TIP REQUEST: Fastest way to dial the phone

[rancur3p1c]

may I recommend DialerOne?
It provides a T9 text search and supports wildcard "*" asterisk. So you want to dial "President Obama" you type "P*O" and he'll probably be the first one up. If he's not, type "P*Ob" or "P*Oba". This was one feature I loved in the blackberry now we have it for Droid.

[johnmage]

"What I want to be able to do is hit one button from the home screen and be able to start dialing by name or number. I have not yet found a way to make the phone icon always pull up the dialer when I click it (it seems to revert to the last icon used)."

To force the Dialer icon to always open the Dialer, don't use the Contacts icon for your Contacts. Instead, create a shortcut to Contact Search (long press blank screen - Shortcuts - Contact Search). This app immediately brings up keyboard for name search, or you can swipe the screen and drag a big slider for super fast scrolling through contacts. Now that you're not using Contacts, your Dialer will stay on the dialer tab.

I'm with you - my old "basic" phone did basic things a lot easier...

[cybric]

If you go to shortcuts, then scroll down to dialer. Tap it abd you will get 3 choices. Faves, recent, and dialer. Tap dialer and there will be your dialer everytime.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

[CurGeorge8]

Oh wow ... forgot about this thread.

I found a pretty nice solution a few weeks back, and it's pretty similar to cybric's solution, but adds one more step.

I found that with the dialer keypad, I can either start typing in a number or a name. So, if I want to call 'Steve Smith', I start dialing 78383 and it brings up all the steve's I have in my address book. If I want to narrow it down even more, I hold the # key for a second to insert a space, and start typing the last name.

The next challenge was getting to the dialer quick, with one, maybe two key-presses, from no matter where I was in the phone. I wanted to keep the double-tap home screen shortcut for voice commands, so that was out. If I long-pressed a dock icon, I could make one the dialer app, but it would always open to the last used state (dialer, recent, contacts, or favorites), requiring another key-press to get to the dialer.

But I found that I can add the dialer as a shortcut to any of the home screens (using the method cybric describes above). Then, I can long-press the icon and drag it down to the dock. Now, the default shortcut to the dialer app has been replaced with the shortcut directly to the dialer so that, whenever I press it, I get the number keypad.

Feels like a pretty goofy work around to get something so simple (and something my old BB curve did right out of the box), but it works

Here's a screen grab of what my home screen looks like now.

[useltonm]

I know you already found a solution, but check out swipepad. You drag from the designated side of the screen and then you have access to 12 apps that you can access while in any app. You designate which apps, shortcuts, contacts are on the swipepad screen when it pops up.

You can add dialer to the swipepad as a shortcut and then it takes you directly there.

Sent from my DROID BIONIC using DroidForums

[aaf709]

I had TAKEphONE on my OG Droid. It had a T9 search, plus "dial by photo." There was also a widget for callbacks and "dial by photo." I stopped using it because it would always take me to the call log after the call and I couldn't find an app (like On Call End) that could stop it.

[MikeMasso]

You could use AnyCut to make a shortcut to the Dialer, use the favorites fan to put your 20 most contacted people on and direct dial from there, or you could hit the search button and type their name and dial from there.

[DJGwystyl]

"To force the Dialer icon to always open the Dialer, don't use the Contacts icon for your Contacts. Instead, create a shortcut to Contact Search (long press blank screen - Shortcuts - Contact Search). This app immediately brings up keyboard for name search, or you can swipe the screen and drag a big slider for super fast scrolling through contacts. Now that you're not using Contacts, your Dialer will stay on the dialer tab."



There is no "Contact Search" option under the shortcuts, and when I added the "Contacts" shortcut, it still opens the regular phone options, and thus doesn't change the problem.

[DJGwystyl]

"If you go to shortcuts, then scroll down to dialer. Tap it abd you will get 3 choices. Faves, recent, and dialer. Tap dialer and there will be your dialer everytime. "


Is there a way to add this dialer to the Droid Razr? There is no shortcut or widget for any kind of dialer that I can find