Help KitKat dialler

[samuelmorris]

I've just upgraded to kitkat, and general UI complaints aside, the phone application is even less like how I feel a phone app should behave.

What I ideally want (which apparently was supported in Jelly Bean but I could never find out how to do it) is a phone app that works in the same way as HTC's, in other words - as soon as you hit the 'phone' icon you are taken to a keypad, but one that suggests contacts as you dial, both numerically and alphabetically. With Jelly Bean when I first bought the Nexus 4 I lost the latter, and now with KitKat I've lost the former, as I need to manually bring up the dialler each time I launch the phone app.

Is there any way of configuring the phone app in KitKat to do this, or would I need to look at installing a third party phone app?

As a visual aid - this is what I'm trying to replicate:

Thanks

Sam

 

[2prevail]

Its strange, I enabled the feature in jellybean 4.3 and now that I'm in 4.4 its on by default. I don't know how to turn it off (not that I would anyway

 

[ooberandy]

I think what the OP is trying to replicate is the dialer being on display straight away, rather than having to press a button for it to pop up.

I've had a look in the dialer app and see no setting for this, so maybe a new app is required.

 

[2prevail]

I think what the OP is trying to replicate is the dialer being on display straight away, rather than having to press a button for it to pop up.

I've had a look in the dialer app and see no setting for this, so maybe a new app is required.

I don't see why you would need a new dialer app, just tap the icon, it takes less than a second to happen

 

[ooberandy]

I don't see why you would need a new dialer app, just tap the icon, it takes less than a second to happen

I agree, but its all about personal preference. And that is somewhere that Android excels

 

[jhsrennie]

I frequently have to use my phone to call prople who aren't in my phonebook, and I have to say I think the new phone app is a step backwards. I suspect my Mum would be baffled by it because it isn't obvious to non-nerds how to dial a number. This isn't the way to compete with the iPhone!

I bet we see a change in the next version of Android.

 

[SiempreTuna]

I don't know - the previous version of the dialer wasn't exactly idiot proof. Initially I kept tapping the history entry and wondering why I was seeing contact details and not calling the number as had been the case before.

And usability isn't exactly a major strength of the Android dev team: just look at Play Music, the single worst music player in the history of phone-based music players.

 

[codesplice]

I think the new dialer is a great step in the right direction - it's making the actual number less important, and the name much more important. As businesses (and people who allow their number to be published) are added into the dialer, we're getting closer and closer to what is effectively DNS for POTS. I don't want to have to know a website's IP in order to access it, and I don't want to have to know a business' 10-digit identifier in order to call them.

Sure, there will be growing pains and adjustments, but I love the new emphasis from the revamped dialer.

 

[bjacks12]

While it adds a step in regards to dialing, it's also removing a step as far as looking up numbers. I dial contacts or search for a number far more frequently than I type in a number.

 

[jhsrennie]

I think the new dialer is a great step in the right direction - it's making the actual number less important, and the name much more important. As businesses (and people who allow their number to be published) are added into the dialer, we're getting closer and closer to what is effectively DNS for POTS. I don't want to have to know a website's IP in order to access it, and I don't want to have to know a business' 10-digit identifier in order to call them.

Sure, there will be growing pains and adjustments, but I love the new emphasis from the revamped dialer.

I do lots of IT support for non-nerds, and I suspect most of them won't like the new dialler. It's easy to forget that we forum dwellers are a somewhat elite (polite word for "geeky" bunch. Google won't make millions from selling to us - they need to sell to people like my Mum.

 

[ooberandy]

At first I was agreeing with you jhsreenie, but then on reflection think the new style (with a little refinement) is the way to go. Once people enter a new contact they forget about the phone number & look for the contact.

Most of the time I will ring someone who is already in my contacts, so I have no need for the numbers to be displayed. I couldn't even say what most of my contacts numbers resembled.