Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !)

[kugiigi]

LOL This is funny. This is definitely a bug and most likely I'm the culprit since I redesigned it. Seems like the add to contact buttion can still be clicked even when hidden, same with the delete button since I also get a haptic feedback from it.
BTW, if you're old enough, you can actually search for a contact using T9 typing which is awesome

@djac The redesigned phone app is only available in Noble so this bug/feature is not there in focal

[Vlad Nirky]

@kugiigi
The new design is very nice, by the way. Thanks for this!

[gpatel-fr]

@kugiigi said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

This is definitely a bug

If you say so, however if I can insist, the phone would actually be more usable and intuitive if the icon for adding a contact could be copied, removing the '+' and left displayed by default. Going in the contacts app using the top right button feels cumbersome to me in comparison, needs attention to press the right button, easy when confortably sit at a desk, less so when walking in a street, half of the time I press the wrong button, or I need to stop walking and look carefully at the phone screen.

Unrelated: when displaying the recent calls list and selecting one (that's also an operation difficult to do with one hand BTW), the add to contact is then made visible and I don't see the logic why because if clicking it, the selected number is not proposed for a new contact.
My first intuition is that the add to contact (the character symbol with a '+') should be displayed only after pressed the '+' button. Minor gripe but this is a very important app for an object that is still often called a phone instead of a pocket computer.

@kugiigi said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

if you're old enough, you can actually search for a contact using T9 typing

I never even noticed the letters below the numbers. Maybe it's because I have actually used an old school phone, with these things, it's enabled only in text fields, when composing a number to call, it does not work, typing a '3' produces a '3' and that's exactly what it is doing in the phone app - so if it's possible to use the phone keypad to search a contact, it's not obvious enough for me to use it even knowing now it's supposed to be possible !
To be complete, I have noticed that sometimes a contact list is displayed below the keypad but I have never found the magic wand that I used to display it without intending. If it was a desktop app at this point I'd press F1 to get online help...

[kugiigi]

@gpatel-fr These are all valid ideas and bugs. File them in the repo and maybe someone will look into them. I'm just not sure about one-handed use. At the moment, the standard design guidelines aren't really prioritizing that.
I personally want them too and that's why in my apps, I have one-handed features such as the copy of OneUI's pulling down a list view But that won't be accepted in core apps

As for the T9 typing, it is indeed not obvious. To be honest, not sure how to make it obvious. It is by the way not exactly T9 typing because it checks all the letters per number so you don't need to press them multiple times. It's actually cool

[wally]

@kugiigi Wow! T9!
As somebody who still often "dials" a phone number, I always just figured those contact names that appeared as I started dialing were predictions based on the phone number.. but pretty bad predictions
Finally I understand! That seems like a really useful feature!
(also, I think T9 WAS the one where you only had to press each number a single time.)

Kugiigi, it seems you did not create the (perhaps handy) bug. I have it in Focal, it's just in a different place - in line with where dialed numbers appear, left hand side. Again, it's the same place Create New Contact button will appear once something is dialed.

[kugiigi]

@wally Oh you are right. I thought T9 is what you call the old school way of typing on keypad phones
It is called multi-tap apparently which is kinda generic and boring LOL

[wally]

@kugiigi Thank you for your work on the redisgned app, by the way! Look forward to trying it when I make the switch to Noble!

[lduboeuf]

@wally said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

As somebody who still often "dials" a phone number, I always just figured those contact names that appeared as I started dialing were predictions based on the phone number.. but pretty bad predictions
Finally I understand! That seems like a really useful feature!
(also, I think T9 WAS the one where you only had to press each number a single time.)

As i did the T9 feature few years ago, i'm interested in what you mean by "pretty bad predictions" when typing numbers. Works well on my side when starting to dial for a number and/or for the letters. But may have some issue if e.g number is stored with a region prefix or not.

[gpatel-fr]

@lduboeuf said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

Works well on my side when starting to dial for a number and/or for the letters. But may have some issue if e.g number is stored with a region prefix or not.

ah it finally dawned on me. How to use the letter dialing: if you want to call someone whose name in your contacts is say 'fred idotme', press first 3 for f (3 is def) and then 7 for r (7 is pqrs) and the software will propose (among possibly other ones) the searched for contact. As was said I think in Tintin, it's obvious once you think of it. Ah the nostalgia of desktop software lost in the mists of time when there was a F1 key to get help.

