Google Phone 15 adds ‘Clean up’ for duplicate contacts, light nav bar, & ‘Assisted dialing’

Abner Li | Dec 11 2017 - 1:41 pm PT

In our teardown of the Google Phone app last month, we spotted several in-development features. With version 15 now rolling out, functionality like “Clean up” and “Assisted Dialing” are now live, along with a light navigation bar on Pixel devices.

Upon updating to the latest version, heading to the “Contacts” tab will slide up a prompt from the bottom of the screen when you have a duplicate. There does not appear to be a way to manually invoke and open the “Duplicate” page besides that notification.

After tapping “Clean up,” users are presented with their duplicate contacts as a list of cards with proposed mergers up top and the identified matches below. Each card then has a button to merge or dismiss the suggestion.

Meanwhile, in settings the “Assisted dialing” feature is now live as a new option. Enabled by default, the feature will “Predict and add a country code when you call while traveling abroad.” Users can toggle it off and select the “Default home country.”

On Pixel and Pixel 2 devices running Android 8.1, this update also switches to a light navigation throughout the app to counter burn-in/screen retention issues. Version 15 is rolling out now via the Play Store for Pixel, Nexus, and Android One devices.