Droid Phone Contacts Search and Dial

[droid_freud]

Does anyone know of an app to improve contact searching in the Phone app?

I would love a BlackBerry-like interface where the phone opens and you can just start typing a contact name (on dialpad) (or any contact data to select and narrow a contact search????

Instead you have to perform an actual search or scroll - what a pain!!

If nothing exists - who's willing to build it?

THANKS!

 

[aguillon5]

Tap magnifying glass type contacts name first few letters or first name......voila!!

 

[milrtime83]

You can just start typing a contacts name and it will bring them up.

It would be nice if it would recognize other contact info. Sometimes I'll see a phone number and not know who i belongs to. It was nice to be able to start typing in the number and the contact that had that number would come up on the BB.

edit: typo

 

[droid_freud]

Thanks - I'm aware of the search (mag glass) method and the ability to type (IF keyboard is open), but a blackberry allows you to simply start typing keys corresponding either to numeric or alphanumeric attributes of contacts...

 

[Fabolous]

Thanks - I'm aware of the search (mag glass) method and the ability to type (IF keyboard is open), but a blackberry allows you to simply start typing keys corresponding either to numeric or alphanumeric attributes of contacts...

Right, you can start typing on the BB's front faced keyboard, OR, you can slide open the Droid's keyboard and do the same thing OR you can press the search button and type on the virtual keyboard.

How else can you do it? The Droid is not a BB, the keyboard is not perpetually accessible. You want a virtual keyboard to automatically pop up when you enter the contacts/phone app? That doesn't sound very reasonable to me.

 

[droid_freud]

much easier - when you select Phone, the default screen is the keyboard. So if I want to dial Michael Pepper of IBM, I would simply start to dial any part of Michael, Pepper, IBM, or other known attribute of the contact.

For example, if I knew I had 30 Michaels in my contacts, I would probably chose to type (search) for Pepper - by just starting to type 7 3 7 7 3 7 (P E P P E R) - just like a BB

 

[Needsdecaf]

much easier - when you select Phone, the default screen is the keyboard. So if I want to dial Michael Pepper of IBM, I would simply start to dial any part of Michael, Pepper, IBM, or other known attribute of the contact.

For example, if I knew I had 30 Michaels in my contacts, I would probably chose to type (search) for Pepper - by just starting to type 7 3 7 7 3 7 (P E P P E R) - just like a BB

Get a Droid Eris...the people app will do this. One of the things that is keeping me on the fence about switching to a Droid.

 

[Gunner]

There are apps for the Droid that do the same thing....I have one somewhere....

Yep, here it is....

Search for 'SuperDial' in the Market.

 

[dcorn]

^^Bingo. Launching superdial brings up a split screen with your call log on the top and dial pad on the bottom. Use the dialer to type either a number or a name and it brings up the people associated with what you are dialing. Very cool and much better than the stock dialer.

 

[Gunner]

Yep, and SuperDial can be set as the default dialer. Problem solved.

Before getting all worked up over a non-existent feature, just follow these 3 steps:

1. Search the Market
2. Search the Market
3. Search the Market

; )

 

[droid_freud]

THANK YOU!!

I had searched - just hadn't found. But then again - this is EXACTLY what these forums are for - thanks all.

droid_freud

 

[katahdin]

THANK YOU!!

I had searched - just hadn't found. But then again - this is EXACTLY what these forums are for - thanks all.

droid_freud

Another way to skin the cat, might be to use aurora - i believe you can limit it to search contacts. Useful for other searches.

 

[eddieonofre]

Does anyone know of an app to improve contact searching in the Phone app?

I would love a BlackBerry-like interface where the phone opens and you can just start typing a contact name (on dialpad) (or any contact data to select and narrow a contact search????

Instead you have to perform an actual search or scroll - what a pain!!

If nothing exists - who's willing to build it?

THANKS!

Hey there is an app called Dialer One that can perform that, I have been using it for a while already and I like it a lot. Check it out on the market, its free.
Sometimes get a little laggy. Hope answers ur question.

 

[tnstra]

Does anyone know of an app to improve contact searching in the Phone app?

I would love a BlackBerry-like interface where the phone opens and you can just start typing a contact name (on dialpad) (or any contact data to select and narrow a contact search????

Instead you have to perform an actual search or scroll - what a pain!!

If nothing exists - who's willing to build it?

THANKS!

Dialer One does an Excellent job. I have over 800 contacts and it looks any one of them up by any piece of data in the contact

 

[bangordroid]

I tried Superdialer and Dialer One and neither seem to search "all" contact fields. I am especially wanting to search company name and wish I could also search notes. Any ideas?

 

[BigRedGonzo]

I tried Superdialer and Dialer One and neither seem to search "all" contact fields. I am especially wanting to search company name and wish I could also search notes. Any ideas?

The install of Dialer One that I have installed searches company names (I don't know about notes because I don't use them,) company works fine.

BigRedGonzo

 

[Murf300]

Thanks to everyone for suggesting this, I have needed a way to search contacts by the company name, nothing I had found would work with anything 2.1 or higher. This does the job.

Thanks,
Pat

 

[skipcooney]

Install Google Gesture Search from the marketplace. Then just launch Gesture Search and write the first letter or two of the contact on the screen. Your contact will come up and you can hit the phone icon to dial. It's the quickest and easiest method to search contacts.

edit -- Just tested it and Gesture Search will not search by company name.

 

[bob_54]

I figured out how to have Dialer One will search the Company field for me.

Menu>Settings>T9 Settings>Advanced Search

After I selected 'Always' it began to provide search results from the Company field. It is only showing the contact name(s) for the company name typed in. Doesn't show the contact(s) AND company name.

This also seems to be providing search results from the Notes field on the quick test I did. Like above though, it is only displaying the Contact name based on my search entry. It isn't displaying what my search string is.

Hope this makes sense.

Maybe in a future release they will allow the search results field to be displayed.