Why is the Nickname field in Contacts so useless?

[jseger9000]

Yes, I am aware that I could just enter the nickname as the contact name. That's not what I want to do.

Something I've been wondering off and on for years: In Contacts there is a space for Nickname. It seems like there would be some option or setting to display and voicedial by Nickname rather than name. Otherwise, what is that field useful for?

It seems so obvious that most people would rather say "Call mom's mobile" than "Call Samantha Stevens mobile"

And it *seems* like it would be so easy to implement (he says, knowing virtually nil about programming).

How does Google keep missing that? Is there any sort of petition or suggestion box for such a feature?

 

[artaxerxes]

I know that if you do have a nickname programmed, you can search for it.
So like in your case the entry is "Samantha", but the nickname is "Mom". If you search for "mom" it'll come up with Samantha.

 

[pool_shark]

I have used the nickname for voice dialing.

I have a friend whose name isn't spelled the "normal" way, so when I would voice dial him it couldn't find his name.

So I added a nickname for him and voice dialed him using that.

 

[jseger9000]

Doesn't work for me. I have never been able to voicedial using a nickname.

I had a ZTE Warp (and will never buy a ZTE phone again) with Gingerbread. It didn't work. I now have a Samsung Galaxy SII with Jelly Bean 4.1. It doesn't work. If I am making a mistake, please let me know.

Using Samsung's voicedialing app I get "Contact Mom not found, or does not have a phone number." (I wish they would let you find the contact yourself and save it if it can not find a contact itself.)

Using Google Now, I can say "Search contacts for Mom" and hey, there she is! Then I say "Call Mom" I get a card saying Contact not found. Even more frustrating, below that in blue there is a Find contact link. But clicking on it only causes it to flash blue, then take no further action.

Also, I still don't see why there isn't an option under Edit contacts for something like "Use Nickname in place of Name" or something like that.