How do I set the default name for my phone number? - General Questions and Answers

I'm not sure what this is called, but I shall give an example to explain:
So, if a company texts me, for example, my carrier, they automatically assign themselves a name within their SMS thread instead of it displaying the number, as it would normally (For example, my carrier, EE, will show up as 'EE' in my SMS app, when their number 150.) They aren't in my contacts anywhere, so my phone isn't using the name from a contact.
Another example is when my college texts me, it will come up with the college name, 'WEYCOL', instead of their default number.
I was wondering:
A) What is this called?
B) Can I set this up for my number, so when I text people, it will show my name by default instead of my phone number?

Related

Prefix dialing and dialing rules

I'm looking for the ability to contact certain people using prefxes such as international access numbers, pin numbers, suffex dialing for extensions, etc without having to edit each contact manually (i.e. entering commas for hard pauses and what not). If you manually edit contacts for automatic dialing sequences they lose their original formating and so you run into problems with caller ID and sms functionality. For example if you have an x number of contacts whose numbers begin with the same international access number it will get confused and think all the contact entries are the same.
A program like this could also support other dialing prefixes such as *67 for anonymous calling, (11) + 10-digit phone number for direct voicemail calling. It can also be used to setup automatic dialing sequences for those who need to access voice mails on other numbers, so no and so forth.
Up until now I have only been able to find one program that supports this for WM2003 (MyPrefixDial), but I don't think it works for WM5. There's only one prefix dialer called long distance dialer for WM5 but it's too basic of a program.
Anyone have plans or know of plans the development of a more complete program? I currently find that there are more applications for the Palm OS interface, which I find rather strange...any other ideas on the subject?

Of smartdialing and multiple numbers in a contact.

I have a contract with my cellphone company that provides me besides normal cellphone service, unlimited calls to a group of people in my country, all people in that group are identified with an aditional short phone number, so we have two phone numbers in our SIM, the normal one and the short one.
Happens that we use the short number to call ourserlves in the group (we could also use the normal number, but that'd be charged in my invoice as a normal call), but the normal phone number is always shown in our phones as incoming number when receiving a call from the group or outside, and that's how it is saved in call log.
So, in my contacts list, each contact has the two numbers added (I've set the normal phone number as cell phone number, and the short number as work phone).
Now the problem, the way smartdialer in WinMo5 and later work is to show the last call (made/missed/received) of every contact, then contacts list (if contact not already shown before), and after receiving a call from the group in my case the normal number is shown, and there's no way to use the short number to reply, unless I take the long path and go to contacts list and choose the contact and number manually; usually I'm in a hurry and just forget and call the contact using smartdialing and happens that the normal number is dialed.
I had no problem using smardialing with WinMo2003 as there was an option to choose a default number when there were multiples numbers on a contact, so, no matter what number a contact used to call me, when using smartdialing the default number was always chosen, I see no equivalent in WinMo5 or later.
Now, is there a way to replicate that behavior from WinMo2003? (registry/patch/etc.), thanks for taking the time to read.
P.D. the same can be said when we have multiples numbers in a contact (work/home/etc.) and receive calls from some of them but just want to reply to just one of them.

[App] I'd Love To See - CID Broadcast

An App I'd love to see is one which gives you the option when placing a call whether or not to send your number.
Most networks allow you to dial a prefix which will hide your number when placing a call.
Ideally this App will tie in with the Dialler apk and present you with two options when placing a call. Send My Number and Hide My Number. The App should allow you to save a default prefix which will be activated when pressing the Hide My Number button.
This way you can choose whether or not to send your number each time you place a call.
Why not just dial that prefix when you're placing a call you ask? What if you've clicked on a number from a website or your calendar (or your phonebook)?
I think an app like this would be useful for business professionals who want to sometimes hide their number from clients, but still send it to friends and family (without having to remember to dial a prefix or toggle CID Broadcast in Settings).
Thoughts??

Displaying A Selected Contact In Call Log When Multiple Contacts Share Same Number

