Joe Maring / Android Authority
TL;DR
- We’ve managed to enable the upcoming “My Calling Card” feature in Google’s Phone app.
- You can now create your own Calling Card, choose a photo, customize fonts, and control who sees it.
- If someone hasn’t customized your card already, they’ll see your version when you call.
Google introduced Calling Cards for Android last year. Just like iOS, Calling Card on Android lets you customize how incoming calls from friends and family appear on your phone. It’s a great feature, but has been lacking something big Apple offers with Contact Posters on iPhones since the feature came around. While you can customize how other people’s Calling Cards look on your device, you can’t control how your own Calling Card appears when calling other people.
In October, we reported that Google is about to fix this limitation. We found that Google is working on a new “My calling card” option inside the Phone by Google app to allow you to set up your own Calling Card that would appear for other users when you call them. At the time, the setting existed, but it didn’t actually do anything. Now, we can show you exactly how you’ll be able to set up your own calling card.
We managed to enable “My calling card” in version 204.0.852029473-publicbeta-pixel of the Phone by Google app, and it looks pretty much ready for prime time.
Don’t want to miss the best from Android Authority?
How setting up “My Calling Card” works
If you’ve been wanting to customize your own Calling Card since the feature launched, this is the missing piece you’ve been waiting for. Here’s how the setup process should work once “My Calling Card” goes live, which should be pretty soon since the feature seems fully baked.
- Head to Phone by Google > Settings > Calling Cards.
- Tap “Create” under the “My Calling Card” section.
- Choose the Google account you want to use.
- Pick a photo from your gallery, camera, or Google Photos.
- Customize the font and color, just like regular Calling Cards.
- Preview your card and choose who can see it.
At the final step, Google allows you to decide whether your Calling Card is visible to only your contacts or to everyone. When you’re done, your card appears under My Calling Card, and you can tap it anytime to edit it.
According to Google’s own description in the app, recipients will be able to see your name, photo, and other Google account info. Your image may be cropped differently depending on the screen size of phones on which it’s displayed.
If someone already has your number saved and has customized your Calling Card on their phone, their version of your Calling Card could take priority. If they haven’t customized anything, your “My Calling Card” should ideally be shown instead. This makes sense and avoids editing personal contact setups, but it also means this feature works best for new contacts or people who haven’t touched Calling Cards yet.
From day one, Calling Cards on Android felt half-finished because they only worked one way. You could customize everyone else, but not yourself. With this upcoming feature, Google is finally making things right.
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
Thank you for being part of our community. Read our Comment Policy before posting.
