Develop Bugs

Suggestion --Google Voice App

I am not a developer myself, so this post is a suggestion for developers, for a WinMo app that would be very nice to have. (Or if it already exists, someone please let me know where.)
Formerly with Google Voice, to make a call to a telephone number (free to the US and Canada, charged elsewhere), one would tell Google Voice the number one is calling, and the number one wants to be called back on. In other words, one did not really make the call from the computer, but it would call you back to a phone number, and dial the other party.
The new Google Voice addin to Gmail works differently though, in that you can make the phone call directly from the computer, without it having to call you back to a phone. To use it one has to install a browser plugin.
I tried it with a few mobile browsers, and none worked. I don't think they make a plugin that will work with any mobile browser.
Rather than a plugin though--it might be nice to have a standalone Google Voice app that can do this, make the calls directly from the mobile device. (Not using the actual phone of the device, but only the internet connection.) In other words, similar to Skype Mobile, but utilizing Google Voice instead.
Is that possible? Or--does it already exist?

[SOLVED] enabling calling / dialer on A100

I can use my A100 perfectly fine with Sipdroid and my google voice account, however the problem is more or less a convenience issue. Sipdroid doesn't have a good way to view your contacts like in an address book, and it also doesn't dial from the "People" app when you try to place a call using sipdroid. I have had other android devices that the contacts(now People) will allow you to call a person from the internal dialer or a 3rd party one and it automatically forwards the call to sipdroid accordingly. I installed the Dialer One app hoping that it would solve the issue on my A100, and that is when I found out that it didn't work at all with it. I get a message saying "Telephony feature is unavailable on this device" I have had other tablets without telephony capabilities that this app has worked with. I am wondering if there is a simple mod I can do to trick the app into thinking it does have telephony capabilities, or if there is some way I could recompile cm9 to include any missing libraries, system files, apks, etc.. such as the internal dialer. If anyone has got Dialer One to work for them with SipDroid +GV or if you know of an app that works like the default dialer app (that we don't have) then please let me know. I appreciate the help. If I can get this figured out I'll make an attempt at providing a custom ROM with the dialer and telephony features enabled just for people who wish to use Google Voice calling with their tablet. If it is as simple as a build.prop edit then I will add that to my custom build.prop in my thread at http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1799148
**Edit: I think I found a solution to get SipDroid to place calls when calling from "People(contacts)" I was looking into the process that takes place when a call is initiated and I seen that we have a Phone.apk in our a100 roms, but the process is nullified so nothing ever takes place when something triggers it.
I had the idea, well what devices that are tegra2 based have ICS and allow phone/voice calling? Motorola Atrix 4g does.. So let me find the Motorola Atrix 4G Phone.apk and replace the one I have in /system/app/ with it. Lo and Behold I can now make calls directly from my contacts!! This fixed it, partially.. What still doesn't work? Dialer One still gives the same error - "Telephony feature is unavailable on this device", but now I don't really need Dialer One anyway since I can just use the builtin contacts through the People app. Another thing thats not really desired, once you make a call you will get a blank window for the Phone app at the bottom of your "history" list (button beside the home on the launcher) I will try to figure out a way to get rid of this annoyance and prevent history from ever showing the Phone app.
If you want to try it your self, here is what to do (you must be root):
If you have Android ICS 4.0.3 or newer Download the Motorola Atrix 4G Phone.apk here. **If you are using HC then you will need the Phone.apk from a Tegra2 device that runs HoneyComb 3.x**
Mount /system writeable
Move the file /system/app/Phone.apk to /system/app/Phone.apk.bak
Put the downloaded Phone.apk in /system/app
Touch the phone number for a contact in your "People" app
Choose to call with SipDroid (or other app in list that accepts the dial function)
Watch the call take place (you may want to try dialing someone you know you isn't going to answer the phone or wonder what you are doing haha)
**Please note that this does not enable the "Call/Dial" app to show up in your applications, it simply allows calls to be passed to a Sip dialer such as SipDroid**

I just got an A100 the other day and installed Talkatone. I thought that it integrated with People like it does on my android phone. After reading your post, I tried it out. Talkatone has the "phone intercept" options but nothing happens when you click on a number in People. However, if you have the "intercept sms" option in Talkatone enabled, clicking on a number in People will start Talkatone for sms. Looks like it is dependent on the phone.apk.
However, for Talkatone, you don't really need the People app. Talkatone displays your "people" in the Contacts tab so it is easy to dial out directly from the app. Overall Talkatone works pretty good with Google Voice on the A100, both sending and receiving calls.

