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Love this phone but the phone/dialing feature sucks..

Owned this phone for bout a week and been constantly playing with it and love everything bout it except the phone/dialing feature....coming from a blackberry, the phone/dialing just makes sense and works. Couple gripes I'm having:
1. Speed dial, I can't by default just hit 2 or 3 but I have to click off the "X" above the number pad before I can use speed dial. If I just long press 2, it would still think i'm trying to dial out a number and not speed dial.
2. In the same "phone" screen they have recently dialed incoming/outgoing calls but it just shows a picture or no picture depending if I have them, but they don't show the numbers. I have to use the optical pad to scroll though to show the number, I can't even you my finger to swype through cause it will automatically dial the number without me knowing who i'm dialing specially if I have no picture or number.
3. The "Faves" is kinda redundant cause it shows the recently dialed people same as the "Call Log". I know you can put your favorite people on the top list but still...kinda redundant.
4. I can start dialing a users name via the dial pad and it would find the person I'm looking for, what happens when that contact has multiple numbers, if I click on the contact from what it found via dialing his name in the dial pad it would just dial the cell number; won't give me options to dial his home, work etc. Just dials the cell number by default.
This is just some of the stuff I can point out right now. But its just not very intuitive and I have to go through multiple taps just to find someone, dial someone in my contacts or know where to look before I can dial out.
If there is an app for the phone that I can use to replace the built in "phone" feature, that would be great. Just not crazy bout how the Phone feature which should be the most important feature on a "smartphone" is so poorly layed out.
Thanks for any info....

I agree the mySense phone app is not the greatest, and probably stock froyo app is bit easier to use.
What about the speed dial, you you can hit menu on your home screen, than add to home/ shortcut / direct dial - choose contact - choose phone number . It will creat a speed dial icon on the home screen. Also you can create a folder and group them, like "Work" "Family" etc.

I like the phone/contacts application much better in what Cyanogen has in his ROM. It's simple and super fast, the one included with our phone is complicated and clunky.

I need to add that to my list, not a deal breaker, but definitely needs an overhaul.

Nutzzer said:
Owned this phone for bout a week and been constantly playing with it and love everything bout it except the phone/dialing feature....coming from a blackberry, the phone/dialing just makes sense and works. Couple gripes I'm having:
1. Speed dial, I can't by default just hit 2 or 3 but I have to click off the "X" above the number pad before I can use speed dial. If I just long press 2, it would still think i'm trying to dial out a number and not speed dial.
2. In the same "phone" screen they have recently dialed incoming/outgoing calls but it just shows a picture or no picture depending if I have them, but they don't show the numbers. I have to use the optical pad to scroll though to show the number, I can't even you my finger to swype through cause it will automatically dial the number without me knowing who i'm dialing specially if I have no picture or number.
3. The "Faves" is kinda redundant cause it shows the recently dialed people same as the "Call Log". I know you can put your favorite people on the top list but still...kinda redundant.
4. I can start dialing a users name via the dial pad and it would find the person I'm looking for, what happens when that contact has multiple numbers, if I click on the contact from what it found via dialing his name in the dial pad it would just dial the cell number; won't give me options to dial his home, work etc. Just dials the cell number by default.
This is just some of the stuff I can point out right now. But its just not very intuitive and I have to go through multiple taps just to find someone, dial someone in my contacts or know where to look before I can dial out.
If there is an app for the phone that I can use to replace the built in "phone" feature, that would be great. Just not crazy bout how the Phone feature which should be the most important feature on a "smartphone" is so poorly layed out.
Thanks for any info....
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I cannot recreate any of your problems on my phone dialer.
Speed Dial can be achieved easily two different ways. In the phone app, select menu and speed dial. Add new will be at the top of the screen. Select from contacts and choose a speed dial number. Long pressing on that number, regardless of what is in the screen above (blank number or last call) will dial the contact attached to that speed dial number.
Another method is to long press on the number while editing a contact and selecting speed dial.
The 'last call' at the top of the dialer should always show at least the number,unless it was blocked.
Faves is the same as Favorites on the vanilla dialer. Put your favoite called numbers here. It is a lot quicker than using contacts. I hate the faves app but the dialer function is fine. As far as the recent calls, those are actually the most frequently called numbers and you can set that to just one by pressing menu>edit smart group and selecting the number of members.
Your number four is quite fixable. If the contact has multiple number, it will dial the Primary one, which you can choose the first time you call a contact. Alternatively, you can press on the icon on the right side that looks like a contact card. It pulls up the contact and you can select a number from there.
I prefer the vanilla or CM dialer much better myself but because CM does not have a ROM that works for me yet (the phone app does not work for me) I learned all I could about the only stock alternative.
Hope this helps.

