Direct Message widget missing - replacement?

[copyrightandtec]

Hi,

My previous phone was a Galaxy S3. I used the Direct Dial and Direct Message widgets and built a screen full of one-touch dial and text-message icons that had photos of contacts (for those contacts that had photos). Now I have an S6; these widgets are missing. I found a third-party app called Shortcut Dial that does the same thing as Direct Dial, but I haven't been able to find a replacement for Direct Message. Can anyone help?

Otherwise I love the S6.

Thanks!

 

[brichards49]

I am also flabbergasted... I always used this capability as an example why Android was better than Apple. An amazing feature which Apple didn't have. I'm completely disappointed that google took out such an important item which is used daily by lots of users.

I see that google changed "Direct Dial" to work so users should put a "contact" widget on the screen, then when that contact's "contact card" is open, the user can raise the phone to their head and it does a direct dial.
However, 1) what about users like me that use a blue-tooth headset, and rarely ever talk with the phone to their head.
And 2) this completely ignores the whole "Direct Message" capability. They removed functionality, and didn't provide a way to replace it.

I see quite a few apps that have built the "Direct Dial" widget (for example, "Shortcut Dial" is a good simple app for this), however I can't find a single simple app which does the "Direct Message" capability, and allows the gadget to show in the bottom bar.

Again, my request is specifically for "Direct Message". There are a ton of forums out there for Direct Dial, but we need a "Direct Message" replacement. Does anyone know of a good app for this?

 

[sjaduae]

Hi,

My previous phone was a Galaxy S3. I used the Direct Dial and Direct Message widgets and built a screen full of one-touch dial and text-message icons that had photos of contacts (for those contacts that had photos). Now I have an S6; these widgets are missing. I found a third-party app called Shortcut Dial that does the same thing as Direct Dial, but I haven't been able to find a replacement for Direct Message. Can anyone help?

Otherwise I love the S6.

Thanks!

On my S6 SM-G925F in widgets there is a 1x1 contact widget you apply and set contact as a shortcut of from any contact just use add shortcut to home screen

For speed dial go to phone select keyboard then select more/speed dial and assign up to 1000 contacts that's a lot more than the 9 on the S3

When I used BT headset I only use voice dialing so no need for shortcuts etc

 

[brichards49]

This is exactly what I described above:
"users should put a "contact" widget on the screen, then when that contact's "contact card" is open"

However, this requires two steps, when we're used to and prefer to only do one step..
With the contact widget, you can open their contact, but then as a second step you have to click the Message button. It's quite annoying when we used to be able to do one click, "Direct Message" and that was it.

 

[dandygeek]

I use an app called More Icon Widget. This creates mini icons for opening apps, settings, direct calls or direct messages. I have had the paid version since my S3 and condense every frequent action to a single home screen. I hope this helps

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Jon Bresler]

I found an app "Better Direct Dial" that allows me to place the direct message widgets on my galaxy s6. I have not posted enough for it to allow me embed the link. I hope you find it and that it helps!

 

[saturnsvu33]

THANK YOU! This works exactly like the old widget worked!

 

[billrosenblatt]

This works OK but the icon doesn't indicate if it's a phone dial, text message, etc. So it's not as useful as the old widgets which did indicate this.

 

[billrosenblatt]

Are you sure it's called More Icon Widget? I just tried searching the Google Play Store for this and didn't find anything.