Samsung Galaxy S23 missing "Caller ID and spam protection"

[Editor7269]

I used to have a S21 on Vodafone and now have an S23 on O2.  The S23 no longer has the setting"Caller ID and spam protection" in the Phone app, which I found very useful at detecting spam or other incoming call identity. 

Any idea why this option is no longer visible and how to restore it?

[pgn]

You may need to look at an app called "Hiya", @Editor7269 - https://www.androidauthority.com/samsung-phones-block-scam-fraud-calls-1170841/

[Cleoriff]

Yes I have this on my Note 10. Very useful @Editor7269 and @pgn 

[Enlli]

Interested, should be there.

This is my S23 plus on O2

Is caller ID working normally on your phone as O2 seem to be having problems with that in some cases?

[Editor7269]

Hi @Enlli, that is the option I am missing!  Yes regular caller id is working but this additional service for unknown numbers is simply not available.  It's such a useful feature I'd love it back, but no one seems to know of a way to restore it, including o2 support.

[pgn]

Have you looked for the app in Play Store, @Editor7269?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.webascender.callerid

It seems the functionality native in the Samsung is dependent on the firmware used, perhaps you received a phone that was from another region or market than the UK?

[Editor7269]

I haven't simply because it shouldn't be necessary, the Phone app is already integrated with the Hiya service, but for some reason I'm unable to use it.  The Hiya app is almost certainly just an additional Phone dialer app which I don't really want to install.

[pgn]

Samsung offer an avenue of support for issues with Smartcall protection - have you tried that, @Editor7269?

https://www.hiya.com/products-smart-call

[Editor7269]

I did briefly speak to Samsung support but only on the general purpose support channel, they suggested I should come here.  I hadn't seen that link, I'll give it a go.  Thanks

[Editor7269 · Accepted solution]

I've managed to sort the issue!

I found that Samsung's firmware is tagged with a CSC (Country Specific Code) which is used to determine the region, country or network provider in which the phone was setup for.

My S23 was configured using the generic codes "OXM" & "EUX".  "OXM" is multi-CSC code with dozens of other CSC build-in and "EUX" is just a generic code for the European Union.  Not sure why I had this firmware as the phone was purchased from a UK retailer.

I was able to download a utility which can change the code to one of the other build in codes, thankfully no flashing or resetting was required, and while I couldn't change to the specific O2 UK code (O2U), I was able to switch to "BTE" which is the BT UK code, and after a reboot my phone app once again has the setting "Caller ID and spam protection" available.

I'm guessing the Samsung Phone app does a CSC check to determine the registered location of the device before enabling the Smart Call function.

For reference this site helped a lot: https://technastic.com/samsung-csc-codes-list/