This, I have to say, is one of the coolest and most practical BlackBerry applications I’ve yet seen. It’s called Advanced Call Manager, and it does just what the name implies. You can set up your BlackBerry to handle calls in all sorts of custom ways. You can block some, let some though, put out a busy signal, and only let in certain callers. In other words, it allows you to control your BlackBerry, rather than letting your BlackBerry control you. After the jump we’ll take a look at the features this application offers.
The first thing Advanced Call Manager allows you to do is make lists. You can set up a Black List of people who you probably don’t want to talk to, and a White List of people who it’s usually okay to take a call from. You can also create custom lists based on whatever you wish: business contacts, close friends, fantasy baseball league platers, etc.
The fun part, of course, is what you can do with these lists. You can choose to have only White List calls come through, or you can just block all Black List calls. You can accept calls only from people in your Address Book, or you can reject all calls. One of the coolest features is that you can send a text message to someone who calls you when you cannot pick up the phone. It’s an automated feature, so it’s a generic message, but it’s still a great feature to let people know that you’re busy and will get back to them.
For the calls you reject, you can either totally drop the call or send a busy tone. I’d love to use that, since you almost never hear busy signals anymore. You can do the reply by SMS, or you can just mute the ringer. If there’s something you want to do to avoid certain calls, Advanced Call Manager can handle it.
If you want to get Advanced Call Manager you can head over to the BBGeeks Store. It’s $24.95, which is a reasonable price for an application you’ll actually use. It also comes with a free 30-call trial. So give it a shot and let me know if you love it as much as I do.
