HIGHLIGHTS
Indian government will mandate CNAP caller name display by default on 4G and 5G smartphones from November 1, 2026.
Calls originating outside India will be labelled as 'International call', and telecom operators cannot retain caller names after calls end.
Businesses may display verified preferred names, making CNAP an alternative to Truecaller for identifying callers.
Do you use Truecaller to identify the name of the person calling you? If yes, the recent update concerning Calling Name Presentation (CNAP) could be worth knowing. The Indian government is mandating caller name presentation in India from November 1, 2026. The Department of Telecommunications has ordered telecom companies to enable caller display by default for smartphones having 4G and above (5G) connectivity. According to reports, this implies 4G/5G smartphone users will be able to see the name of unsaved contacts when they receive a call.
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Further, calls originating outside India will be marked as an “International call”. Telecom operators will not be allowed to store the name of the caller after the conversation ends. A rollout of the service for landline, 2G and 3G cellular connectivity smartphones is being considered, the order added. However, a timeline of release has not been shared.
Also Read: TRAI vs Truecaller: Regulator clarifies how 1600 and 140 numbers should be handled
For the unaware, CNAP is India’s official caller identification system that is undergoing trials in several regions of the country. It displays the name and number of an unknown caller on the receiver’s phone. Mandating its use implies that telecom companies will be covering more smartphone users and regions across India. The first field will display the caller’s number, followed by the name of the unsaved contact, sourced from the telecom company’s record.
The caller details will be extracted from a photo ID that is given while the Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) is being issued to the customer. To do this, telecom companies will have to maintain a database of information with the numbers and names of their subscribers. This repository should follow a security-by-design approach, implying that the name of the caller cannot be retained through the “query-and-response” mechanism after the conversation ends.
For bulk and business numbers, SIM operators may offer the option to choose a preferred name, which can overwrite the telecom’s database while displaying the name. It can either be a registered trademark or the name registered on the GST portal. Post-verification, the preferred name will be updated for existing and new subscribers. For Truecaller users, this could serve as an alternative mechanism to identify callers and businesses.
Vikas, a Copy Editor at Digit, writes to express his interest in technology. He covers consumer-centric tech news while hunting the day's most "VFM" smartphone deal. Plus, this curious geek enjoys digging into the last-mile intricacies of latest gadgets. Before Digit, he reported for Jagran English. Off work, you'll find him emotionally attached to historical sites or lost in tales of India's past. Simply put, tech is his 9-to-5, the rest is history. View Full Profile