Summary
- Google is planning to offer more ways to answer calls in its Phone app.
- The new options were discovered in the Phone by Google 177 beta, suggesting users might soon have multiple choices for call answering.
- It’s possible Google will retain the current vertical swipe alongside these new methods, providing users with up to three different ways to manage incoming calls.
Phone by Google is the default phone app, not only on Pixel smartphones but also for other handsets from popular brands like OnePlus and Motorola. The app’s 4.5-star rating and one billion installs on the Google Play Store also suggest it’s one of the most widely used Google apps on Android phones. However, that doesn’t mean it’s perfect; the reason being that some basic features are missing in the Phone by Google app.
Time will tell how many of those missing features Google will add to the Phone app, but for now, the Mountain View tech giant appears to be focusing on giving users more choices in how they want to answer calls. The good news is that most Android users are already familiar with the new options, so you won’t have to put in extra effort to get used to them.
Google’s Phone app may offer new ways to answer your phone calls
As things stand right now, the only way to answer or reject calls is by swiping up or down on the call screen. You can change this gesture system to something else from the Settings, as there are no other options. Users saw some hope when Google started testing simple “Answer” and “Decline” buttons, which required only a tap (via Reddit). A few months later, Google started working on another experimental feature to test swipe left or right to answer or decline calls.
Image sources: Android Authority and Reddit
It was natural for users to assume that Google might have canceled the tap-to-answer approach and that the horizontal swipe might be the one that would replace the current vertical gesture system. However, it looks like Google has other plans. The company is planning to keep both horizontal swipe and the tap-to-answer/decline approach, as per code strings found in the Phone by Google 177 beta by folks over at 9to5Google.
name=”answer_method_swipe_entry”>Horizontal swipe
name=”answer_method_tap_entry”>Single tap
The code strings don’t specifically mention if Google plans to replace the old vertical gesture system with new ones. It’s possible that it might keep the vertical swipe as an option, along with the new horizontal swipe and single-tap buttons. If that turns out to be true, users will have three different ways to answer or decline phone calls. If ever Google releases them to the general public, they’ll be available in the Settings.
While these may not be one of those features you’d want to try immediately, more customization options, whether in the Phone app or anywhere else, are always a welcome change if they’re implemented well. That said, the code strings in the Phone app don’t guarantee that we’ll get those new ways of answering or declining phone calls.
