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Call Informer (1.6.0)
Call Informer demo direct-download link (1.5.2): http://db.tt/dC3SChuP


Call Informer shows any or all of the following on your incoming and (optionally) outgoing Caller ID screen:
  • Full Name (with Prefix on Android 2.0+); this shows long names too!
  • Nickname (Android 2.0+)
  • Number and Number Type (Home, Mobile, etc.)
  • Company name
  • Email address/Domain
  • Job Title
  • City, State, Country, (Android 2.0+) or complete address (all Android versions)
  • Contact Groups
  • Notes
The information comes from your Contacts database. Call Informer does not look this information up on the Internet or in a database; rather, it only shows information you have entered in the Contacts app on your device (or in Contacts through the Gmail web interface). This means it works whether your phone is CDMA or GSM. Verizon and Sprint users in the US can use Call Informer too!

You can change these aspects of the display:
  • Font size
  • Font color
  • Vertical position (to accommodate different screen sizes and layouts)
  • Solid or transparent background
I wrote Call Informer because Android shows only the name and number when I get a call. I take tech support calls with my Droid at work, and it is beneficial to know which John or Barry is calling from what company. Unfortunately, Android does not show this information. I have used company logos as contact pictures to get around this in the past, but even with a company logo I still don't know which location the contact is calling from.

Call Informer will optionally show the first Organization's Company name and Job Title, if available. It will also show the City, State, and Country of the first address in your contact's details (all items are user-selectable), and will show the contact's notes and nickname if you wish. If any of these pieces of information are not available in the contact's details, they are simply omitted from the Incoming Call screen. Call Informer does not attempt to look this information up on the Internet. If none of the information is already available in your contact's details, Call Informer simply doesn't show anything. This makes it work well around other apps which do perform Internet or database lookups.

FEATURES:
  • Show in a solid box or inline below the name and number
  • Set the font color and size
  • Optionally tap caller details to open Contact entry (new)
  • Optionally tap to hide/show caller details
  • Reposition the display to suit your phone (with preview)
  • Optionally show on outgoing calls
  • Show during conversation, or hide when answered
  • Designed to be small and efficient
  • Call Informer Preferences app in app drawer will allow you to report any Force Closes you have had; also allows you to send me a Debug Log in the event of a problem
REQUIREMENTS:
  • You must subscribe to your cellular carrier's Caller ID service. Without this, Call Informer will be unable to determine who is calling you! Most US carriers include this automatically, users in other countries should check your cellular plan. THE BOTTOM LINE: If your calls come in as "UNKNOWN" instead of a phone number, Call Informer WILL NOT work for you (Thanks @joey)
  • HTC SENSE: Call Informer may overlap your existing Incoming Call screen info; I am working on some workarounds for this. For now I recommend turning on the solid background option, and use the Vertical Position preference screen to adjust the display for the best fit. If you disable tapping, you can still interact with whatever is behind Call Informer--it is just a visual overlap.
TIPS:
  • HARDWARE BUTTONS: If you are having trouble using hardware buttons after installing Call Informer, uncheck Enable tapping? in the preferences. Please also let me know about the issue so I can work toward a fix.
  • NO DISPLAY: If you don't see Call Informer at all after installing it, please power your phone down and back up. There have been some issues regarding certain devices (most often HTC) which don't want to allow the Call Informer service to start. Rebooting has been reported to fix this for some users. Also, try using the Vertical Position preference to readjust the details box to fit in the screen (there were problems with the handling of this in earlier versions).
  • FORCE CLOSES: If you have Force Closes, uncheck all the Items to show... in the Call Informer Preferences app in your app drawer. It will no longer try to do any work, and shouldn't crash. By doing this, you can keep Call Informer installed and be notified of updates.
DEMONSTRATION:
To see how the Call Informer Demo works, do the following:
  1. Tap the Call Informer Preferences icon in your app drawer.
  2. Make sure Show on outgoing? is checked.
  3. Tap Select items to show..., and make sure City? and State? under Address is checked.
  4. Back out to the home screen.
  5. Open a contact and edit his/her details.
  6. Make sure the city and state for the contact are entered under Postal address.
  7. Back out to the home screen.
  8. Call your contact.
After you have started the call, you should see the contact's city and state show up over the in-call screen. Remember that these details are all entered by you, so if a contact is empty, nothing will show.


The idea for Call Informer is based on the excellent Area Code ID by Torev (market://details?id=com.torev.areacodeid). Thanks Torev! Unfortunately Area Code ID seems to be discontinued... I actually wrote Call Informer to be used with Area Code ID (which will show City/State for the callers that Call Informer can't handle--"unknown callers"). Make sure you check "Ignore Contacts" in Area Code ID so my app can show details for known callers. Call Informer should now work with most other apps which deal with calls!

I have tested Call Informer on my Verizon Droid and Samsung Stratosphere and in several Android virtual devices. Users have tested it on many more devices. Please let me know if you have any issues on a particular device.

Screenshots:

         


Changelog:

1.6.0 (2013-04-02)
+ Number can now be displayed even if caller is not in contacts
  database
+ Background color of caller details display can now be changed
+ Debug log now logs app version
+ No longer shows Buy button in preferences for standard version
+ Fixed missing color previews on ICS & JB in preferences
+ Fixed certain debug log messages getting lost

1.5.4 (2013-03-17)
+ New Czech translation (thanks to Rumczeis)
+ New Polish translation (thanks to Qper)
+ New Russian translation (thanks to Alina (Loki) and black007)

1.5.3 (2012-05-10)
+ Number Type can be enabled regardless of Number setting

1.5.2 (2012-05-01)
+ Added several translations (finally!)
+ Fixed no display using certain combinations of fields
+ Rewrote Debug Logging feature
+ Fixed Debug Logging typo

1.5.1 (2011-12-24)
+ Another attempt to fix problem with newest HTC Sense versions
+ Added first launch notification to check preferences
+ Renamed Vertical Position to Screen Position for better clarity
+ Changed default Vertical Position to top of screen
+ Fixed Contact Incomplete message not always displaying
+ Merged with Demo version code

1.5.0 (2011-12-14)
+ Finally :) overlay auto-hides when InCallScreen is no longer on top


NEW: Please right-click here and Save Link As to download the strings.xml file to help with translations. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Stay tuned for more innovations by Jesta's Funhouse!



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