Update: Uh oh. Looks like they have disappeared from the Play Store.
Google has slowly been moving many of its in-house built stock apps to the Play Store for quite some time now, and today two more apps were added to that list. Starting now, you’ll be able to download and update both the stock Dialer app and the Google Contacts app via their Play Store listings… Expand Expanding Close
Facebook has finally released the Android dialer that it was recently rumored to be working on. The “Hello” dialer displays Facebook-based information about who’s on the other end of an incoming call, such as their employer, birthday, and even the number of mutual friends you have on the social network.
The dialer only pulls data that you would normally have access to—info made public or set to be visible to friends of friends, for example—to protect the privacy of its users. A search bar lets users look up contact information for other Facebook users. Info about businesses is also available through the search function. You’ll be able to lookup hours of operation and location directly from the dialer.
Before today, if you wanted to replace your phone with the Hangouts Dialer, it was a pain. The app didn’t actually identify itself as a system dialer, meaning that tapping phone numbers within other apps wouldn’t let you dial out via Hangouts. Calling out from the Yelp app or within Chrome meant using your phone’s app, and you were never prompted with the option to go with the Hangouts Dialer instead.
Today we’re launching an update to Hangouts Dialer. You’ll now be able to use Dialer to place calls initiated from other apps like your browser or Maps, directly from the Hangouts Android app. Just select Hangouts Dialer when you’re choosing your call method.
This is all changing with the latest release of Hangouts Dialer, meaning the app will finally be useful for many people. As you can see in the screenshot above, tapping a phone number within another app will now prompt you with the option to go with the standard Phone app or the Hangouts Dialer. And if you’re sure you want to always use Hangouts, you can choose “Always” and never deal with this problem again.
Keep an eye on the Play Store today for the app to be updated.
Earlier this afternoon, Google posted factory images for the latest build of Android, Android 4.4.3, and as the update starts to rollout over the next few days, we’ll definitely start to hear of some of the changes. One of the updates in Android 4.4.3 appears to be to the dialer app. The dialer interface has been refreshed to introduce some of the lighter colors and general interface qualities that we’ve seen in other Google app updates. Back in April, Google itself leaked this interface in a tweet on the Nexus account.
Last week, Google itself tweeted out an image that showed a slightly redesigned dialer app on Android. Not much appeared to be different in the app, though the action bar at the top was a new shade of blue, as opposed to gray. Now, more screenshots of a redesigned dialer app have leaked via an XDA thread.
These images show a few more changes, especially to the contacts portion of the dialer app. Instead of a list like the current dialer app, these images show a picture-heavy design with cards for each contact. If you have an image of the person, you’ll see it on the card, but if not, you’ll see a random color. Overall it looks very similar to the Gmail app and fits in well with the leaked Android app icons and calendar app.
The images come from a friend of the XDA user, who could very well be a Google employee judging by the contact names. Google has said before that it is refocusing on design, and with Google I/O 2014 right around the corner, it seems very plausible that we will see some redesigned apps be unveiled at the event.
While handling some customer support, the Google Nexus Twitter account has apparently tweeted out a screenshot of a redesigned Dialer app by accident. The interface does not look all that different. The most noticeable change is that the action bar at the top of the interface blue in the leaked screenshot, whereas it is gray in the most recent build of KitKat.
Google is putting its focus back on design with the latest version of Android and at this year’s Google I/O. It would certainly make sense to introduce app redesigns at the event, too. And it looks like we can expect a new Dialer app to be one.
