Global communications platform Truecaller has surpassed 500 million monthly active users, marking a significant growth phase as digital fraud and AI-generated scams escalate worldwide.
The Stockholm-headquartered firm added more than 50 million users in 2025 alone, with 150 million of its total user base now located outside of its primary market, India. The company has also crossed 4 million paying subscribers, bolstering its premium revenue stream.
Truecaller said the milestone comes as SA grapples with an explosion in unwanted communication. Local users received over 30 billion spam calls in 2025, according to company data. Early 2026 figures show a further 20% year-on-year increase, suggesting that the "trust layer" provided by such apps is becoming a digital necessity.
While Truecaller remains the dominant player, its growth persists despite a crowded anti-spam market. The company faces stiff competition from US-based rival Hiya, which focuses on carrier-level integration and branded call identity. Whoscall is popular in East Asian markets, leveraging a database of over 1 billion numbers to identify malicious SMS and calls. Callapp, an Israeli-based competitor, combines caller ID with advanced social media integration and call recording features.
"Reaching 500 million users shows the scale of the need and the trust people place in us to make communication safer," said Rishit Jhunjhunwala, CEO of Truecaller. "We now have our sights set on the next milestone: 1 billion users."
The surge in users is partly driven by the evolution of "industrial AI" used by scammers. Recent industry reports suggest a 14-times increase in AI-assisted phishing and voice-cloning attacks globally.
Truecaller says its strategy involves countering these threats with its own machine learning models that identify fraud patterns in real-time.
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