Smartphones, tablets and even PCs make it possible to communicate with virtually anyone around the world effortlessly. With the right application you can text, use voice or video to say what you need to say to your friends or colleagues. While many of the technologies on these devices have moved forward, phone dialer apps have made very little improvement. The new Android 4.4 KitKat has taken notice of this and added new intuitive features to provide more information to the user.
The most notable feature is the improved Caller ID option the platform provides. When you receive a call on your Android (News - Alert)-based phone with KitKat, the caller will be identified using Google Maps and Google Plus. When a business calls your phone, this and other related information will appear with a picture if there is one available on their Google (News - Alert) Plus account. It is important to note it works much better with callers that have Google Plus profiles.
The dialer application has a new interface and when it is accessed it opens to the people you call the most, avoiding the grid of numbers of all your contacts. When a contact is dialed a Caller ID pops up with relevant information about the person or business you are calling. What this feature has done is basically turn your phone into a phone directory by providing all of this information.
The application is very useful, but its success will depend greatly on the adoption of Google+. The more people sign up, the more information the application will have to access and provide users. While you can't blame Google for trying to incorporate as many of its products in the services it offers, the company should really consider providing the best available solution when it releases something new. And basing the success of the function of its Caller ID feature on the growth of Google+ is not a model that encourages users to start using the dialer app, because not everybody has Google+.
Edited by Rory J. Thompson