The following Google Contacts are stored in an Android Phone for ACME Corporation:
Amy Appleseed
John Doe
Pedro Valdez
Amy, John and Pedro all share a work telephone number.
I'm working with Pedro on a project and would like to track the dates and times of our phone conversations using the call log on my Android phone.
However, even though Pedro is manually selected from the contact list, Amy Appleseed appears as the called party because she is the first contact for ACME Corporation, which are listed alphabetically.
This behavior can be consistently duplicated on a Motorola Milestone X2 (Droid X2) running 2.3.6 stock but this has been an issue on every Android phone I have ever owned from Android 2.1 to 2.3.6.
Is there any way that I can call Pedro AND have his name appear in my Call Log using Android?
I think that's just the way it works. i.e. the call log program is unaware of how the call was made--it just knows which number was dialed and at what time and resorts to a reverse look up to get the name. You can sort of see this from the way the numbers pop up...and then the names start filing in. Also, after adding a new contact for a number, the contact name magically appears in the call log.
I know its a hack, but what if you try variations on the number for your contacts with the same phone number? For example:
123-123-1234
123-1234
+1-123-123-1234
1-123-123-1234
Depending on your phone company, these may all dial the same phone number (but, you'll want to confirm that they won't charge you long distance for using 11 digits to dial a local number). With luck, they may fool Android into thinking that they're different phone numbers.
As for incoming calls, though, you may want to make a contact for just the company with a number that matches whatever your call display pops up when either person calls. There's no way it'll know who's on the other end if the call display is the same across your colleagues.
Hope this helps,
- chris
Hi cttttt,
Thanks for the response. The reverse lookup of the first contact listed for a number is understandable for an incoming call, but I would think there should be a way where dialing outbound from a manually selected contact would write the selected contact name to the Call Log.
Is this something that could be accomplished with a third party app? Perhaps a dialer with a contact look-up that rewrites the call log to reflect the selected contact (or keep a call log of its own)?
I'd appreciate the input of a developer or anyone with experience with the OS to suggest whether this can be accomplished programmatically...
Found It!
I was searching for the same thing for my GS3 and found this solution:
[Since I am new, it won't let me post the link...which is the helpful part. here is an attempt to get you the information anyway.]
souvey.com
2009/03/android-advice-shared-home-phone-numbers
Short answer: create a contact on the phone (not google/gmail), it seems to search those first.
The link gives other stuff you can do; I found the above to work quite well.
CDLaurent said:
I was searching for the same thing for my GS3 and found this solution:
[Since I am new, it won't let me post the link...which is the helpful part. here is an attempt to get you the information anyway.]
souvey.com
2009/03/android-advice-shared-home-phone-numbers
Short answer: create a contact on the phone (not google/gmail), it seems to search those first.
The link gives other stuff you can do; I found the above to work quite well.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unfortunately ,that site no longer exist but I'm curios about same problem ,call log for outgoing calls shows first contact with that number
rain125 said:
Unfortunately, that site no longer exist but I'm curios about same problem, call log for outgoing calls shows first contact with that number
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I found it by searching for the url in this web archive: web.archive.org
I am pasting the content here, in case that archive gets lost too:
Android Advice: Shared Home Phone Numbers
One of the things that has always annoyed me with cell phones is that there is no good way to handle multiple people having the same home phone number. Android’s contact manager allows multiple contacts to share the same number (because the database is not indexed by phone number, like on many older phones). This still wasn’t perfect for me, however. When a phone number shared by multiple contacts calls, the first match (sorted alphabetically A-Z) is displayed on the caller ID screen and in the call log. Fortunately, this consistency means we can manipulate the system to display a custom name. The following steps illustrate the technique:
1. Lets say we have a theoretical family: John and Jane Smith. They each have a cell phone, but live together and therefore share a home phone number. They each are added in Android with their mobile number as their primary number, and their home number as their secondary number. Both can be called at either their home or mobile number from the contact list. When a phone call is recieved from their home number, Jane Smith is displayed in the caller id and call logs because she is first alphabetically.
2. For this technique to work cleanly (without any additional clutter), you must have your Android contact manager set only to display “My Contacts” (this settings is under Contacts > Menu > Display Group > My Contacts)
3. Log into Gmail and switch the contacts view
4. Create a new group to put these combined “metacontacts” (I called the group “Metacontacts”)
5. Force your G1 to synchronize contacts (Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Data synchronization > Uncheck and then recheck “Contacts”)
6. Tell your G1 to synchronize this new “Metacontact” group (Contacts > Menu > Edit sync groups > Check “Metacontacts”)
7. On your Gmail Contact Manager, in the “Metacontact” group, press the new contact button (person with a +)
8. Enter the name you want to display when the number calls (ex: “The Smith Family” or “John and Jane Smith”)
9. Add some form of symbol in front of the contact’s name to cause it to be first alphabetically. I used a period because it takes up the least space, and then put a period at the end as well for symmetry ( .The Smith Family. )
10. Add the shared home phone number to this new contact
11. Press the save button
12. Press the “Groups” button and then click “Remove from… My Contacts”. This will prevent the contact from showing up in Android’s contact list, but because we chose to synchronize the “Metacontacts” group, it will still be in Android’s database when it does a caller ID lookup.
13. Repeat steps 7-12 for each custom home phone number contact
14. Force your G1 to synchronize contacts again (Home Screen > Menu > Settings > Data synchronization > Uncheck and then recheck “Contacts”)
15. The new custom contact name will now show up in the call logs and when the number calls, but each individual contact (ex: John and Jane) will still have the number stored, so you can call their home number by clicking their name in contacts.
It works almost perfectly for me, but there are few caveats to this method that you should be aware of:
Every time you change the combined contact (“metacontact”), it automatically readded to the “My Contacts” group and you will have to remove it
The combined contact (“metacontact”) will have the symbol you chose (in my case, a period) in front of their name, so if this bothers you, this isn’t the technique for you

Change outgoing caller ID to business number

Is there a way to change the outgoing caller ID on my cellphone to my business number?
The reason I am asking is because I have a VoIP-based business phone system (we host it ourselves) and my extension forwards to my cell phone when I am not in the office. It would be nice to be able to call people back from my cellphone and have it show my business number so that customers don’t inadvertently wind up with my cellphone number.
Right now I call back into our phone system and then place an outgoing call from there. But that means I cannot simply call using the dialer app and it’s difficult to do via the Bluetooth in my car because the second number (the customer’s number) as to be manually entered on the phone. It would be a lot nicer if Bell Mobility (or any carrier) could just replace my cell phone number with our business number.
Ideally I could do this for all of our technicians (who have company cell phones) so that their cellphones just becomes another extension on the system.
The Fish
They can replace your number, port it. Outside of that nothing you can do because they don't know what a business call is and what a personal call is to try and switch back and forth between your CID.
What we would do on FreePBX is create a account for the cellphone, have the boss use a SIP app on his phone, and then set the outbound CID for the account, that way when your calling someone back you just dial through the SIP app and select the outbound he wants (was running 4 companies at once and just had to use a prefix to set the ID he wanted) vs calling in and having to do a bunch of extra steps. Only thing is setting up policy for his phone to connect. I had a web site that they could authenticate through an then would add that to iptables so that they could connect since your IP will probably change occasionally, check out Dynamic Good Guys
There's really no easy way to go about it and it's all personal preference, and I know what you mean about people getting your cell number. I did on-site business and customer repairs and second someone gets your number it's calls all hours of the night, where if they used business number after-hours ivr would have caught it and left me alone.

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