Post by Arlen HolderIt's an enigma how the dialer/contacts & SMS/MMS access contact names.
SOLVED:
I figured some of this magic out; but it is NOT intuitive!
(Warning: The information below will be a bit confusing since what's really
happening is that there is some "Android magic" going on with "contacts").
In short, once you populate the Google default Android contacts/dialer app
with your contacts (either from a local contacts.vcf file, or from the
cloud) then EVERYTHING ELSE is automatically populated!
But, if you don't use the Google default contacts/dialer, then you have to
figure out how to populate the replacement apps from contacts.vcf, where
it's NOT intuitive how to do that (but it's easy, once you figure it out).
NOTE: Most of you don't see this problem simply because you likely blindly
auto-populate your Google default contacts/dialer from the cloud, but I do
not (e.g., this is a bogus Gmail account, for example, and I never store
other people's contacts on the cloud, because I consider that to be rude).
Given I didn't blindly auto-populate the default Google contacts/dialer
from the cloud, one "issue" is that the default Google dialer/contacts app
does NOT have an "import" contacts.vcf option, so you have to figure out
how to import contacts.vcf into even the default Google dialer/contacts app
(see below).
If you don't populate the Google Android contacts/dialer app with your
contacts, then you have to figure out how to populate everything else on
your own, where the method of populating each of the apps is NOT intuitive
because it's not the same for every third party contacts/dialer app:
o Some have a menu to directly import contacts.vcf (but most do not!)
o Some allow a longpress on contacts.vcf in a file manager to "open as"
o Some allow a longpress on contacts.vcf in a file manager to "open with"
o Some allow a shorttap on contacts.cvf in a file manager to "use a different app"
You'd think there are 3 "types" of apps, but this would be partially wrong:
o dialers
o contacts
o SMS/MMS
In reality, these are (at least) these four types of apps:
o dialers
o contacts
o contacts/dialer combination apps
o sms/mms texting apps
The rare dialer-only apps (e.g., the Emerald Dialer) would not populate
contacts no matter what method I tried; hence, I deleted this app (and I do
not recommend pure dialer-only apps since they don't seem to be able to
import contacts.vcf by any known method that I could find).
So the first thing I had to do was give up on the pure dialer apps, since
they suffered from two killer faults:
o They couldn't be populated with contacts.vcf, and,
o Even so, Android would never let me set them as the default dialer.
Android would only allow the combination contacts/dialers to be set as the
default dialer.
That leaves only two types of apps left that Android will set defaults to:
o contacts/dialer combination apps
o sms/mms texting apps
I tested these combination contacts/dialers on my new $100 Moto G7:
o Phone "com.google.android.dialer" (round, blue bg, white handset)
o Contacts "com.google.android.contacts" (blue bg, white person, round)
o Contacts "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro" (orange bg, white person, round)
o OpenContacts "opencontacts.open.com.opencontacts" (white bg, blue handset, square)
o Dialer "com.simpler.dialer" (blue bg, white handset, round)
o Call "com.i45.launchdialer" (green bg, white handset, square)
Also note these hidden apps which, I suspect, contain the contacts imported
into "com.google.android.contacts" and which manage calls & logs overall:
o Phone and Messaging "com.android.providers.telephony" (round, greenish, white handset)
o Contacts Storage "com.android.providers.contacts" (round, bluish bg, white person)
o Call Management "com.android.server.telecom" (square, white bg, blue handset)
o Call Log Backup/Restore "com.android.calllogbackup" (hourglass, blue bg, white person)
These are the non-intuitive ways to import contacts.vcf into the
contacts/dialer apps listed above:
METHOD 1:
Rarely does the contact/dialer simply have an option to "import contacts"
files; where the only contacts/dialer that did was:
o Contacts "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro"
Also, the Google default Contacts app "com.google.android.contacts",
had an import contacts.vcf option.
Obviously this is the preferred method, but no other apps had a menu item
to simply "import contacts.vcf" like these two apps did.
METHOD 2: (I used the com.simplemobiletools.filemanager.pro file manager.)
o Long press contacts.vcf in a file manager & then use "open with"
The 3 available options were:
o Import contacts (i.e., "com.google.android.contacts")
o Contacts (i.e., "com.google.android.contacts")
o Contacts (i.e., "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro")
METHOD 3:
o Long press contacts.vcf in a file manager & then use "open as"
o Then select "Other file"
The 6 available options are: [Just Once][Always]
o Phone (i.e., "com.google.android.dialer")
o Simpler Dialer (i.e., com.simpler.dialer)
o Import contacts (i.e., "com.google.android.contacts")
o Contacts (i.e., "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro")
o Details (i.e., "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro")
o Contacts (i.e., "com.google.android.contacts")
METHOD 4:
o Short tap contacts.vcf in a file manager & then "open with"
o Import contacts (i.e., "com.google.android.contacts")
o Contacts (i.e., "com.google.android.contacts")
o Contacts (i.e., "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro")
In summary, most of you don't see this problem because:
a. Once you load Google contacts, everything else accesses them
b. I don't blindly load Google contacts from the cloud
c. I load my contacts manually, from a local contacts.vcf file
If I loaded the contacts.vcf into the default Google Contacts app (i.e.,
"com.google.android.contacts"), then everything else easily saw the
contacts (including PulseSMS).
If I didn't load the contacts.vcf into the default Google Contacts app,
then I had to manually load the contacts.vcf (by one of four methods above)
into the desired contacts/dialer app.
In the end, while I couldn't unintall the default Google apps, I
uninstalled everything except these apps, which will be my main apps:
o Contacts (i.e., "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro")
o OpenContacts (i.e., "opencontacts.open.com.opencontacts")
o PulseSMS (i.e., "xyz.klinker.messenger")
Note there is no need for a dialer, as far as I can tell, simply because
both "Contacts" and "OpenContacts" contain a dialer, where I'll test out
the two apps to see which is best.
Generally I like Simple Mobile Tools, but what I like about the "Open
Contacts" app is that it contains a call log (which the Simple Mobile Tools
doesn't contain), so Open Contacts better replaces the default Google
"Phone" app.
Unfortunately, you can't have both "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro" and
"opencontacts.open.com.opencontacts" be the default, so one or the other
must be the default for the contacts/dialer app.
One nice thing about "com.simplemobiletools.contacts.pro" is it exports to
any file name and any file location, while one nice thing about
"opencontacts.open.com.opencontacts" is that it contains a call log just
like the default Phone application does.
Whew! It's all working quite nicely now. Thanks!
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