notjustafone said:
I just got an A100 the other day and installed Talkatone. I thought that it integrated with People like it does on my android phone. After reading your post, I tried it out. Talkatone has the "phone intercept" options but nothing happens when you click on a number in People. However, if you have the "intercept sms" option in Talkatone enabled, clicking on a number in People will start Talkatone for sms. Looks like it is dependent on the phone.apk.
However, for Talkatone, you don't really need the People app. Talkatone displays your "people" in the Contacts tab so it is easy to dial out directly from the app. Overall Talkatone works pretty good with Google Voice on the A100, both sending and receiving calls.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the tips, i will check out talkatone, but for now the "People" app works great the way it is suppose to. its always nice to try something different though too! +1
**Edit: I installed talkatone, it works wonderfully well with the Atrix Phone.apk, when you are in the People app, when you click a number to dial, it will prompt you for what you want to use to complete the action, first pick Call(Phone), don't pick Talkatone or SipDroid, then it will prompt you again to complete the action using either Call (Phone) or Talkatone- it should immediately bring up the Talkatone dialer and begin the call. To eliminate these steps, just set the check box to always use the methods on both prompts. First prompt just choose Call/Phone.apk - Second Prompt choose Talkatone. Now when you click a number in People in will automatically call in Talkatone ** Thanks notjustafone for the recommendation of Talkatone!!

How to display call log by caller, not date...

My dad's SGS2 for Sprint recently went 4.0.4 OTA and though I was excited for him, he's not happy about the default call log only showing recent call activity by date and not by caller as he claims it used to be. For instance, he runs a business and for him it's important to be able to click on a contact and have all call log data available in one spot for that contact as opposed to scrolling through the entire history of all callers to find when he may have missed a call from someone. Does anyone know of an app or ROM that could help? This apparently can be done for people who are registered contacts, but he wants it done for when someone's not a contact.

Still Possible / Horribly Inconvenient
This is the nicest free replacement dialer IMO, a MiUI style dialer with the same functionality your father is looking for.
play . google . com /store/apps/details?id=com.modoohut.dialer&hl=ja

[Q] LG G3 Smart Dialing Issues

Hello,
I am a recent owner of the LG G3 and I have already had some annoyances with this phone. Most of them are not big enough to take the pleasure out of using it, but one of them is getting in my normal day-to-day operations which are the basic for any phone - CALLING.
Coming from HTC, I am quite used to their Dialer app and I have a problem with LG's version. I am not sure if it is a problem on all devices or it is just mine, or is it an option that I have not changed, but if anyone knows how to go around this - please help.
I am major user of Smart Dialing and right now when I start dialing in the name of the contact it appears on top. The problem is that if that Contact has several numbers, the first number that appears is NOT the DEFAULT one selected in his profile. This makes calling a contact quite a long process...first searching, then going through the results, then sellecting it, then hitting the button to call. It looks like when you are Smart Dialing the UI is sorting contacts by frequency of contact (I have selected that option), but the numbers themselves are sorted also according to the digits and not according to which one is default and which one is not.
Does anyone know how to fix this?
a.

You seem to be right, even if you select a preferred number in contacts it doesn't carry through. If it really annoys you then I guess you can try a different dialer app. It is a bit sloppy by LG though.
Sent from my LG-D855 using XDA Free mobile app

Good to know that I am not the only one experiencing this issue!
I will probably install a custom Dialer app, but I hope LG comes up with an update for that because their Dialer otherwise is nice.
a.

Anyone have experience with SMS handling within Android?

I'm trying to solve a problem for Google Voice users, and looking to pick the brain of someone who may know a thing or two about how Android handles SMS, particularly how an app can be set to be the "default" for messaging.
What is my goal, you ask?
Make it possible for Android users to default all new messages from their Google Voice number, rather than the carrier. Yes, you can just remember to initiate a message inside the Google Voice app, but when responding to a missed call or clicking on message from a contacts screen, it will open the system's default SMS app and send from the carrier number instead. Confusion often ensues when the recipient doesn't recognize the number. We're trying to avoid that, as many of us GV fans use it as our primary number and don't know or care what the carrier # is. In other words, we want to avoid sending from the carrier if at all possible.
But doesn't Hangouts do this already?
It did. While Hangouts supported SMS, we could set it as the default app and then tell it to use Google Voice as the default for all new messages (rather than the carrier). This worked pretty well... anywhere in the OS that you want to initiate a message (call log, contacts screen, etc), it would open hangouts screen with GV as the sending service. But now that they are killing SMS support in Hangouts, it seems they are also removing the ability for it to be the default for all messages. They're actively pushing users to switch to another app for SMS, and you can't set it as the default currently unless you install an older version first. Eventually it will probably stop working altogether.
Why not just set the Google Voice app as the default for messaging?
It seems Google does not want us to be able to do that. The app does not have the option to. I'm wondering if it is because it doesn't actually support carrier SMS messages, and perhaps that would create a conflict in OS experience design? I'm not sure.
What is your proposed solution? Making a new SMS app from scratch is a lot of work, and Google's third party support for Google Voice is very limited...
I understand. Realistically, what I'm wondering is, would it be feasible to create a very simple forwarding app. In other words, a small third party app that could be set as the default for messaging, which could just forward the new message request to another app? Google Voice shows up as an option to send messages from other screens, such sharing an image or link. Heck, so does Hangouts (which will still support Google Voice integration, just not the ability to be the default app). The problem is when initiating a text from the dialer, contacts, or call log, it doesn't give us a context menu to choose from. It only goes to the default app. What I want is the ability to intercept that request and then choose the app to default to ourselves! Preferably the Voice app, but even Hangouts would be acceptable... or if possible let the users decide!
Possible pitfalls are
1) Do apps that support being set as default messaging require being able to actually handle carrier SMS? I could understand if that was a requirement from a UX design perspective, but is it actually an OS limitation or is it possible? I recall hearing once that the FB messenger app supports being set as default for messaging, but I don't understand how that could work, and I haven't found reference to it yet (don't use FB messenger personally).
2) If the Android OS would allow it, would it actually break carrier SMS? I know setting Hangouts to be the default moves all carrier SMS into Hangouts, and if switching to another app it would move the messages to that one. If my proposed forwarding app works, would carrier SMS messages just go nowhere? Occasionally the carrier does send a service announcement or bill reminder, etc, and I think it might be important for those to go somewhere. Or maybe not... I'm not sure how the OS handles this.
3)When a request for a new SMS is made, is the request done in a way that can be re-parsed for another app to handle? I really can't find much or any documentation on how this is handled, but I know the information is out there since Android supports third party SMS apps.
I have had trouble finding documentation about how any of this works from a developer's perspective, so I'm hoping someone where could shed some light on whether or not my idea is dead in the water before I pour too much effort into trying to figure this out. Thanks!

