Best Android Apps to Replace Stock Dialer and Address Book
Stock Android dialer and address book may be quite satisfactory until you get a taste of something better, and this is exactly what we want to do - give you an idea of what other apps can turn your dialer and address book into. From extensive filtering to integration with other apps, including social networks, from keeping an unlimited call log to profiling callers before you pick up, these Android apps can significantly boost your productivity, and the way you communicate, too.
Contactive - Free Caller ID
[Android, Chrome extension, website]
By Contactive, Price: Free
Contactive is a truly unique app on today's list. Tapping into global databases of social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Gmail, Skype, Tango, Google+, WhatsApp, Google Places and Yelp (imagine how many people are in those databases collectively), it delivers a caller's social profile before you even pick up.
Some users might not be able to take advantage of the functionality simply because they don't get that many phone calls from marketers, sales managers, or generally from people they don't know. On the other hand, anyone in the marketing industry, sales and PR, HR and fund-raising, or any other field that requires you be socially active, will benefit greatly from this ID spy.
The functionality in Contactive is truly stellar. The app integrates with your social profiles, and keeps people of interest easily accessible, with their latest updates from social networks and birthdays. Before making a call, you will be able to see the contact's Facebook status updates, and latest Tweets, important events, which gives you immediate advantage, especially when you make cold calls, or call people you haven't met yet in person because you will have an idea of triggers that will help you break the ice.
Likewise, instead of the unidentified number on your display, you will see the caller's profile, provided the person's number is anywhere in the databases. That way, you can conveniently ignore a debt collector or telemarketer, or know that your stalking ex is calling you from his friend's phone. Contactive gives you an unprecedented tactical advantage, a timely warning, or a life-saving reminder of your mother-in-law's upcoming birthday - all in a single app. It basically digs up people's publically available profiles for you and delivers them in contact cards, clean-cut, informative and easily digestible - a personal MI-6 for Android.
Universal Caller ID identifies over 600 million callers, provided they are registered with social networks, White and Yellow Pages; the Social Address Book updates your contacts' profiles in real time once they update their social profiles, phone numbers, companies and positions, birthdays and important events they make publically available; Contact Updates creates an indispensable cheat sheet for people's data that is publically available, but would have otherwise cost you hours or even days of online manual search.
Another functionality worth mentioning is Contactive has a Chrome app you can sync with your Android device and have all notifications and people's dossiers delivered to your desktop. CalendarID is an optional feature, and taps into your Google Calendar, adding relevant information about people you mention in your Calendar entries into your scheduled appointments. Thus, if you have a meeting with someone you've never met, but the person is anywhere on social networks, you just input the person's name in the appointment, and CalendarID profiles the person for you.
As far as Android dialer replacement is concerned, Contactive organizes the most relevant information about your contacts into a beautiful and easy-to-use interface you've always wished it were, with updates, birthdays, positions, addresses, photos - all that without a tedious manual search and input, automatically.
Unlimited Call Log
By SoftRelay
Price: $3.00
Unlimited Call Log does something few other apps can offer - it keeps, as the title suggests it, a truly unlimited call log of your conversations, so that you can find and manage your call history, if that's what you need in your device. Besides that, the app replaces your stock dialer and contact list, adding a slew of advanced, I would even say professional, features to organize, browse, filter and search your address book and call log.
Once installed, the app creates a database for your call logs with options to search, group and filter the history while the good-looking dialer also offers a convenient way to search your contacts, set up speed dial, favorites, most frequently contacted people and more.
You can choose a contact and see the entire statistics of your conversations, or view and browse all of your call history, filter the log by contact, date, call direction, entry type - voice calls or text messages. There are options to expand and collapse groups, remove items one by one or in bulk. The UI has different color schemes you can switch back and forth, tweaking the app's looks. Each contact photo reveals quick dial or send a text message buttons when pressed. Users can also export statistics to XLS or CSV format.
