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Pixel Call Assist: Everything you need to know
Google's suite of calling features can make your life a whole lot easier
The Phone app by Google is preinstalled on millions of Android phones. The Phone app on Pixel devices offers Pixel Call Assist, which has calling features to filter out spammers, navigate automated menus, and more. While most of these features are exclusive to the latest Pixel phones like the Google Pixel 8, some can be used on other phones, including the best cheap Android phones.
Google is testing an easier-to-use call interface for the Phone app
One-handed operation should be less of a pain
With everything your smartphone is capable of doing, it's easy to overlook basic voice calls, and Google's Phone app rarely sees much of the limelight. While Google's constantly updating it, it's not often that we hear about it picking up major new features or undergoing substantial visual changes — probably because it already works so well and doesn’t need that much maintenance. But right now we are seeing one change that catches our eye, as a recent beta build of the app tweaks the user interface for when you’re on a call.
Here's Google's workaround for visual voicemail bug on Android 13 betas
Rolling back to a v81 release of the Phone by Google app can fix the issue
Betas almost always mean dealing with bugs, but sometimes there are workarounds for specific issues. Visual voicemail has been broken in the Phone by Google app for some Pixel owners on the recent Android 13 beta releases, eliminating the ability to see your individual voicemails from the built-in phone app. But, according to an official Google account on Reddit, there's a very simple fix.
Google's latest Phone update brings even more Material You goodness to the dialer
Now arriving for some beta users
Love it or hate it, Material You seems like it's here to stay. Google updated most of its apps last year in the months leading up to Android 12's official launch, but that's not to say it hasn't kept updating and tweaking some existing designs. The Phone app picked up dynamic themes last year, but lately, we've seen evidence that a more thorough redesign was on the way. Now, your Pixel might already be home to an all-new dialer UI.
Google's Phone app might pick up some cues from Android 12's lock screen
Shape-changing buttons coming to a Pixel's dial pad near you
Recently spotted changes to Google's Phone app (the default dialer app on Pixels) show some UI tweaks that could be upcoming. We aren't sure if this tweaked layout was spotted in the wild or manually enabled somehow, but details indicate the dial pad itself will be tweaked to look and operate more like the Android 12 lock screen and Google's calculator app, with shape-changing borders added around the pad's buttons and new button-pressing animations.
Have you received a call recently about extending the warranty for a car you don’t own? Maybe you got one from the “IRS” about money you owe? With over 150 million daily robocalls being made in just the US alone, we’d be shocked if you haven’t. One tool Android smartphone owners can use to filter out these annoyances is the Verified Call feature in the Google Phone app. Now a whole new set of users is getting access, as Verified Calls starts going live Germany.
Google loves to shuffle up its settings menu every so often. Whether it's adding a splash of color to Android's settings (before taking it away on a whim) or introducing a search bar to help you find exactly what you need, even the slightest tweak can streamline your day-to-day experience. Google's Phone app is receiving such an update, with new categories to make it easier to sort through all of its options.
Google's Call Screening service has allowed you to record screened calls for quite some time, but many people have been asking for a native solution letting them save any phone conversation. It looks like Google is working on introducing this functionality to its Phone app.
Over the last few months, Google has been taking small steps to integrate Allo and Duo into different pieces of the phone. Most recently, Allo shortcuts were added to the Contacts app, but today's teardown is more closely related to Duo recording its video chats to the system call log. It looks like Google's next step may involve having its Phone app be a little more forward about Duo.
If there's one thing that's certain in life, it's that Google is always testing some sort of interesting UI change in one of its apps. Some of them end up on the scrapheap, but some of them end up being integral parts of the experience we all have when using our Android devices. The latest test to be discovered is a floating bubble UI in the Google Phone app.