Speed Dialing Roundup

In my opinion, the second worse thing about my wonderful Pre is the phone app (the first is the battery, but that is another topic for another day). I have always found it ironic that one of the worst pieces of software on this amazing phone is the actual phone app. My main beef with it is that it is too hard to call someone in your speed dial list. It is kind of like making a phone call on your old home phone…Phil is speed dial #1, Jackie is speed dial #2… etc.

This was fine back then because heck, before that you actually had to remember their number! Sidenote… I still remember my best friends phone numbers from grade school because I had to dial it so often… now I have to look up my wife’s number if someone asks me for it. But I digress…

In today’s sleek and shiny world, this is just not acceptable, especially for a device like the Pre. Obviously there are a lot of developers out there who feel the same way I do because there are five, count them, five speed dialing applications currently on the App Catalog (of course, I think there are at least that many fart apps…*sigh*). Unfortunately there isn’t a free one in the bunch, but they aren’t exactly expensive either ($.99 – $2.99). So let’s see what they have to offer.

All of these apps have one purpose, make calling and texting people easier. They all do this relatively successfully, but they do find a way to differentiate themselves. When dealing with this many apps that are so similar I had to come up with some measurements to base my review off of. It basically boils down to two things…speed and quality. The less taps the better, and heck, why not look good doing it?

I should mention that all of them (except one in my opinion) are better than the default dialer, so you can’t go too wrong here. So here they are in order of awesomeness… number one here is the weakest of the bunch, and our last member is my top pick. On with the show.

Launchpoint – Worthwhile Tech – $.99

I downloaded launchpoint back when it was free, and then again today to see if it was any different. Sadly, no major changes appeared (except it does appear faster). I think it is telling that the first item in the help file is how to delete a Launchpoint. Unlike the other apps here, the purpose of this app isn’t to contact a lot of people quickly…it is to contact one person pretty fast. When you create a launchpoint for a person it creates a little icon in your app menu. Click on that icon and you can call them…create a different one and you can text them, or you can create a popup menu that allows you to do both. So in the end if you are using this app, then if you have more than two or three contacts, then you are going to have a very busy menu.

Speed Dial Plus – 8-bit Development – $.99

Speed Dial Plus does absolutely nothing wrong. It is a perfectly acceptable speed dial application. You can add people from your contact list easily, you can text or call them with as little as two taps. They even have great instructional text for new users (and a support webpage). Problem is, it just doesn’t have any soul…it is purely functional, but there is little in terms of personality or style. Conversely, it is only a buck, so if you want a speed dialer and you want to save a buck or two, then this is a great choice.

Quick Contacts – Silver Spoon Software – $2.99

Now what we have here is one fancy shmancy quick dialer. This bad boy is configurable to the hilt and looks pretty good doing it. The reason this doesn’t rank higher is that in the end of the day it takes too many taps to get the job done. You select your contact, then give it a preferred way of contacting that person. The default is when you tap the icon it does the preferred action.

So if you call and text this person regularly you either must have two icons for the same person, or you can change the option so that a menu comes up which allows you to choose how you want to get in touch. This seems overly complicated to me, but it definitely gets the job done and is worlds better than the default dialer.

The one feature that this app has that the others don’t is the ability to email your contacts in addition to calling and texting. If you find yourself contacting your friends through email as well as calls and text, then this might be the defining feature for you. For myself, I rarely email close friends from my phone…I prefer text.

PhotoDialer – Cardinal Peak – $1.99

The PhotoDialer is very, very similar to Quick Contacts, but it is a bit more streamlined. Everything is on a single, very nicely put together, screen. I particularly like the ability to change the background. Allows me to give it a more personal feel. It also has a nice button to call voicemail with a single tap.

The downside of this app is the same as the Quick Contacts app…one too many taps. If I want to text someone, then I have to make sure the text option is set first (which invariably I will forget to do most of the time), and then click my contact. When speed is the key feature, this unnecessary tap makes a difference.

Overall this is a great app that mirrors most of the functionality of the more expensive option, but it just missed the mark of pure awesomeness.

Quick Dialer – Yellowfin Solutions – $1.99

So here we are at the top of mount awesome and what do we find? The Quick Dialer.

So what makes this app the best? As you probably have guessed, it’s all about the taps. Quick Dialer lives up to its name by only requiring one click to call or text a person. Its all in the interface. Instead of having just an icon for a contact, you have a whole row dedicated to them which gives them room to puts a handy SMS button. Now to be fair the other apps can go into a list mode for a similar UI, but none of them thought to use the extra space like Yellowfin did.

The interface is clean and you can customize the background to boot. Fast + Nice looking = top pick in my book.