How to Activate Safaricom’s I Tried Calling You Service

We all know what happens if somebody calls us when we have either switched off our phones or are otherwise . Our callers are greeted instead by a recorded message: “sorry … samahani mteja hapatikani …” and we on the other hand remain unaware of this missed call until they do call us again.

To resolve these missed connections (as well as recover the unspent airtime), Safaricom introduced the Missed Call Alert service a few years ago. Similar services are also now available in both Telkom and Airtel Kenya.

When somebody calls us and you’re either unreachable due to poor network or have switched off our phone, our callers are greeted by a recorded message: “sorry … samahani mteja hapatikani …” On the other hand, we remain unaware of this missed call until they do call us again.

To resolve this, Safaricom introduced a FREE Missed Call Alert service a few years ago. The service sends an alert through a text message (SMS) to a person from a caller that tried calling them when they were unreachable.

The SMS also includes the time and date when that call was made. The message is usually as follows: “I tried to call at you at [time] on [date]. Please call back.”.

When activated, callers trying to reach you when your line is unavailable for different reasons are get a recorded message that informs them that the unreachable person will be notified of their attempt to call them followed by the option to leave the voicemail.

That new message is: “The person you have called is not available. We have notified them that you tried to call. If you wish to leave a voice message, then please do so after the tone.”

To activate this, follow the following instructions;
1. Go to your phone and dial the following activation code: **62*0722199199#
2. You should get a response with the message Succeeded.
activated

How to Deactivate the Missed Call Alert Service
1. Go to your phone and dial the following code: ##62#
2. You should then get a response with the message Succeeded.

In addition, callers will also be notified when you are available with a “You attempted to call me but I was not available. Please call me. Thank you.” message.

Should you want some people not to be notified when your line is switched on, Safaricom includes a blacklist feature (a whitelist would have been nice too) which allows you to add numbers that shouldn’t get the alert. This is invaluable as there are specific persons you may wish to not get the alert for various reasons. For example, a stalker that’s harassing you or when you’re running late on your rent and the landlord is having none of it.

Managing the Blacklist
1. In the Caller Notifier menu reply with 1 for Manage Blacklist.
manage blacklist
2. Reply with 1 to add a number to the blacklist, 2 to Remove a number or 3 to check numbers that are already in the blacklist.

Note:

• You can only add Safaricom numbers to the blacklist. If you try adding a number from a different operator, you’ll get an Invalid choice error.
• You can access the Caller Notify service directly by dialing *100*3*13# however this may take you to a different service should Safaricom update their listing in the future.