True Stories: Ruth - What It's Like Calling People in India Vs Sweden

Themba Wahlstrom

Jul 18, 20223 min read

As part of a new series ‘True Stories’, we’re talking to people using Truecaller from countries across the world, simply asking ‘How do you use Truecaller?’’

Despite living all the way over in Sweden, Ruth still makes many calls back home to her family in India. We interviewed her recently in Stockholm, and she talked to us about the differences with phone conversations between the two countries and how she tackled her spam call problem.

Ruth’s Journey with Truecaller’s app

Ruth was an early user of Truecaller. She can’t remember exactly when, but the app has been part of her life for many years and many different mobile phones. The app was important when back in India, and switching to new phones as she had (and still has) thousands of contacts.

‘I have … a lot of people who I know in India. I've lived there all my life so it was really important for me to use it more in India when i was probably switching my phones and I don't know who it is calling..... I had almost 5000 contacts on my phone. So, when I changed phones and when I switched jobs, it was very helpful for me.'

Ruth moved to Sweden after meeting her Swedish partner some years ago. Since then, she’s noticed quite a few differences in how people back home in India compared to her new home in Sweden.

'I'd say that phone conversations in India are like never ending! You don't just say bye and then you hang up the phone, you say bye five times... I think a lot of things come to my mind when it comes to how we communicate so differently in India. When it comes to phone calls, but also when it comes to chatting. And we’re part of so many different groups in India - which I’m still part of. WhatsApp groups, and chat groups. There could be 80-100 people in one group, which is not so common here in Sweden.

She still regularly calls home to talk with family and friends.

‘It still happens when I am in Sweden - I'm in touch with my family in India, we all are screaming at the same time, we talk at the same time, but that's our style!’

Spam calls were always a problem for Ruth, and when asked about what it was like before using Truecaller, she remembered the endless telemarketing spam calls. So much so that she would get angry over the phone.

‘I only remember my frustration before Truecaller, because I would get really annoyed of many people calling me in a row in a day. And I would just fire at them and it would spoil my day and their day probably.... There’s many more telemarketing companies in India. I don’t know why, I guess because of the population in general. It’s much smaller in Sweden. So there’s many more people selling many more things in India. So that’s the main difference that I’ve felt.'

Avoiding spam calls is the main reason Ruth uses Truecaller, all these years later. She doesn’t receive as many in Sweden as in India, but still uses the app to screen spam, especially telemarketing calls. Other than that, she has made her parents use it, to protect them from spam and scams.

‘I mainly use the app to avoid calls from telemarketing companies and I have also enforced it, or made my parents use it in India, so that they don't end up buying random stuff from people trying to sell them things’