Problem description:
In India, whatever internet plans you take for your smartphones, be it 3G, 2G Internet, GPRS etc. it always keeps randomly disconnecting. Sometimes it reconnects automatically, sometimes it takes a while. So, during this process we keep getting a remaining balance message or notification for the data usage which is nothing but a USSD.
What is USSD ?
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a Global System for Mobile(GSM) communication technology that is used to send text between a mobile phone and an application program in the network. USSD is similar to Short Messaging Service (SMS), but,unlike SMS, USSD transactions occur during the session only. USSD is commonly used by prepaid GSM cellular phones to query the available balance.
These USSD messages for remaining balance and used balance are such that: these will asks the user to press the “OK” button and unless you press that, it stays like that on the screen and prevents you from performing any other task on the phone. It creates an overlay kind of screen which doesn’t allow the user to touch anything else unless you click ok button for each popup. Each time you send a sms, each time your internet gets disconnected etc. a notification popup will be displayed to be read by the user. These are so much in numbers that some one gets irritated.
There are times when you keep your smart-phone unused for more than one hour, and when you get a call, you have to press the “Ok” button 20-25 times on these popups to receive the call. Its really annoying !! Now, how to block those type of messages ? These frequent balance updates, data usage status are of no use/very less use.
Solution:
There is a nice app called “Quiet Balance“. Named as “Balance Update / USSD blocker“ on Google Play. This app specializes in blocking USSD messages.
- It provides ways you can block only specific type of messages. It has three types of matching methods for blocking USSD messages.
1. Substring match: You may choose to block messages that contain a specific text.
2. Keyword list: a list of keywords (comma separated keyword list)
3. Regular expression: for advanced users by writing regular expression.
When these conditions are matched, it triggers a block of that ussd message. - You can also choose to show the balance update message once per day (or week/month). This will cause the first balance update message to show up, and all other messages will be blocked for the rest of the day.
- Last 25 messages are saved in the message log, along with indication if the message was blocked or allowed.
Go get the app and install on your Android phone and make it Smart 🙂 🙂
Slide to see all the screen shots of the App:
Leave a Reply