Nutzzer said:
This is just some of the stuff I can point out right now. But its just not very intuitive and I have to go through multiple taps just to find someone, dial someone in my contacts or know where to look before I can dial out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Also...
To search contacts you have to tap the spyglass. WTF? Why isn't the search field just there?
Each entry in the contacts is too tall. Give me the option to make it thinner. In the taller entry, add some information, such as shown in the My contact card, the default phone # for instance.
Favs is worthless. Allow me to dump it.
In the phone, I *do* like the 'start typing out a name' but it would be nice to be able to long press to pick the #, as someone said. At least it does something useful (mostly. Add to Faves is pointless).
DO NOT always show the last caller or callee at the top. That can be nice, or it can be embarassing.
Allow me to delete all of a certain # from my call log, not just individual iterations. At least this phone doesn't redial the last # all the time like my friend's iPhone does, and my other friend's MyTouch (plain version).
However, it redials too easily. So if I talked to my folks earlier and then at night I'm getting this post ready and they are asleep and the damn thing redials, well, that's bad.
If I start tapping out a number, let me edit it, say using the trackpad. C'mon, this is obvious!
And while playing with this, it got stuck in Searching contacts. And if I want to dial a number, how do I do that? At the top, Save to People. No number displayed, no people icons. Enter name or number/Tap to see smart dial tips. WTF? Time to reboot or something.
How about a remapping genius to search (as it should have been) and long-press on search brings up phone? Or something. I hate how with a normal POS phone I can dial. With this I have to go to the home screen or unlock the screen & log in, then press a button, then finally I can call.

I use Quickdial for my contacts that I call quite a bit. Nice app and allows 36 contacts.
I personally do not like the built in dialer. It is rather clunky to use witht he buttons on the bottom and if hands are rather large, it gets tricky sometimes hitting the phone button and the call button.
Have not found a good replacement yet.

I started using "Dialer One" and I like it better than the build in dialer. Its simple and it works...not the best but better. Also, started using Google Voicemail so everything pretty much works the way its supposed to now.
This is my first Android phone, and my experience is so far ok, but kinda annoying that I need to research, investigate and try out a dialer just to make the phone work.

I also like Dialer One and use it as both a dialer and address book replacement. If you set it to show your favorite contacts on the default screen there's minimal clicking. It also supports using your background image, pretty cool.
I hate the stupid Faves feature of the phone as well. Especially for SMS. Why does it need to explicitly notify me that one of my Faves messaged me? The new message notification by itself is sufficient.

excarnate said:
And while playing with this, it got stuck in Searching contacts. And if I want to dial a number, how do I do that? At the top, Save to People. No number displayed, no people icons. Enter name or number/Tap to see smart dial tips.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ah joy, it seems I found a bug. I reported it to T-Mobile, they gave me a # for HTC and I'll try pursuing that (if someone has a bugreporting URL for them...). My phone is perm-rooted, I'm not running (gasp, the horrors) a task killer.
Go to Phone (home screen, press picture of phone). You should see your last call at the top.
Tap out some numbers, say 55555.
Decide you wish to edit those numbers (the 2nd 5 should be a 5) and use the trackpad to move over to the left.
Unexpected behavior: it moves to Faves, then Contacts.
OK, fine, no biggie, now use the trackpad to move back to Phone.
Bug 1: Notice there is no number displayed and it says at the top that you have matches for n of your contacts where n is the total number of your contacts. Apparently the number typed is lost. Sucks but minor.
Bug 2 (often, not always): Tap out another number. Note that often (usually for me) you can not see any number. I believe it also shows that I'm still matching all of my contacts (it isn't reproducing for me currently).
I wonder if anyone else can see this, or if my phone (or if I got confused. It happened after rebooting as well, but isn't happening now.

Recommended Dialer App

Can anyone tell me a recommended Dialer that works fine with the Chacha keyboard?
I use the SuperOSR rom and the dialer coming with that ROM is really very awkward. First of al it does not do Smart Dialing, so I either have to search in the names or in the numbers - but not in both at the same time.
I tried other dialers but most of them are not made for keyboard phones. So which dialer to use and which options to choose? All in all the stock ROM dialer was not so bad.
Also unlike the chacha stock ROM when i start typing with 0/Sym I get the % but on the main screen it would be more useful if the phone just opens a dialer and starts dialing.

