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At first glance, not much has changed in Google Phone 5.1. The UI is largely the same, despite the slightly altered color palette, and is still divided in three separate tabs for favorites, history, and contacts, which also remain visually untouched from previous versions. The main differences become apparent when making and receiving calls, and come in the form of various UI tweaks and refreshments, rather than substantial functional changes.
The on-call screens, both for outgoing and incoming calls, have been redesigned to feature a translucent blue background, through which the home screen wallpaper can be partially seen. Incoming calls now show the caller's contact photo as the answer/reject button, which can be swiped either up or down, instead of left or right, for answering or rejecting calls respectively. The button also shakes up and down in sync with the device's vibration when ringing.
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If you want to take Google's updated Phone app for a whirl, do keep in mind that it has to be set as the default caller app in order to work properly. This can be done by going to Settings > Apps, and making sure that it is set as the default “Phone app”.
Google Phone 5.1 is available for Nexus devices running Android 6.0 Marshmallow and up, while the patched version of the app should work just fine on any other phone running either Marshmallow or Nougat. No rooting needed for installing this one, just download the APK on your device and allow installation of apps from unknown sources from Settings.
There are currently three known bugs in this version:
- Caller ID doesn't work
- Individual calls cannot be deleted from call log
- Application freezes for some users while interacting with settings in the app.
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