Smartphones

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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It is this: Chris Talbot / Phosh Anti-Spam · GitLab

It isn't perfect. If you choose to silence the bad calls, the screen still lights up and you still have the opportunity to answer it.

If you choose to hang up right away, you get about a quarter of a second of ring before the program kicks in and hangs up on them. Neither are ideal.
i asked gemini for an ai agent for linux phone, complicated
While there isn't a single "plug-and-play" app that mimics the Google Pixel's AI call screening exactly on Linux mobile (Phosh), you can achieve a similar workflow by layering a few tools. Since you're already familiar with Phosh Anti-Spam, you know it works by intercepting the DBus signal to gnome-calls.
To go beyond simple hanging up and move into "AI screening," here is the current landscape for 2026:

1. The "Contact App" Approach: GNOME Calls + Plugins​

The primary call handler on Phosh is GNOME Calls. It uses a plugin-based architecture (libpeas).


  • The Status: There is no official "AI Screen" button yet, but the Ubuntu Touch/Lomiri ecosystem and some PostmarketOS community members have been experimenting with Whisper.cpp (for STT) and local LLMs to process incoming call audio.
  • The Hack: Some users are routing calls through a SIP/VoIP provider (like Twilio or JMP.chat) that supports programmable voice. You can set up a "vocal menu" or an AI agent on the provider side that screens the call before it even hits your Linux phone's Phosh Anti-Spam filter.

2. Emerging AI Apps for Linux Mobile​

If you want something that runs locally on your device:
  • Kai 9000: This is a newer open-source AI assistant (available on GitHub) that has a Linux version. It is designed to execute "Tools." While it doesn't hook into the modem directly yet, developers are working on using it as a "Heartbeat" service that can monitor notifications and potentially interface with the audio stream of an active call to transcribe and suggest replies.


  • Phosh Anti-Spam (Advanced Config): You can technically modify the Phosh Anti-Spam script. Instead of just hangup, you can point it to a script that answers the call and plays an audio file (using pacmd or pw-play), then records the response for you to review via a notification.

3. DIY "AI Screener" Workflow​

If you're comfortable with some "mechanical guy" tinkering, this is the most effective setup right now:
  1. Phosh Anti-Spam: Keeps your "Spam" list and "Non-Contacts" blocked or silenced.


  2. JMP.chat / Cheogram: Use a SIP number for public use. These services allow you to bridge your calls to an XMPP bot.
  3. The Bot: You can point that bot to a local or API-based LLM. When a stranger calls, the bot answers, asks "Who is this?", transcribes the answer, and sends you an XMPP message (which shows up as a standard Phosh notification). You then decide whether to "patch through" the call to your actual dialer.

Summary Table​

SolutionEffortFunctionality
Phosh Anti-SpamLowHard block/ignore only.
SIP + AI BotHighTrue AI screening with transcription.
Kai 9000MediumLocal AI assistant (requires manual integration).
GNOME Calls Dev BranchHighExperimental built-in "Answer & Record" features.
Pro-Tip: If you're printing 3D brackets for your tech gear, you might consider a small "desk dock" setup for your phone. Some users are running more powerful AI screening scripts by keeping the phone docked and using the desktop-class CPU power of the PinePhone Pro or Librem 5 to handle the STT/LLM processing without killing the battery.
 
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Kajiimagi

<Aristocrat╭ರ_•́>
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Mum's robo calls are getting so bad now that they are calling till 9pm. I've managed to set it up so that if the caller is not in her contacts it goes straight to voicmail (which we have no idea how to configure), but there's still this BEEP BEEP BEEP call ended sound that is almost louder than the ringtone.

So I've got to work on how to get rid of that. Another annoying thing is the filtered calls still go into the recent calls list. I'd rather the phone just didn't respond at all silently but it is better than nothing.

The "recent" calls list is getting super slow now because of all the scamcalls bloating the list up. Going to have to figure out how to clear the list.

Looks like all the phosh stuff is in /usr/share/sounds/phosh/stereo and the offending sound is phone-hangup.oga. Changed that to a 0 length file and problem solved.

Recent call nuke complete! Blast everything in .local/share/calls/ and reboot. I figured closing and reopening "calls" would do it, but there's some systemd thing that handles the calls database of course.
Perhaps I'm missing something, is there a reason you won't just get like a conventional phone? Does everything need to be overly complicated? I used to really get into the android roll your own rom scene but I got tired of fiddling with a phone.

I have an older S22 Ultra, unfortunately it's new enough Samsung keeps pushing AI bullshit on it but I also keep 'do not disturb' on between 10PM and 10:30AM , if you are not my wife or my mother in law you go to VM. Period.

I am also getting robo calls, but they go to VM. I'm guessing the rise in robo calls is the looming mid-terms.
 

Kharzette

Watcher of Overs
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Perhaps I'm missing something, is there a reason you won't just get like a conventional phone? Does everything need to be overly complicated? I used to really get into the android roll your own rom scene but I got tired of fiddling with a phone.

I have an older S22 Ultra, unfortunately it's new enough Samsung keeps pushing AI bullshit on it but I also keep 'do not disturb' on between 10PM and 10:30AM , if you are not my wife or my mother in law you go to VM. Period.

I am also getting robo calls, but they go to VM. I'm guessing the rise in robo calls is the looming mid-terms.
It has been a struggle. Mum is very averse to technology. I've had similar struggles with TVs, she doesn't deal well with the "smart" stuff.

I got her a flip phone for awhile but it died because of a very common problem with the hinge. It was a bad phone but it kinda worked. She mostly ignored the menus and any "features" of the phone and just got her paper address book out and manually dialed people. I had all her contacts imported but she just couldn't get how to use it to call people no matter how many times I showed her how.

When it seemed like a touch screen was somewhat inevitable I decided to get something I had full control over. The idea being I could program the interface to be simple and easy. I had good luck with this approach on the TV side with a libre le potato SBC running her old tv with a heavily customized kodi. I never really got around to doing it for the phone though.

I did grab the source to the phone app and worked on boosting the size of some of the icons but some crisis or other interrupted that and I never got back to it.

The main problems we are having with the current phone would be the same on any other crapple or droid, mainly handling it with the screen on unwittingly mashing random things on the screen.

Another motivation for going with linux is that I don't have much experience with phones. I hate them and haven't had one since an iphone 3G I got purely for work (we were working on a game called Elysian Fields or something). The last phone I had that I liked was an imate jam running windows.

Linux audio sure does suck though. I should have expected trouble as I've always had struggles with it on my main pc. It doesn't deal well with audio sources appearing and vanishing, like when your hdmi or displayport monitor goes to sleep or gets turned off for the night.
 

Lanx

<Prior Amod>
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The main problems we are having with the current phone would be the same on any other crapple or droid, mainly handling it with the screen on unwittingly mashing random things on the screen.
thats user error, and to an extent your fault

when my mom got an iphone, i only put phone sms safari youtube and whatsapp on the front page, everything else i either pushed to the other windows or the folder

and this has been my life ever since i was 9, when we got a vcr, i was one of those kids that put masking tape on buttons like "program"

you know who got this right? sony
96ebfaed0173168ea1d598b375ee7a22.jpg


look at these remotes, what does sony do? they put all the other button behind a sliding door
 
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Denamian

Night Janitor
<Nazi Janitors>
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You might want to look into decent but not crap low end android phone and put a replacement launcher on it. They make ones specifically for seniors. Configure it and lock it so you have to actually try to make changes to the layout.