Dialling contacts?

[Foxspeed]

I think I maybe missing something when dialling a contact using the number pad. If I use the letters on the keypad to auto select a persons number from my contact list, it does not appear for whatever reason.
For example, if I wanted to call 'john', I would press 5 for J, 6 for O, 4 for H & 6 again for N. Normally the contact's name should appear before I finish typing the full name.
Any ideas why this isn't working on my Nexus?

 

[Tim K]

Yes. That's simply not how it works on the GN. There are so many ways to dial a contact, I'm not sure why you would choose that method... unless you are coming from a regular phone and its just habit. To search from the dial pad, tap the magnifying glass at the bottom left and use the keyboard that pops up. Or, Instead of using the dialpad, just start typing in the search box. You can dial from there directly and skip the dialer altogether.

If you really like that method however, there are 3rd party dialer apps that allow alphabet dialing from the keypad. Do a search for dialer app as I've seen a few mentioned here.

 

[runamonk]

The stock dialer does not support this. I do miss this functionality from my HTC Desire. You can always download any one of a number of dialer/contact apps from google play / market.

 

[TheyCallMeBT]

This is the one that most people use other than stock. I remember I tried it once, but didn't like it. I don't remember why.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=kz.mek.DialerOne&hl=en

 

[Foxspeed]

Thanks for the replies everyone. I too came from using the HTC Desire and thought alpha-pad dialling was a standard feature.
I have now installed a third party app called Dialer One and so far I'm very happy with it.

Thanks once again, another problem solved.

 

[Jay3]

The phone gets much more useful if you start using the search box for things -- the one that's already on screen. Touch it, when the keyboard appears hit J-O-H and your contact will appear.