Google has opened up access to another of their system apps today changing the settings in Google Play to allow any device running Android 5.0 and above to download and install the Contacts app.
The Contacts app has previously only been available to Google devices including Nexus, Pixel, Android One or Google Play Edition devices. The only limitation now appears to be the requirement for Android 5.0 (Lollipop), and true to form, it’s now showing as available to install on a whole host of my other non-Pixel/Nexus/Android One devices.
The Google Contacts app for me is pretty decent, it has a clean design and when used in conjunction with the web interface it makes for a great all in one product. There’s a few features that other contact app bring to the table like better Grouping, but it’s always nice to have options.
Also included in the ‘What’s New’ section of the Google Contacts app on Google play is:
• Merge duplicate contacts from within the contacts list
• Get automatic suggestions for adding info to your existing contacts
The update to Contacts is available now, or at least it was for me on the web. If you’re on a non-Google device try it out for yourself and see what you think.
How do I set it to replace the default ‘contacts’ app that is on my Motorola phone.. it seems that the phone dialer seems to present a different view to the contacts list to the default contacts list, to the google contacts list.
At least they all pull from the same place.. but it feels a bit messier now.
Opening up the Google Dialer would be great. With Google Contacts it’d still open your phones default dialer to make the call and it becomes a bit messy running two apps to make a call.
Cheers