Apart of this, yes it works pretty well except that of course if you are trying to search for a number, as in my country all portable number begin by either 06 or 07 it's not so useful. And as you say, if you use a prefix like the #31# that is used in my country to be able to call someone without revealing your own, using the real number does not lead for a prediction; that is, if the contact is #31#0102030405, typing 0102 does not display the contact even if it's the only one matching on the real number.
To be candid that's why I almost exclusively use the contacts list to call people

[wally]

@lduboeuf Pardon my miscommunication! I only thought the predictions were bad when I didn't understand that the T9 element was happening, and they seemed to come out of nowhere and not relate to anything. A laugh solely at my own ignorance

But I don't get any predictions based on phone number, whether I use the region prefix or not. All predictions that I see are T9 based.
Once I have entered the full phone number of a contact in the dialer, it displays the contact name. But that's clearly a different feature, as the contact name does not appear in a box like it does with predictions.
I can type all but the final digit, with or without regional code, without seeing a prediction based on phone number.
I thought it might relate to parentheses in phone numbers as displayed in Contacts, which is a regional custom here, but I've found contacts without parentheses and these don't come up either.
I've also just tried adding a nice Ciderie de Bretagne as a contact, rebooting, and dialing the number, both with and without the 33 - still no prediction based on number.

Oneplus Nord N10, 20.04 OTA 11, Canada.

In any case, i love this T9 feature. Thank you!!

[lduboeuf]

@wally said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

@lduboeuf Pardon my miscommunication! I only thought the predictions were bad when I didn't understand that the T9 element was happening, and they seemed to come out of nowhere and not relate to anything. A laugh solely at my own ignorance

But I don't get any predictions based on phone number, whether I use the region prefix or not. All predictions that I see are T9 based.
Once I have entered the full phone number of a contact in the dialer, it displays the contact name. But that's clearly a different feature, as the contact name does not appear in a box like it does with predictions.
I can type all but the final digit, with or without regional code, without seeing a prediction based on phone number.
I thought it might relate to parentheses in phone numbers as displayed in Contacts, which is a regional custom here, but I've found contacts without parentheses and these don't come up either.
I've also just tried adding a nice Ciderie de Bretagne as a contact, rebooting, and dialing the number, both with and without the 33 - still no prediction based on number.

Oneplus Nord N10, 20.04 OTA 11, Canada.

In any case, i love this T9 feature. Thank you!!

ok, i will need to look at it then, because it works for me by either using a prefix '+33' or start with 06 or 07

[gpatel-fr]

@wally said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

20.04 OTA 11

under 24.04.1 I get

dpkg -l | grep dialer-app
ii  lomiri-dialer-app                             2.0.0+0~20250814161446.20+ubports~dev~1.gbp4bba62

I don't have access to a phone running Focal tp check it, but under

http://repo.ubports.com/dists/focal/main/binary-amd64/Packages

I see

Package: dialer-app
Priority: optional
Section: x11
Installed-Size: 1750
Maintainer: UBports Developers <devs@ubports.com>
Architecture: amd64
Version: 1.0.0+0~20241101095734.1+ubports20.04~1.gbpe21919

so are we speaking of the same thing ?

[wally]

@gpatel-fr said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

Version: 1.0.0+0~20241101095734.1+ubports20.04~1.gbpe21919

I do get this exact output for version number as output to the grep command you gave. But my assumption, based on Lionel not mentioning the version, and based on the fact that I do see suggestions based on contact name, is that this was all introduced before 24.04.

@lduboeuf Your development time is valuable! Maybe let me ask around a bit first on Matrix/Telegram for other people to test and make sure it's not just me before you go spending time digging into it.
I have now tested on a broken old Oneplus 5 too, and it's the same for me there- perfect predictions based on T9 spelling contact names, but no predictions based on phone number.

[gpatel-fr]

@wally said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

this was all introduced before 24.04.

from the code history, it seems that this is correct, you should have this feature.
FWIW it's based on 3 digits when searching for local numbers, and 2 digits after the '+' for international numbers.

[wally]

@lduboeuf Aha! I've gotten somewhere. In short, it relates to what language my system is set to.

I was suspecting some sort of regional dialing syntax issue. I tried changing my location in System Settings, to no effect. Then I tried changing my language to Français (France), and sure enough, up comes the cidrerie after dialing +33029, or also after dialing 029.
Attempting to dial Canadian numbers while set to Français (France) didn't yield any predictions regardless of syntax.

It only then occurred to me that my language is normally set to English (UK), not English (Canada). Setting it to English (Canada), I CAN get certain contacts to be predicted, but only if I start by dialing +1, and only then for contacts that happen to have the number saved starting with +1. My Contacts seem to have a wide variety of snytaxes, some starting in +1, others simply with 1, others without the regional code at all. Also some using parentheses, some not. Perhaps this relates to a Contact list that has been exported from one device to another and from 16.04 to 20.04, with different contacts being added at different times. The contact list has always been within UT.

I have never dialed a plus sign, living here. Using Google Maps, if I set my VPN to Canada, I see (555) 555-5555, where if set to, for example, France and searching a Canadian business I see +1 555-555-5555.
So in short, even with my language set to Canadian English, I wouldn't have stumbled across any predictions based on phone numbers. It only works for numbers stored with a +, and only if I type the + when dialing.

If it weren't too complicated a change, perhaps if the numeric prediction search dropped all special characters like + and (, it would work more internationally? But I have no idea how feasible this is.
The predictions based on contact name are probably useful to a lot more people anyway, and I don't want to create more work for you. Just trying to be helpful in the small ways that I can by testing and reporting.

