Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

martinruenz.de

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 345 posts

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#261

Post by djsumdog »

bostand wrote: post #73
muppetman wrote: post #68

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Google Dialer only works on Stock Android. Which is a shame.

This could be fixed if Google considers this a problem. Remember when they added Google calendar to Play to fight Samsungs BS?

To be fair, the "Samsung BS" was them trying to setup a separate ecosystem that was just as good in case they needed to break from Google. I really hope Samsung does this at some point too. I feel there are enough people that don't want eyeProducts that we'd finally see some innovation in 3rd party markets ... or everyone would just install Samsung/Google/Amazon stores ..

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#262

Post by djsumdog »

voltagex_ wrote: post #258
10165 wrote: post #257

Is it true that carriers are increasingly switching to calling over WiFi? I understand the new iPhones have this feature, with switchover happening automatically. Did the popularity of Facetime, WhatsApp, etc. have anything to do with this? I have seen claims from carriers that WiFi calling "improves coverage". At some stage, will anyone question what is the point of the cellular network? Especially in urban areas. W…

There's a few things at play here: * https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT203032 WiFi Calling, which is (AFAIK) prioritised VoIP. Helps offload some calls from the provider's network which may help in congested areas * https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT203124 VoLTE. Voice over LTE, rather than GSM (?) channels. Highly prioritised VoIP over LTE data. Should improve call quality via better voice codecs. Seems to simplify…

Sprint's older WiMax systems (4G), when enabled, would put all calls over IP (starting with the HTC Evo 4G). It ate through battery though.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#263

Post by djsumdog »

wlesieutre wrote: post #7
gumby wrote: post #2

I don't agree. It's simply that some vendors are untrustworthy. Frankly if the telephone app on my "phone" stopped working I wonder how long it would take me to notice.

If the dialer stopped working I'd never notice, but if the phone app broke entirely I'd stop getting calls from telemarketers and loan scams.

I get more of those on my Google Voice/Hangouts number than my actual phone number .. and I still get them on my actual phone number, even though I have given that information to NO ONE! -_- ... fuck you Cricket (really ATT).

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#264

Post by djsumdog »

muppetman wrote: post #69
tzakrajs wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And vacation sweepstakes, and shitty recruiters, and IRS scams, and... This must be the elephant in the room. Traditional telephony has become dominated by bad actors. They hit a critical mass and now my phone app is a waste of space.

This must be an American thing. In New Zealand I still use the phone app for talking to people. I've never recieved a spam call - a few calls from companies I already donate too asking for more etc, but that's it. How many "bad" calls do you get a month?

It is an American thing. I had 2 degrees and Telecom (or Spark or whatever the fuck they are now) and never had any spam that I recall. Coming back to the US, my number got text spam on a number I literally gave to no one. -_-

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#265

Post by djsumdog »

walrus01 wrote: post #90

I have never heard of a "Wileyfox Swift". If you need an awesome and capable Android 7.0 based dual SIM phone with zero carrier crapware/bloatware and a close to stock Android experience, the OnePlus 3T (64 or 128GB version) is a good choice. Since Oneplus' falling out with Cyanogen Inc, and the financial failure of Cyanogen, Oneplus' own OxygenOS is essentially a re-implemented CyanogenMod that has all of the same f…

The thing about that was, Cyanogen stayed very silent and OnePlus's entire advertising strategy was very dodgy. I suspect Cyanogen was just sick of OnePlus's shit when they signed with that 2nd Indian distributor.

Now that the Cyanogen company is dissolved, who knows what the truth was.

Lately I've started using CarbonRom. It's pretty nice.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#266

Post by gumby »

Buttons840 wrote: post #260
gumby wrote: post #242

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I've always found it weird how everyone I know seems much more cautious about phone usage than me I wouldn't say I'm cautious, it's simply that if it were important, why would you call? I basically consider phone calls as unimportant as paper letters. Check in on them every few weeks.

What would you expect me to do if it were important? It seems to me I can either call, which most likely causes a loud and persistent ringing noise that signals "someone wants to talk to you right now, please pick up the phone". Or I can send you a text which will make a quick beep on your phone and then go away.

I can deal with the text when I want -- or not at all. Whereas the call arrives when you want.

I actually adopted the "don't answer the phone" strategy about 20 years ago, when first I got voice mail. I wish everyone had. But nowadays I don't even listen to my voice mail.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#267

Post by djsumdog »

onli wrote: post #83
nylonstrung wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm sure you can find an android device that has a physical keypad, root it and disable any call or mobile data functionality while keeping SMS intact.

Actually, that's not that easy. There are not many android phones with keyboard, and even less with a proper community for rooting it. I wouldn't know a single one.

I don't think there's anything decent with a physical keyboard anymore. It's sad. I'd seriously welcome the extra thickness for something like the old HTC Evo Shift.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#268

Post by dheera »

djsumdog wrote: post #252
dheera wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've mostly deprecated phone numbers as a way of reaching me for the following reasons: - Representing a person by a country-specific number is a horrible UX. All of my contact methods besides phone number remain the same no matter where I am in the world. Several of my contact methods (Facebook, LinkedIn) enable directly "dialing" my real name and intelligently locating me by social proximity instead of asking the c…

> Representing a person by a country-specific number is a horrible UX Phone numbers (and physical addresses) are examples of semi and fully federated systems. You use the standard and establish contracts and your teleco or post office and connect to anyone else in the world. Your Google Hangouts/Skype/Facebook are closed, walled garden, proprietary systems. Keep that in mind.

I do hate the walled garden aspect of them. I agree they are far, far, far from innocent.

But from a UX standpoint they are vastly superior to having to deal with people trying to reach me on my US number while I'm in China, or trying to reach one cell phone when I'm carrying another.

Also, the telco operators love to nickel-and-dime consumers for things like roaming charges. I'd love to see more competitors come out and overthrow those rascals by doing everything over IP, creating worldwide MVNOs and slashing all roaming charges to essentially zero. Google Fi has done a nice job. Granted they exist to promote Android, but when I tell friends I have LTE data in 100+ countries without roaming charges, international voice calls for pennies directly from my cell phone, and viewing voice charges in real-time, they are all astounded. Unfortunately yes they too are a walled garden, but the user experience is amazing.

Re: Something is wrong when the ‘telephone app’ on your phone becomes 3rd party

#269

Post by brokenmachine »

fpgeek wrote: post #236
__jal wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It is worth noting how we got here: - Someone said having multiple options for a phone dialer is a wonderful thing. - Someone else pointed out that the article isn't about a choice, the dialer was forced on the user. - The parent asks if it is bad that Google updates apps in a tone that strongly hints that they can't imagine how the answer could be yes. Far too many conversations go like this here. To (try to) get ba…

> - Someone else pointed out that the article isn't about a choice, the dialer was forced on the user. If you want the phone to come with a dialer (I think most people do), then some dialer will inevitably be forced on people. And unless you think phone calls are an optional feature, it makes perfect sense that the dialer cannot be deleted. The only complaint I can see here is that phone manufacturers can make bad ch…

> And unless you think phone calls are an optional feature, it makes perfect sense that the dialer cannot be deleted.

I don't see the connection here. Why shouldn't people be able to delete the dialer if they don't like the phone company's choice? I understand preinstalling one, but preventing people from choosing another if they want seems unnecessary.

Post reply on HN