Google Phone appears to be testing a new incoming call UI

Damien Wilde | Sep 30 2024 - 4:11 am PT

The Google Phone app doesn’t often receive huge updates, but a new change to the incoming call UI appears to be in the works.

According to an early report on Reddit, which has subsequently been spotted by Android Authority, the default dialer app on most Android phones will see some visual changes to how incoming calls work.

The initial report only shared a screen of the Google Phone app with an updated incoming call UI that ditches the draggable accept or reject button in favor of dedicated accept and reject buttons. This change would emulate the iPhone dialer and the call screen from various other Android OEMs, including Samsung.

The “Answer” button is green and placed on the right under the quick “Message” toggle, while the red “Decline” button is on the left. It’s quick, simple, and makes more sense than a phone icon that you can drag up or down to accept or decline. You can see the updated incoming call UI compared to the existing call UI below:

This change has supposedly arrived with Google Phone v145.0.672690850, but it would be a sensible change to an interface that can be frustrating to use at times. Having the Google Phone incoming call UI altered like this would be a big and somewhat welcome change.

However, it’s not clear how widespread this is; it appears to be a limited test, with very few people able to see it after updating to the latest app version. We’re not seeing it on any of our test devices after sideloading.

Let us know if you’re seeing this UI on your phone, and your thoughts down below.