Did a little digging after I posted this and found some info on some dev forums elsewhere.
Seems, as I feared, that in order for an app to be supported as "default" for messaging, the requirement is that it include the handlers for SMS/MMS. This appears to be because whatever app is set as default for messaging is the app that is responsible for receiving and storing said messages. So if my app proposed above were simply to forward messages to another app, and not actually handle carrier SMS/MMS at all, any messages that DO actually come in from the carrier (notifications, payments and outages, etc, which I get from time to time) wouldn't go ANYWHERE and cause a great big user experience flaw.
So that answers some of my question. The next bit is... can incoming messages be forwarded to another app, such as the Android Messaging app that they are trying to make the new standard? Then perhaps this idea could still work. It might make more sense for a pre-existing Messaging app to simply support forwarding to google voice on new messages (or heck, Google should add GV support to Messaging), but I'm not sure how realistic that will be.

I've been thinking about this problem for a while, too. Both Hangouts (for those who have GV linked to it) and the GVoice app probably still have specialized intents to receive message data, so that they can forward them along; the key is to find out what to send to these apps.
I see the problem as only one-way: basically, capturing SMS intents as the default messaging app, then sending the user either to the message-entry screen in the target app (GV/Hangouts) or sending the message directly if that was in the intent. And I thought that there might be a less hair-pulling way to do it, by creating a messaging "shim" app:
* Use an existing, plain vanilla SMS app as a basis. For instance, just pull the one from AOSP. In addition to the new functions below, it will take care of carrier SMS.
* Offer a setting to choose where outbound SMS goes by default: in-app (carrier), GV, Hangouts, etc.
* Add a screen banner saying something like "Carrier SMS" or showing the carrier's phone number.
* If the default outbound app is not in-app for carrier messaging, add a screen icon for jumping into that default-messaging app set by the user.
In this simplified setup, there's no need to handle _inbound_ SMS via GV/Hangouts at all -- because that app will pop up its own notifications, and jump into its own app when its notifications are tapped. Similarly, notifications raised by this customized SMS app, from carrier SMS, would go into that app. No special logic required for any of this, simplifies things a lot.
The end goal from a UI perspective would be, _if_ the user chose a default outbound app other than this one, then the following behaviors would be received by this app and forwarded along to the target outbound SMS app:
* selecting the SMS icon for a contact would, via this app, open GV/Hangouts with that number ready for message entry;
* sending a fully formed SMS via any app, e.g. voice entry via Google App or Assistant, would be forwarded to GV/Hangouts for immediate sending.
(EDIT TL;DR: The problem, distilled, is how to make *initiating a new message from elsewhere* use the real desired app; the desired app will handle it from there.)
The UI problem here is that it will be sort of a "dummy" SMS app. It will handle carrier messages, but there will be people who don't even get carrier messages (FreedomPop comes to mind), so it's another app icon to ignore. Still, it would be the fastest path to resolution and, for most users, would act as a "shim" between native SMS handling and GV/Hangouts (or maybe even other messaging apps?).
---------- Post added at 07:14 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:11 PM ----------
FWIW, I do understand Android development, though I'm totally green on UI elements. So if you already have some technical know-how here, I'm happy to collaborate to help make this happen. I think this would be soooo much better than having to shove in Xposed (which slows down Lollipop and later) and use XVoice++.

i have just started developing on android. am a new bee with very little knowledge. i have read you post and it had given me some food for thoughts for my messaging app. i liked your idea and wanted to know about your progress. i want to collaborate in your project if you are interested.