It's hard to get people to answer the phone, although I don't blame those who don't answer the phone. We're so inundated with spam calls these days that refusing to answer incoming calls en masse isn't actually a bad strategy. When this call could be someone trying to get into your bank accountor warning you about it fraudulent credit card charges this has never happened, maybe it's best to just wait for friends and family to write.
But let's assume the call is from you to someone you know and trust, and let's assume they see it's you calling. Even though they know the call isn't spam, there are many reasons why someone won't pick up, including, of course, because they don't actually want to talk right now. But if you really need to get in touch with someone and don't want meetings, commuting, or lack of desire to make phone calls getting in the way, Google is currently working on a solution you can try right now.
Call Reason allows you to mark calls as urgent.
New feature called “Reason for call” is designed to separate important phone calls from the rest. When you start dialing a number, Google will give you the option to mark the call as urgent. If you choose to do this, the person you're calling will see a pop-up that says “This is urgent!” on the call screen. Hopefully this pop-up will encourage them to answer; however, I think they'll stop picking up the phone if you start using it too much.
However, not everyone deliberately ignores calls. If you're not near the phone when it rings, or if it's on silent in your pocket or bag, you obviously won't catch the urgency tag on the call screen. In this case, Android adds an urgency tag to the missed call in the recipient's call history. While the person you're trying to contact is checking their missed calls, they should see that the call is marked as urgent, although if it's a true emergency, they could still have received additional calls and messages from you in the meantime.
It seems Google has been working on this feature for some time now. Android Authority was previously spotted something called Expressive Calls in the Phone app APK that allowed the caller to add animations and emojis to calls. However, in addition to this feature was the ability to specify the reason for the call when dialing the number.
What are your thoughts so far?
How to try Call Reason
Google is still testing the Call Reason feature, but anyone using the current version of the Google Phone app will be able to try it out. (It's still being rolled out, though, so you might not see it yet.) The feature also only works with saved contacts and when calling Android users who have the Google Phone app set as their primary calling app.
If the call reason is displayed on your phone, you will see it after the call is made. The user interface displays the message “Mark the call as urgent?” as well as a prompt informing you that the call will ring and that the call is urgent. Click “Notify” and you're done. Once the recipient sees the call, they will see an “Incoming Call” banner, replaced by an animated message “This is urgent!” pop up. It's a fun design, but maybe a little too much fun if you're likely to use it in important situations.
Credit: Google
Along with the reason for the call, Google has announced a number of new features for Android 16. Parental controls are now improved, locked with a parent-selected PIN; new UI customization options, such as expanded support for dark mode and new custom shapes for home screen icons; and further deployment Summary of Google AI Alertswhich Lifehacker writer David Neild hasn't found particularly useful so far.
