Ice Cream Sandwich has for a while been flaunted as the pinnacle of Android development. Yes many problems with the Android OS did indeed get fixed with the release of Android 4.0. But I keep coming across new problems. I have been using a Samsung Galaxy Nexus for about a week now and I realised something was missing. Speed dials that’s what. Many years ago using Windows Phone I could set up a speed dial for a specific contact quite easily. But now that feature seemed to not be present. I’m sure years ago on my HTC Hero I set them up so why on earth in the latest and greatest version of Android were they not present.
What’s a speed dial? You may be asking. Well when you open the phone app up you are confronted with a keypad, a speed is where you can press and hold a number to dial a certain contact.
It doesn’t help that some manufacturers like Samsung and HTC replace the phone app with their own which sometimes includes speed dials and sometimes doesn’t.
In Ice Cream Sandwich the default dialler is shocking. It will search by first letter only and after that you have to scroll through a list of people. So to solve this I set of to the Android Market to find a replacement dialer. I wanted something that had the look of ICS I.E. Black with Blue detailing. I came across ex Dialer and Contacts which is based on the dialer in the Miui roms. There is a selection of themes for the dialer as well. Luckily one of the themes was an ICS theme so I was happy.
The first few times you use the dialer or try to ring someone you will need to select a default app from the list. But you’ve probably come across this dialog before. When swapping launchers or something. Once set up I was pleased I had a new dialer with extra functionality that didn’t look too different from what I started with. The app also installs a contacts app that also gets themed. You can mix and match the different contacts if you want, it is your choice.
Features
• Extra light weight, and smooth
• Contact groups/favorites manager
• T9 contacts/calls filter
• Contacts list quick filter, support words/phonetic/hybrid
• Contacts first alphabet quick scroll
• Call logs group by contact
• Speed dial
• Swipe contact left/right to SMS/call
• Various themes available
• Long press the contacts button(at left-bottom corner of dialer view) to quick access favorites
• Dial “#” key to perform phone number searching
• Dial “*” key to display strequent contacts list
• Swipe contact item left or right, to send SMS or make a call directly
If the only functionality you want is a speed dial, then you can set up an icon on your home screen for each contact [you need a speed dial for]. Not great, but saves installing a new dialler.
thanks, i’m a ‘techy guy’ who appreciates added functionality, who also recently got a gnex, I just haven’t had the time to stay hip on which dialers from which rom’s are awesome. well written review, and what turned out imho to be a great app. thanks for your time. slainte, elucid