Phone vs. Contacts Appa - 2 apps performing similar functions.

[mustang7757]

I can't find it in Play Store on my phone - Pixel 3 64 GB

Go to your phone app in play store and scroll down it's option to be a beta tester

 

[anon(10274434)]

Go to your phone app in play store and scroll down it's option to be a beta tester

Very sneaky - thanks - sign up in progress........................

 

[dmxjago]

Glad you found it.

Very sneaky - thanks - sign up in progress........................

 

[Mike Dee]

See attached I'm part of the beta for the phone app and why I most likely receive it right away. //uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/20181201/5019e1702469e9084fa10a6af6f8f78d.jpg

I had it without the beta but I thought I was already on beta which is confusing me.

 

[anon(10274434)]

Glad you found it.

Says I'll be able to "update to the beta version if it is available" - time will tell if it is still available.

I'm a Beta Dude now - black theme and all -

 

[mustang7757]

I had it without the beta but I thought I was already on beta which is confusing me.

If you have it , you on beta as it's not pushed out yet

 

[Mike Dee]

If you have it , you on beta as it's not pushed out yet

But I checked and I wasn't on beta. Maybe I got kicked out.

 

[mustang7757]

But I checked and I wasn't on beta. Maybe I got kicked out.

Usually you have to unregister, but remember you had that problem with Google cards white and forgot you on beta maybe something like this

 

[Robisan]

See attached I'm part of the beta for the phone app and why I most likely receive it right away.

Thank you for this. Google has been promising phone dark mode coming soon for at least a couple of months and I'm tired of waiting.

 

[fenster]

WORK AROUND TO ALLOW PIXEL 3XL STOCK DIALER TO SEARCH ALL CONTACTS - Interestingly the stock dialer app on the Pixel 3XL syncs and displays all contacts but will only allow SEARCH from contacts that have phone numbers. This is totally annoying. My previous phone was an LG G5 and that phone's stock dialer showed AND ALLOWED SEARCH for all contacts in the dialer regardless of whether or not there was a phone number...it basically mirrored the my Google Contacts list so I used it INSTEAD of the contact list. It not only saved real estate on my quick access bar, it was just simpler to use 1 app. Not all of my contacts have phone numbers. Sometimes I need to look up a contact's email address, street address, notes, etc. even if I don't have phone number. Other dialers have a feature that allows you to select search for all contacts if that's what you prefer. It seems like a big misstep for Google to have removed this functionality. I came up with a workaround that isn't elegant but it works. Basically, it inserts a single digit into a blank phone field in Google Contacts so that the dialer app will recognize them when searching. I've detailed the process below.

1) Open google contacts on a PC
2) Export contacts (main menu/more/export/google csv/export)
3) Open downloaded file (I just clicked on it and it opened in excel)
4) Go to and then select the column labeled Phone 1 (it was AN on my spreadsheet)
5) To select all blank fields in column use the goto function: press and hold the function key (Fn) and then the F5 key on your keyboard at the same time to launch
6) Select Special/Blanks/OK
7) All of the blanks will be selected and the first blank will be actively highlighted. In that field enter the formula =1 and then hold down control key and then press enter. This will enter the formula =1 into all the blank cells in the column
8) To convert these formulas to values reselect the entire column by clicking on the column name (AN in my case) and copy (right click/copy) and then paste values (right click/paste special/values/ok)
9) save file (you will get an error message that contacts.csv may contain features not compatible with CSV. Just click yes to keep format)
10) go back to Google Contacts and import the file you just saved (main menu/more/import/contacts.csv). This may take awhile depending on how many entries you have. If it asks let it allow duplicates say yes.
11) After the file has been imported check to see that you have duplicate entries (one with a blank phone number and 1 with a "1" phone number for a contact you know was blank). If so this workaround has worked but you will now want to now merge the duplicate entries. To do this you need to close Google contacts and then reopen it.
12) To merge duplicates select Duplicates from the main menu. This will pull up a search of all duplicate contacts. In the search results window select merge all.
13) The contacts in the stock dialer app will automatically update next time they it syncs with Google Contacts (mine is set to autosync) and then you should be able to search all contacts from the stock dialer. Just remember that when creating a new contact going forward you will have to put a placeholder number in the phone number field if you are not entering a full phone number in order to have it searchable in the stock dialer!

I know this is painful but it solves the problem. Maybe Google will change the functionality of the dialer going forward to at least allow the option of searching for all contacts.

 

[Moondoggy]

Actually now that I think about it I've opted in for the beta version of the phone app so I probably receive it ahead of it being pushed to the general public. You can go-to the play store search for the app and sign up to be part of the beta for the phone app.

dmxjago,

I wanted to check with you to see if the behavior I'm seeing is the same as what you were (are) seeing on the Phone app.

Today, I noticed that the Phone app had an update available and after installing it, I looked at the notes and it mentioned the dark theme being part of the update. After a restart, just to make sure everything was ready to go, I opened the Phone app and the contacts list was still a white theme background. When I clicked on an individual entry, the entry for that person was displayed on the dark them background. Other lists on the bottom menu such as Recent and Voicemail also had a white theme background as opposed to the dark theme. Note that I checked my Display Settings and my phone is setup for dark theme as the default. Note that on the Contacts app, the list of contacts and the individual entry were both displayed in the dark theme so this struck me as a bit odd that Google would display the lists on the Phone app differently but again I think that it's weird that the Phone app and the Contacts app are so similar when it come to the contact list. Please let me know what behavior you are seeing. Thanks.