[lduboeuf]

@wally said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

@lduboeuf Aha! I've gotten somewhere. In short, it relates to what language my system is set to.

I was suspecting some sort of regional dialing syntax issue. I tried changing my location in System Settings, to no effect. Then I tried changing my language to Français (France), and sure enough, up comes the cidrerie after dialing +33029, or also after dialing 029.
Attempting to dial Canadian numbers while set to Français (France) didn't yield any predictions regardless of syntax.

It only then occurred to me that my language is normally set to English (UK), not English (Canada). Setting it to English (Canada), I CAN get certain contacts to be predicted, but only if I start by dialing +1, and only then for contacts that happen to have the number saved starting with +1. My Contacts seem to have a wide variety of snytaxes, some starting in +1, others simply with 1, others without the regional code at all. Also some using parentheses, some not. Perhaps this relates to a Contact list that has been exported from one device to another and from 16.04 to 20.04, with different contacts being added at different times. The contact list has always been within UT.

I have never dialed a plus sign, living here. Using Google Maps, if I set my VPN to Canada, I see (555) 555-5555, where if set to, for example, France and searching a Canadian business I see +1 555-555-5555.
So in short, even with my language set to Canadian English, I wouldn't have stumbled across any predictions based on phone numbers. It only works for numbers stored with a +, and only if I type the + when dialing.

If it weren't too complicated a change, perhaps if the numeric prediction search dropped all special characters like + and (, it would work more internationally? But I have no idea how feasible this is.
The predictions based on contact name are probably useful to a lot more people anyway, and I don't want to create more work for you. Just trying to be helpful in the small ways that I can by testing and reporting.

Thanks for the feedback, will look at it one day. But i'm surprised prefixes change with language and not timezone

[gpatel-fr]

@wally

what's the return of

locale -k LC_TELEPHONE

for your phone ?
I get:
tel_int_fmt="+%c %a %l"
tel_dom_fmt="%a %l"

[wally]

@lduboeuf It does seem odd. I thought to try it because language settings also change 12 vs 24 hr clock (which is why I set myself to UK English in the first place). The results of locale -k LC_TELEPHONE change too, as per below.
If you do come back to this, my testing has been pretty thorough and I'm confident of what I stated, for Focal at least. Tested on both Oneplus Nord N10 20.04 OTA 11 and Oneplus 5, 20.04 (2025-W21). The only difference between the two was in what syntax would trigger predictions of phone number in France, when set to Français (France).. something about whether the 0 was included after the 33. I assume that was just a change in code over time, since my Oneplus 5 is 6+ months out of date.

@gpatel-fr It depends on language setting.
I get five lines of output, and am including the first four, as they all vary. Fourth just shows international dialing prefix changing as I change languages. Fifth always said "telephone-codeset="UTF-8"

While set to English (UK), which were my normal settings:
tel_int_fmt="+%c %a %l"
tel_dom_fmt="%A %l"
int_select="00"
int_prefix="44"

When I change language to Français (France):
tel_int_fmt="+%c %a %l"
tel_dom_fmt="%a %l"
int_select="00"
int_prefix="33"

English (Canada), and identically Français (Canada):
tel_int_fmt=""+%c %a %l"
tel_dom_fmt=""
int_select="011"
int_prefix="1"

English (USA)
tel_int_fmt="+%c (%a) %l"
tel_dom_fmt="(%a) %l"
int_select="11"
int_prefix="1"

Things like the capital A under English (UK), and the empty field under Canadian language settings aren't errors, I've checked and double checked this
(but I'd love to know how to copy and paste from UT Terminal )
All this should be replicable, but of course changing the language triggers a reboot, so it takes some time.

[gpatel-fr]

@wally said in Tip: call a contact with one hand (secret UT key !):

It depends on language setting

I looked under /usr/share/i18n/locales, localization of phone numbers using this data seems the stuff of nightmares. Just for an example, sr_RS gives for int_select '99' while Wikipedia states that it was changed to '00' in 2008. This does not look like a well maintained database.

I just have a question about international numbers: at some point you say that you compose a number with a leading '+' : how in the world do you manage this with the dialer app ? If this comes from your contacts list, where the '+' preceding a phone number can indeed be displayed in the dialer (I checked), is the phone carrier somehow interpreting this '+' as meaning an international call ? Because in France this does not work. The real prefix (00) has to be used.

[wally]

@gpatel-fr Owch. That doesn't sound like encouraging news about the database

For me, the plus is visible beneath the 0 in the dialer. A long press of the zero gives a plus sign.

Just to be clear, I had never tried to dial a plus sign before yesterday. I only tried it amongst a bunch of trial and error, testing to see what would trigger the phone number based predictions.
From what I read, yes, the + sign functions the same as the international call code, but I've never tried it. Could be region and/or carrier dependent.

One thing I find confusing is why, when set to either Canadian language, the tel_dom_fmt. Do you have any sense of what might be affected by this field? Our telephone standards here otherwise seem identical to USA, and it seems odd that the field should be empty when no others are.