DW contacts and phone.... it has smart dialing and with some setting changes you can disable on screen dialer too.

Flexmaen said:
...it would be more useful if the phone just opens a dialer and starts dialing.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is the standard Android behaviour. What happens on HTC Sense ROMs is something that HTC modified for their phones/applications.
But I can see this behaviour on SuperOSR on my side:
Start typing a number.
A "Dial number" appears below.
It also works with names.
As for the wrong key mappings, check the SuperOSR/CM keymappings thread.

ajeevlal said:
DW contacts and phone.... it has smart dialing and with some setting changes you can disable on screen dialer too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But it is hard to find the correct options. When typing "ROM" for some reason DW will display search results with E,O,M and D but no R. Why??
Alex C. said:
But I can see this behaviour on SuperOSR on my side:
Start typing a number.
A "Dial number" appears below.
It also works with names.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No really here.
When I start typing on the home screen I get into the Google Search wich will display letters only (but search in the contacts).
When I start typing with a zero I'll get the symbols of the symbol screen. Since all Numbers you start from a cell phone start with a zero it would also be finde if you end up in a Dial-Window then.

Flexmaen said:
But it is hard to find the correct options. When typing "ROM" for some reason DW will display search results with E,O,M and D but no R. Why??
No really here.
When I start typing on the home screen I get into the Google Search wich will display letters only (but search in the contacts).
When I start typing with a zero I'll get the symbols of the symbol screen. Since all Numbers you start from a cell phone start with a zero it would also be finde if you end up in a Dial-Window then.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Give it a shot with Fn+0. See if that helps. That should open up Google Search but at the same time show a "Dial xxxx" beneath it." like in the screenshot attached.

Alex C. said:
Give it a shot with Fn+0. See if that helps. That should open up Google Search but at the same time show a "Dial xxxx" beneath it." like in the screenshot attached.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks I now noticed the difference:
You have to press the FN-Key to get that option. But this requires that you have to use your phone with two hands which is not very handy in most situations.
So I'l like to type without the FN-Key, so e.g. if I type "FR" the phone should suggest to either call "Franz" or Dial "63" for example.
Also the sym-key could jump into a dialer window from the homescreen since it does not make sense to enter a "%" there.

[Q] Quickdial shortcut for emergency number

Hi,
my father works as an ambulance officer has to talk a lot to the emergency coordination center while on duty. To call the guys there he uses (and is allowed to) the emergency number 112 (we live in Germany).
To speed up the dialing process he would like to have a speeddial shortcut to the emergency number 112. (Shortcut on the homescreen, tap, it starts dialing imediately)
As this works quite easy and perfect with other numbers, I could not find a way to get this to work with the emergency number. It seems like some restriction or "protection" that prevents it from dialing directly. Instead of dialing directly it just opens up the dialer and thats it.
His One S is 100% stock, no custom-rom or root.
Any advice on this?

bl4cKz4cK said:
Hi,
my father works as an ambulance officer has to talk a lot to the emergency coordination center while on duty. To call the guys there he uses (and is allowed to) the emergency number 112 (we live in Germany).
To speed up the dialing process he would like to have a speeddial shortcut to the emergency number 112. (Shortcut on the homescreen, tap, it starts dialing imediately)
As this works quite easy and perfect with other numbers, I could not find a way to get this to work with the emergency number. It seems like some restriction or "protection" that prevents it from dialing directly. Instead of dialing directly it just opens up the dialer and thats it.
His One S is 100% stock, no custom-rom or root.
Any advice on this?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm sounds like it's probably a preventative measure so people don't accidentally dial emergency from pocket all the time. That's just an assumption.
Have you tried adding a contact with that number and creating a dial shortcut to the contact? Or maybe a 3rd party app such as Go Locker or Widget Locker will allow it...give it a shot, I'll let ya know if I think of any other ways. Try using this app https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=galDude.Development.DushiCall&hl=en and adding the widget to one of the Locker apps I mentioned.

I'll try that out and will let you know if it worked.