TrueCaller
TrueCaller is somewhat similar to the above-mentioned Contactive, but with a focus on basically identifying the caller, and filtering out the ones labeled as spammers, telemarketers or stalkers, and ultimately, managing your address book. The app is also compatible with Android Wear. You can reverse-search for people, and see who is calling even if you do not have the person in your address book. The Block Calls feature lets you ignore calls from numbers marked as spam by multimillion user community.
TrueCaller is integrated with Twitter, and lets you tweet and follow from TrueCaller app. It offers a beautiful and convenient address book, updated with information from social network profiles of your contacts, photos and more. The app also has a home screen widget displaying your call history. The premium version of the app lets you see who viewed your profile and lets you run 30 contact requests per month outside your personal network. You will have to create an account with TrueCaller community.
ExDialer & Contacts
This one is a lightweight and quite basic address book and dialer replacement, perfect for those who simply want a slew of different skins and some nice gesture controls. The flat UI appeals to the fans of the latest Android style changes, while the themes you can set to change depending on the time of day and night make the app look awesome and versatile.
The app sports a hefty language pack supporting 30 languages, T9 dialing, lots of options to organize and manage contacts, fast call ot send a text message options available at a single swiping motion on the contact ID.
Also, ExDialer lets you call your contacts using VoIP that taps into Skype, Viber and Fring, and some other providers, cutting costs of your calls. It is lightweight, customizable, streamlined and beautiful, but the downside is it costs $4, with the 7-day free trial period.
Contacts+
If you want an app that unites all your contacts from your address book, Twitter, Facebook, Google+, Foursquare and LinkedIn in one neat interface, with the options to comment, tweet, like and share from it, try Contacts+. It blends all your contacts together, pulling their social network photos and updates into one address book, customizable, of course. You can sort and group, filter and search. By default, you will have all your contacts listed in alphabetical order, which may create a but of a busy mess, especially if you have connected all of your social networking accounts with the app. This is when the app does a pleasant surprise, putting top ten most frequently contacted people above everyone else. The feature is optional and you can turn it off altogether.
Then you can sort the contact by favorite, create groups, or view contacts that only have phone numbers listed. The app also has a neat dialer and a built-in text messaging module, which supports emoji, pop-ups and group messaging. The dialer supports T9 and speed dial features.
The app comes free of charge, and features some optional modules for quick access to messenger and dialer, edit emoji or merge contacts.
Contakts
If you are after good looks, try Contakts. It features beautiful skins, and if your device runs KitKat you will be able to enjoy a semi-transparent navigation bar, as well as a notification bar theme of the matching color. Feature-wise, the app focuses on bringing as much information about your favorite contacts as possible by tapping into your accounts with Google, WhatsApp and Facebook and displaying your contacts' emails, phone numbers, location, posts and images in one app.
You can call the person from within the app, or send a text message and quick-launch WhatsApp history. Note that Contakts integrates with stock Android text messaging app.
A notable feature here is your favorite contacts statistics, which shows a breakdown of how much you talk to whom in a colorful graph. Even though it may not be of any interest to some users, but a useful feature to others. After all, sometimes technology offers an interesting insight of our addictions or how we unintentionally keep forgetting to call our parents.
The list of frequently contacted offers one-tap access to call or send a text message. This may not be the most advanced, but it sure is one of the best-looking apps on the list, with a rich choice of themes.
PixelPhone
This app is rich in tweaks and customization options, and a slew of skins available via additional free downloads, as well as built-in themes. Its dialer looks great and is quick, with neat animations and smooth transition effects, T9 dialing support, contact lists and contact logs. The keypad size can be adjusted, while contacts can be easily sorted and grouped by swipe gestures.
Filtering and sorting in PixelPhone is a pleasure that makes the process a tad faster and easier than with the stock Android address book. Nonetheless, style aficionados are the ones to appreciate the app more than anyone else because customization is it strongest point. There are built-in color schemes that look awesome, especially the flat black and flat white themes, simple and elegant. There are also some HTC-styled skins and a few dozen more skins in additional downloads. The app is free, good-looking and performs smooth, so we recommend you try it.
