Phone: Dialer & iCall Screen

Review by eFreeware

If the stock calling screen on your phone feels like an afterthought, Phone is a free replacement dialer from GriceMobile that treats the keypad and the call screen as things worth looking at. It brings a Liquid Glass style that the developer describes as inspired by OS 27, and it puts customization in front of you rather than burying it. The people most likely to want it are those who take a lot of ordinary calls and would rather their dialer matched the rest of their home screen.

What you get is a fairly complete calling app rather than a skin. There is T9 keypad search for finding contacts, lists for missed, incoming and outgoing calls, and a full-screen calling experience once a call connects. On top of that, Phone lets you set custom call backgrounds, build contact posters for the people you call most, and pick your app icon, theme and font size.

It is a free download with ads and in-app purchases, and it has been installed more than 10 million times with a 4.4 average across 154,746 ratings. That is a healthy signal, though it tells you more about how many people tried it than about how it will behave on your particular handset.

Making the dialer feel like yours

The personalization is the part that separates Phone from a plain replacement. You can set a background for calls, create a poster for a specific contact so their name and image take over the screen, and choose between different incoming call styles. Slide-to-answer is one of the options, which suits anyone who prefers that gesture to a pair of buttons.

The smaller choices matter too. Being able to change the app icon, the theme and the font size means the dialer can sit alongside the rest of your setup instead of standing out as the one app that looks different. I would expect this to appeal most to people who have already spent time arranging their home screen and want the calling experience to keep up.

Contact posters are the feature I would reach for first. Assigning a distinct look to the handful of people you speak to regularly turns an anonymous incoming screen into something you recognize at a glance.

Everyday calling tools

Under the surface, Phone covers the mechanics of daily use. T9 search lets you find a contact by typing letters on the keypad rather than scrolling, and the call log separates missed, incoming and outgoing calls so you can see what you have been ignoring. Favorites and contacts are reachable from the same place, which keeps the app to a single surface for most tasks.

Dual SIM support is included, with the developer presenting it as a way to make calling easier and keep call history clearer for each line. If you carry a work number and a personal one on the same device, that separation is the sort of thing you notice every day. Blocked number management is here as well for the calls you would rather not see again.

For the calls themselves, the app offers mute, speaker, keypad, hold, add call, merge, swap and conference options when your device and carrier support them. Vibration, keypad tones and flash alerts confirm and signal call actions in other ways. Bluetooth and wired headsets are supported, and voicemail is available where your device or carrier provides it.

One extra that stands apart from the utility list is the fake call. You can schedule a simulated incoming call, which is a lighthearted feature rather than a serious calling tool, and it is the kind of thing that gives the app some character beyond the glass styling.

Setting it up as your default dialer

Phone only works as a real calling app if you make it your default Phone app. That is not an optional step or a nicety; the developer is explicit that calls will not be made or received properly otherwise. So the first thing you do after installing is hand over the default role.

Along with that role come permissions, and the app lists them plainly. Phone permission covers making, receiving, answering, rejecting and managing calls. Contacts permission shows and manages your contacts, and call log permission is what fills the recent, missed, incoming and outgoing lists.

The notification permission powers missed call notices and the alerts and controls you see for incoming calls, while a foreground service permission keeps those controls active during a call. Microphone permission is used for call audio. If you are uncomfortable granting that set, this app will not do much for you.

The app is free to download and carries ads and in-app purchases. It has been on Google Play since May 2023, and the most recent update, version 6.10.1, brings smoother performance, improved stability and minor bug fixes.

Who gets the most from it

This is for someone who makes a lot of ordinary voice calls and wants that part of the phone to look deliberate. If you have ever changed your wallpaper, your icon pack and your keyboard theme, the idea of a dialer with matching controls and a glass finish will make sense to you. The same goes for anyone juggling two SIMs who wants the call history to stay legible.

It is also a reasonable fit for people who like small, frequent touches of personality, such as a poster for a family member or a background that changes with the season. The tools are there to be used lightly or not at all.

The trade-off is that Phone asks for the default dialer role and a set of permissions that reach into your contacts and call history, and it carries ads and in-app purchases. Anyone who wants a calling app to stay invisible and untouched, or who is not willing to change the default, will find the setup step more than they bargained for.

A dialer worth switching to if you care how calls look

Phone is a well-rounded replacement dialer with a clear point of view: calls should look as considered as the rest of your phone. The Liquid Glass styling, contact posters, custom backgrounds and incoming call styles give it a personality that most stock dialers lack, and the everyday mechanics, from T9 search to Dual SIM handling and blocked numbers, are all accounted for.

The conditions are straightforward. You need to set it as your default Phone app for calls to work properly, you need to be comfortable with the permissions it explains, and you should expect ads and in-app purchases in a free app. With over 10 million installs and a 4.4 average from a large number of ratings, plenty of people have decided those terms are acceptable.

I would suggest it to anyone who wants their dialer to feel personal and is happy to make it the default. If you would rather leave your calling setup exactly as the manufacturer shipped it, there is little here to pull you away.

What's new in version 6.10.1

Version 6.10.1 • Smoother app performance and improved stability • Minor bug fixes