Back again, after I did some testing. I tried a lot of free widgets and apps and this one comes closest to what I was looking for. It is still not possible to get it dial directly after tapping on the widget, but at least it takes me to the dialer where the desired number is already suggested and one more tap away from dialing. Not perfect but my dad is happy with it.
Still very odd that it seems to be restricted by the operating system itself (or something HTC did with its sense dialer)

Issue with dialing phone numbers from outside the stock dialer

Ok guys, I am pretty spent in terms of ideas here, I hope somebody can help. I'm not sure if this is a cyanogen thing or a Oneplus thing but here goes:
So I just got the Oneplus One and it's pretty damn nice, save for the twitchy Wi-Fi and BT, but they work fine most of the time so I'm fine with that.
However I am having a really strange issue. I have been using ExDialer on my old Galaxy Nexus because its stock dialer was crap. At this point I am married to exDialer. I've been using it for so long and it is so good and don't feel comfortable using anything else.
Problem is that the Oneplus never asks me about changing the default dialer after I install it. And once I try to call a number from it, it jumps to the stock dialer, with the phone number typed in instead of ringing the contact directly. And apparently there are no defaults. Neither the stock dialer nor the ExDialer are set as default, according to their app info.
So far easy, peasy, right? I downloaded a 3rd party app and forced ExDialer to be come default. And no joy. Still the same thing. When I try to call a number, it goes to the stock dialer and I have to click the dial button there as well in order to call.
I tried disabling the stock dialer entirely and when I try to make a call from EX, it apparently still wants to do the same thing as before and tells me the dialer has stopped working and to go ** myself.
And apparently it's not just ExDialer. I get the same issue when I try to call a number from Google Now, by voice command or by typing, as well as the Google voice dialer app - again, it does its thing says "calling X"" and then goes to the stock dialer where I am required to press the call button again. This one is pretty annoying too because it pretty much precludes me from being able to dial numbers by voice commands from my BT headset. Each time, I have to get the phone out of my pocket and press "call" on the stock dialer to finish the dialing.
I never got any of those issues with the Galaxy Nexus... both ExDialer and Google Now dial numbers directly and don't do this. So any help would be appreciated.
Thanks!
EDIT: Probably should have mentioned that this is Cyanogen 11.0. I am holding off on upgradingt to Lollipop for the time being. So this is the stock Android dialer in Kitkat that we are talking about.

The issue persists after updating to CM12.1 . Does anyone have any ideas?
I should mention that after my initial post I found out that if I dial numbers with +359 (I am in Bulgaria) the issue doesn't happen and they are dialed directly, however if I try to dial the same numbers, starting with 0, which should be the normal way to do it, when dialing numbers in my own country, it always happens. If I use 0 the stock dialer pops up and I have to press "call" again and the calls go out. And if I use +country code, instead of 0, they are dialed directly from EXdialer or GoogleNow as they should be.

Open dialer from lockscreen without password?

On my galaxy, I have the left bottom shortcut as the phone app, but every time I swipe it, I have to enter a password before accessing it. but I notice when I swipe on my right bottom shortcut ( I have it set as camera app) I don't have to enter a password. how can I open the dialer app without having to unlock my phone?

Its always been like that, nothing you can do.

Wouldn't be a very secure phone if you could make calls without unlocking it
Taking photos isn't exactly a terrible thing to be able to do with someone elses phone, you can't access anything other than the photos you have taken anyway

Not totally related, sorry OP, but is there a way to make a phone number in a contact, not only "default", but the one the dialer "always" use?
I guess there's a third party dialer that can do it, but the one I'd like, Google dialer, I haven't found a way to install without root, which I still, if ever, don't want to do.
This's such a basic feature, I wonder why Samsung reject it.

r.albu said:
Not totally related, sorry OP, but is there a way to make a phone number in a contact, not only "default", but the one the dialer "always" use?
I guess there's a third party dialer that can do it, but the one I'd like, Google dialer, I haven't found a way to install without root, which I still, if ever, don't want to do.
This's such a basic feature, I wonder why Samsung reject it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Open contacts > select more and mark as default.
You are welcome.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

takerhbk said:
Open contacts > select more and mark as default.
You are welcome.
Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's from the contacts app. I mean from the dialer app.
At least for me, even with a phone number marked (on the contacts app) as default, when there are other numbers, always asks me to choose from one of them. Everytime.
Google dialer, maybe others, has the option to make a number default with a check box. And forget about it.
Thanks anyway.

superkill13 said:
On my galaxy, I have the left bottom shortcut as the phone app, but every time I swipe it, I have to enter a password before accessing it. but I notice when I swipe on my right bottom shortcut ( I have it set as camera app) I don't have to enter a password. how can I open the dialer app without having to unlock my phone?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to try after upgrading your "Android security patch level"
I hope your problem will solve by doing this........