Getting Samsung Phone To Easily Answeri Calls

[startac4]

EASILY answering a call should be the first priority of a cell phone. With Samsung it clearly is not. A family member has a Samsung Orbit and regularly misses calls because she can't get the "hold & swipe properly" exactly right fast enough. I have a Samsung J2 as a travel phone and often have the same problem.

I found on Youtube a way to change my J2 to answer with just a "press" using Accessability -> Interaction-Dexterity -> Assistant Menu. But that leaves the Assistant Menu "button" visible and in the way. On the J2 there is still an option to cover and hide it. But that is no longer available on the Orbit so the Assistant menu button is annoyingly always there overlaying something on the screen.

I need to replace my primary cell phone (LG) - it seems that Samsung is about the only reliable Android replacement with somewhat decent support. But I don't want that annoying Assistant Menu button constantly overlaying something. Anyone found a way around this with a current Samsung?

 

[ocnbrze]

fast enough? what do you mean? the option to answer the call quickly goes away?

not sure on your phone, but on my z fold 4 i can go to settings>accessibilty>interaction dexterity>assistant menu>replace swipe with a single tap (for alarms, alerts and incoming calls)

 

[mikedt]

EASILY answering a call should be the first priority of a cell phone. With Samsung it clearly is not. A family member has a Samsung Orbit and regularly misses calls because she can't get the "hold & swipe properly" exactly right fast enough. I have a Samsung J2 as a travel phone and often have the same problem.

"hold & swipe" AFAIK all Android phones show that for incoming calls, iPhones do as well, and it shows for the whole time the phone is ringing, which might be a minute or so. Does your "family member" suffer from poor dexterity?

 

[Dannydet]

Install a different launcher from the play store that doesn't have that annoying assistant button on the screen, such as Nova launcher. Problem solved.
Install a different dialer app to replace the crappy Samsung dialer interface.
Problem solved again...

 

[mikedt]

By coincidence of re-reading this thread, I'd just received an incoming call on my Samsung Note20 Ultra, and it just showed two buttons. That was tap GREEN to accept the call and tap RED to reject the call. I don't often receive incoming direct calls, and this Samsung phone is on latest Android 13 updates. If other Samsung phones or other devices show this, I don't know.

 

[Hadron]

By coincidence of re-reading this thread, I'd just received an incoming call on my Samsung Note20 Ultra, and it just showed two buttons. That was tap GREEN to accept the call and tap RED to reject the call. I don't often receive incoming direct calls, and this Samsung phone is on latest Android 13 updates. If other Samsung phones or other devices show this, I don't know.

The same with my s21. Though I find it isn't quite "tap to answer", for me a very slight swipe is needed (just a few mm is sufficient). However if you press, hold and then swipe it doesn't work. So perhaps that's the problem the OP and their family member are trying to "hold and swipe" rather than just "swipe from the green button"? Of course this might also depend on what you have set for "touch and hold delay" and "tap duration", which are also in accessibility options.

There are also other call answering options in the phone app's settings (and also in accessibility options): "automatically answer" (which surely has many downsides!) and "press volume up to answer calls".

Or, as @Dannydet says, installing an alternative dialer and making that the default phone app will allow you to change the buttons (no matter what phone you use).

 

[ocnbrze]

hey @Hadron, check your s21 accessibility setting. there should be an option to tap to answer. just curious if this option is on the s21 as it is on my z fold 4.

 

[olbriar]

On my S21 Ultra in the assistant menu I have the option enabled to replace swipe with single tap to respond to alarms, alerts, and incoming calls.