Not happy w/free Xfinity Pixel 7 ! ... Phone app incoming & keyboard don't go full screen ??

[winmod21]

Hello,
My wife & I agreed and/or got talked into accepting a free Pixel 7 from Xfinity Mobile last month, since we were switching our Internet to Xfinity —in order to take advantage of a $10/mo. internet promo offer (at 400mbps~800mbps) when switching a phone line & # from another carrier (in our case, AT&T) &c. Which my wife wanted to do in order to upgrade her Galaxy Note 8 to an S23Ultra, since Xfi was offering a $600 trade-in on her Note 8.

Anyways, then we decided to also switch my ph # to a new phone (S23+) as well, (since there was also a "$300 Off new Samsung phones" promo just for switching your ph # from another carrier to Xfi + a $100 Visa gift card for every ph # transferred from another carrier), and while we were at it, also accept a promo offer for a "Free Pixel 7" for an elderly family member of whom we take care of, (and who has extremely progressed Macular Degeneration in her eyes, to the point that she can barely see).

Even though she was fine with her 2017 LG Stylo 4. And I was still happy with my 2017 Galaxy S7 Active.

The problem: When an incoming call comes into the Pixel 7.... there' s only a small 1.5"~2" bubble notification that pops up, about 1/3 of the way down from the display top. Rather than a full screen incoming call screen (like our samsung's & her LG). Same with keyboard; it only opens to 2/3's the height of the display, rather than a full screen keyboard (like our samsung's do). And now she can't see where to tap since the Pixel pop-up buttons & keyboard are so much smaller. Last night she was in tears, saying that she no longer felt like she had a phone to use, or that she could use &c.

Question: Is there anyway to make the incoming calls go to a full screen, as well as the keyboard ?? We couldn't find any setting adjustment for either.

Btw, neither could a nice Xfi cust rep— somewhere on the other side of the planet —who I was on the phone with for over an hour and a half, and finally reached after having to fight and scream my way through their AI (Artificial Idiot)— who keeps claiming that they can help & answer any & all questions...while delaying and doing everything possible to never let customers ever talk to a real live cust serv agent —answering system for 15 minutes, !:~\
Let's just say I was not happy when I finally got a real person/rep. Who, as it turned-out, also informed us that if we were to thence transfer our fam-mem's ph # to any other new phone.... her Pixel 7 would no longer be free, but rather we'd incur a balance of $575. So unless we want to pay for 2 phones, for her, it looks like we're stuck with the Pixel 7. =((

Lots of other things we don't like about the Pixel's too, after being used to Samsung's.

Um . . . sorry for this ridiculously long-winded post. I guess I had too many words built-up, being that it's been 2+ years since I last looked @ AC. Thanks for any suggestions or tips.

 

[B. Diddy]

It's standard behavior for the Phone app to show an incoming call as a banner notification when the device is in active use (e.g., while you're browsing or using another app). This is so that an incoming call doesn't completely disrupt anything else you might be doing, and allows it to be easily dismissed if you can't answer the call right away. I can see why some would want it to be fullscreen all the time, so an option for that might be a good idea -- you can send feedback to Google about it from within the app's settings. (When the phone is idle, with the screen off, that's when an incoming call will show up as fullscreen.)

When you talk about the keyboard, do you mean the Phone app's numberpad, or are you talking about any keyboard app that shows up when you want to type anything? It's normal for a keyboard app to be about 1/3 the height of the screen, since you don't want to block everything on the screen where you want to enter text.

 

[johnts]

This problem is my main issue with the phone. It would take a couple lines of code to give us an option for a full screen when a call comes in. You should not have to look for the small block with mini buttons to answer the phone. Answering using voice commands is not always desirable. I wrote to Google months ago about the problem. So far nothing has changed.

 

[winmod21]

It's standard behavior for the Phone app to show an incoming call as a banner notification when the device is in active use (e.g., while you're browsing or using another app). This is so that an incoming call doesn't completely disrupt anything else you might be doing, and allows it to be easily dismissed if you can't answer the call right away. I can see why some would want it to be fullscreen all the time, so an option for that might be a good idea -- you can send feedback to Google about it from within the app's settings. (When the phone is idle, with the screen off, that's when an incoming call will show up as fullscreen.)

Makes sense. Thanks for the suggestion. And yes, not being fullscreen makes it pretty tough for the visually impaired to see where to tap. I did notice though, that if you tap the upper right corner of, (or maybe anywhere on) the 'banner notification'.... it goes fullscreen. So, just another tap is required before swyping the answer button.

When you talk about the keyboard, do you mean the Phone app's numberpad, or are you talking about any keyboard app that shows up when you want to type anything? It's normal for a keyboard app to be about 1/3 the height of the screen, since you don't want to block everything on the screen where you want to enter text.

Oh sorry, yes I meant the 'numberpad'; it doesn't go fullscreen either; again making it very difficult for the elderly/visually impaired.

 

[winmod21]

This problem is my main issue with the phone. It would take a couple lines of code to give us an option for a full screen when a call comes in. You should not have to look for the small block with mini buttons to answer the phone. Answering using voice commands is not always desirable.

Agreed.

 

[B. Diddy]

Makes sense. Thanks for the suggestion. And yes, not being fullscreen makes it pretty tough for the visually impaired to see where to tap. I did notice though, that if you tap the upper right corner of, (or maybe anywhere on) the 'banner notification'.... it goes fullscreen. So, just another tap is required before swyping the answer button.

Oh, that's a good tip! I didn't know that myself.

Oh sorry, yes I meant the 'numberpad'; it doesn't go fullscreen either; again making it very difficult for the elderly/visually impaired.

This would also be a good thing to suggest in feedback. I would emphasize it to them as an accessibility issue. Of course, there's no guarantee that Google will act on any given feedback item, but the more they hear, the better.

You might want to try a 3rd party dialer app, like Big Dialer. Unfortunately, the last time the developer updated that app was in 2018, so it's hard to know who well it works on modern phones.

 

[winmod21]

This would also be a good thing to suggest in feedback. I would emphasize it to them as an accessibility issue. Of course, there's no guarantee that Google will act on any given feedback item, but the more they hear, the better.

You might want to try a 3rd party dialer app, like Big Dialer. Unfortunately, the last time the developer updated that app was in 2018, so it's hard to know who well it works on modern phones.

Thanks for those tips !

Gave-up on the Pixel 7; returned it, and ordered a Galaxy A54 5G via Amaz, that's a much better phone!