Saracroche: a powerful new weapon against spam calls

A powerful new weapon against spam calls.

Aggressive telephone cold-calling remains a daily blight for many people in France. Even when these calls technically stay within the bounds of the law, the unwanted ring after ring is very often outright fraud that can end up costing targets dearly. Despite several laws already being passed to curb the practice, the risk has not gone away.

As a result, people are organising themselves and can turn to specialist services such as Orange Téléphone. Another option is Saracroche: a brand-new French app that is completely free and available on Android and iOS.

At the time of writing, the app is used by more than 600,000 people. That is an impressive figure for an application built by a single person, with no marketing budget. Its creator says he receives messages from users who tell him they are “rediscovering” their phone-switching the ringer back on after years of being worn down by constant calls.

Why Saracroche is gaining traction

What stands out is how quickly word has spread without advertising, driven purely by day-to-day usefulness for people who are fed up with unsolicited calls.

How does it work?

The idea is straightforward-and highly effective: it blocks 16 million telephone numbers, including those using prefixes widely associated with spam:

• 0162, 0163
• 0270, 0271
• 0377, 0378
• 0424, 0425
• 0568, 0569
• 0948, 0949

It also identifies certain operators that are known for making these types of calls.

A transparent, open-source approach from Camille Bouvat

The app’s creator, Camille Bouvat, has been a developer for almost 19 years and has worked freelance for 14 years. Keen to be transparent, he makes the source code available on GitHub. Interviewed last year by the website Framablog, he explained what pushed him to start the project:

“Like everyone, I get unwanted calls in my personal life-and even more so when you’re self-employed. So I started this project, and it was a challenge for me because I’m a web developer, not a mobile developer. I wanted to build it natively with Swift and SwiftUI, to make a lightweight, high-performance app.”

Accessibility is central to his approach: “My aim is also to offer a simple app, for as many people as possible, with few settings on the surface.” It is hard not to recommend a service like this, which can genuinely change your day-to-day.

To support Camille Bouvat and learn more about the project in detail, you simply need to click here.