries first; if the 7-day payback rate misses the bar, move to the next cell instead of pushing harder on this one.

When is the window closing: No rush. This window already has 20+ teams crowding it, and jumping in now only pushes up paid acquisition costs. If you want to test it, finish the first round before this year ends, before the next batch of shells (like Callora, launched in October and charting in 25 countries within a month) pushes costs even higher.

What would mean we got it wrong: ① Callog's cumulative rating climbs past several hundred in January with a score above 4, which would mean real users are sticking around, not just bought installs; ② Nonari Tec and Callora, the newer shells, are still climbing in early 2027, which would mean the unit economics are sturdier than they look and worth working through carefully; ③ the reverse: if Google Play tightens call-log permissions, or a batch of similar apps gets pulled together, this slot closes.

Bottom line: there's nothing in Callog worth copying directly. What's worth noting is the structure behind it: a system scenario that happens every day, an ad page that appears at the end of each one, and one template shipped in bulk, with budget going to whichever app takes off. Next time a scenario like this comes up (charging, unlocking, finishing a photo), first count how many new shells hit Play in the same month.

Data and sources

• Install counts, chart positions and competitor numbers: public Google Play data, 10-29 to 11-06.
• Store page, screenshots, data safety page and developer page: Google Play, 11-06.
• Developer website: leapuptech.com, 11-06.
• TikTok, X, web search, and Meta and Google ad libraries: searched 11-06, no relevant results.
• Paid acquisition channels, revenue, ads on the post-call screen, and whether installs were inflated: none verified, marked as inference in the text.