Google adds iPhone-like ‘Calling Cards’ to its Phone app

You can’t set your own Calling Card, but you can use them to customize how other contacts appear when they call you.

Google’s Phone app is adding “Calling Cards” that let you customize the appearance of contact screens for incoming calls. They’re similar to the Contact Poster feature that iPhone users have had since 2023, allowing Google Phone app users to replace the teeny contact photos that appear when someone is calling you with full-screen images and stylized names.

The update is part of Android’s Material 3 Expressive design language overhaul, which Google used to test a revamped Phone app interface in June. Calling Cards started appearing in beta versions of Google’s Contacts and Phone apps earlier this month, but now they’re getting a public release in version v188 of the Phone app. Google says Calling Cards will be available worldwide, and are being rolled out “in phases,” so they might take a while to appear for everyone.

When the feature becomes available, Phone app users will see a banner on the Home tab that reads “Introducing calling card: Customize how you see your contact when they call you.” Tapping on this takes users to the Calling Card page, but you can also navigate to it manually in Contacts. From there, Calling Cards can be created for each contact by selecting an image from the device’s camera, gallery, or Google Photos, and choosing a font and color option that will be used to display the contact’s name.

Unlike Contact Posters on iOS, you can’t design your own Calling Card that will appear for other contacts when you call them. Google’s Calling Cards only let you set customized screens that are specific to your device, so you’ll have to set these for every individual person if you want to use the feature. Those contacts can’t edit how their Calling card appears on your device, however, so you can have some fun with how you customize them.

This is rolling out alongside a new “Take a message” feature for the Phone app that automatically answers and transcribes voicemails when you miss a call. Users can record a custom greeting that callers hear when leaving a voicemail for Take a Message, or select from one of the available greeting presets. Transcripts and voicemail audio can be found in the Phone app Recents tab, and Google says that all messages are “stored privately on your device.” The feature is available on Pixel 4 phones or newer, and on Pixel Watch 2 models or newer when paired with Pixel 6 or more recent Google phone models.

from The Verge https://ift.tt/7xVpAsn