TIP REQUEST: Fastest way to dial the phone

[CurGeorge8]

I've had my Bionic since mid-October now, and as a former long-time Blackberry user (almost 5 years), I am very pleased with the switch to Android from BB, with one exception. I cannot find a quick & simple way to dial the phone.

With the Blackberry, I simply had to be on the home screen and I could call someone, either by dialing their number or simply typing in their name.

With Android, it seems to always bee a multi-step process. I have to go to the home screen, then click on the phone icon. Then, I have to make sure the phone icon is on the dialer (which I can type in the name or number), or on Contacts. From there, I can click on the search icon and find a name that way. I have 1,000+ contacts, so using the slider on the right-hand side isn't very practical.

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).

So, I'm looking for tips, hints, widgets, apps, suggestions, etc. that can help me to dial the phone as quickly & with as few button presses as possible.

[kylo77]

Voice Dialing! Press the button and say call John Smith mobile or call home. It will locate the contact (as long as it is in your address book) and dial the number for you ( I think it works for numbers as well but never tried it myself). If you are calling someone as a response to an email and they list their phone number in the email or in their signature if you press and hold the phone number it should bring up the dialer.

[lyrictenor1]

Try setting the "double tap home key" to take you straight to the dialer app.

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[CurGeorge8]

Voice commands still doesn't work like it should, & I always spend extra time telling it 'no....no....no' and getting frustrated with it. And yes .... I did train it to my voice. Its useful in the car, but not practical for constant use. That, and who wants to announce loudly who they're calling in a office or other public place.

I tried the double tap home key as well, but the dialer app acts the same way as it does being an icon, it opens to the last screen you used (dialer, recent, contacts or favorites).

I guess the best solution would be to have the dialer application always open to the actual dialer screen, but I have not been able to find a setting or shortcut to make that happen. The dialer app always seems to open to the last known state.

[rck76]

If you long press on the home screen, select shortcut, them direct dial, you can select a direct dial number to add to your homescreen.

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[CurGeorge8]

If you long press on the home screen, select shortcut, them direct dial, you can select a direct dial number to add to your homescreen.

Yea, thats good, but its essentially the same thing as 'Quick Contacts' widget (which I use & love). The challenge is, I make a lot of calls to a wide variety of contacts, so its just not practical.

[lanza_david]

Try this, touch search, type name, touch contact to dial.

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[lanza_david]

Also, when going into the phone app, touch search to search for contact.

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[rza49311]

You could try magic locker with the htc sense theme.

[CurGeorge8]

You could try magic locker with the htc sense theme.

This look pretty compelling, but I had some trouble installing it. I ended up in some permission loop where it would keep asking for some setting to be changed, I'd try to change it, and it would ask it to be changed again. I was able to break the loop, noticed it had installed two copies of the application, so I uninstalled it & re-booted. Is there a developer site anywhere for this program, couldn't find one through the market.