Google Contacts could streamline connected app video calls

Google Contacts is one of those apps on our phones that we almost take for granted. This contact management app is underrated for its ease of use, and Google has even done a good job integrating it with third-party messaging apps. There’s always room for improvement, and with future versions of the Contacts app, Google can make the app work better with connected apps.

Google Contacts v4.46.53.705303683 is improving the process of initiating video calls from within the Contacts app.

The Google Contacts app currently displays a video call button on the contact details page. Click the video call button to start a video call through your carrier. You can also see connected apps like WhatsApp on this page. Clicking the expand button will reveal options for sending messages, audio calls, and video calls through WhatsApp, eliminating the need to open the app and navigate to a specific contact again to perform further actions.

In the future, Google can improve the experience of Internet applications, especially video calls. Long-pressing the video call button will enable the ability to set the default app for video calls, so you can choose between carrier-driven video calls or WhatsApp video calls. When you set third-party connected apps as your default apps, you’ll see their icons on the video call options. The next time you click the video call button, the video call will be launched directly from the set application, saving you clicks.

If the contact card has multiple numbers, you can long-press the video call button to see a list of all available call options, again saving you clicks.

Additionally, once you set a default application for video calls, in some cases the contact may not exist in that application. In this case, you will see a network bar icon on the video call option, clearly indicating that clicking the video call button will initiate a carrier-driven video call. This icon can be clearly seen in the dark mode screenshot below:

These may seem like small changes, but they improve the end-user experience by seamlessly connecting applications. These changes are not yet effective. We will keep you updated as we learn more.