Terrible Default Phone App on Xperia Android

[Steffen_B]

Hi,

as an otherwise satisfied Xperia Z2 user, I am really disappointed by the terrible (default) Phone App in Sony's Android environment.

Here is what I would normally do to phone somebody:

1) Click on Phone App

2) Next to Phone title bar, click on people find icon

3) The Contacts app opens. Again, I have to click on yet another find icon.

4) I type parts of the name I am looking for.

5) Unfortunately, the app searches all text in the Contacts files, not just in the name fields.

Q1: Is there any way to turn this unwanted behaviour off? That is, I need to search the name fields only.
Note I have 400+ entries in just one of my three phone books on the phone (Exchange Active Sync) with approx. 3.5 different phone numbers on average per person.

6) From a usually overlong list, I scroll down until I find the right entry. I click on this entry.

7) I don't usually have photos in my three address books, so I see a large blue area with a white symbol of a head. This large blue area is a total waste of space, it takes up about 60% of my screen.

Q2: Is there any way how I can turn OFF any display of photos, avatars, images etc. when trying to place a phone call?

😎 The first item on display below the name is a phone number, but only ONE! Instead the app shows email and postal addresses and all sorts of other irrelevant information below.

Q3: Is there any way to Show All Phone Numbers directly on this first screen and any way to hide all other information not needed in making a phone call?
Q4: Any way to enlarge the font size just of the phone numbers.

Q5: Sometimes this single phone number is the work #, sometimes the home #, the cell phone #, and sometimes even the fax #.
Is there any way how the user can influence which numbers are displayed, and in which order?

9) I scroll down to reach the SEE ALL bar.

10) At least I can see all phone numbers for the current person.

But why does the app not suppress duplicates? As I have three phone books, the app displays many numbers twice or three times. It should be very easy for any algorithm to hide duplicate entries that are included in multiple phone books.

11) The tiny texts for "Home", "Work" or "Mobile" are in grey font and so difficult to read, that I usually don't bother with them, and I most frequently try to guess from the area code which number is which.

All in all, I find the PHONE APP is useless if you want to use it for making a phone call.

Q6: Any suggestions how to change, re-configure or replace this software? Are there better APPS for this?

I guess a simple text-only user interface without any kind of graphics would to this job much better.

Thanks so much for your help in advance,

BR

Steffen

[Phy]

Q1 No
Q2 No
Q3 No
Q4 No, but, you could try this
1. Settings
2. Accessibility 
3. Large text

[Phy]

Q5 
1. Open the phone app
2. Contacts
3. Select the contact
4. Edit 
5. Edit any information 
6. Save
Q7 You could use a third party phone app

[Steffen_B]

Thank you for the two answers so far. The last answer on Q5 (which single phone number is displayed by default) does not help, does it? I don´t want to edit each of my 400+ entries individually. I just need a setting in the app that decides which type of phone number to display by default (such as mobile/cell numbers, for instance.) Currently it is unpredictable which of many phone numbers for one entry in multiple connected address books appears as the only phone number on display.

Basically, I need a phone app that is customised for starting phone calls. The current default dial/call/phone app on Xperia just is not. Any old dumb phone was easier to use for picking the right phone number in a large address book.

I will try some alternative call apps, maybe they have a better user interface.