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ZDNET Highlights
- Google’s new calling cards make Android calls more personal.
- This feature lets Pixel users customize full-screen contact images.
- Calling cards have not been backed up yet, so setups will not transfer to the new phone.
As a lifelong Android user, I’ve noticed for years how incoming calls on my iPhone friends’ devices were giving a slick, full-screen experience. The contact image fills the screen, the person’s face pops up on the device, and somehow it makes the incoming call feel a little more human. Needless to say, this makes it easier to see who is on the other end of the line before answering.
On Android, this is often a small circle avatar surrounded by a bunch of empty space, which is more useful and appropriate for Android overall, but other than that lacks any real dynamism.
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In the early days of Android, the gap was even worse. You can upload high-resolution photos to your contacts, but the system will compress them into crappy, low-resolution squares that will be crazy pixelated when a call comes in. This is a long-standing sore point of mine, which is why Google’s recent calling cards feature makes me very happy.
I’ve been optimizing my contacts on the Pixel 10 Pro by running the latest Contacts and Phone apps, and it feels like a worthwhile solution to a decade-old problem.
How to set up a calling card
Calling cards let you create a full-screen visual identity for the people you talk to most. When a call comes in, instead of a dull circle and text overlay, a contact’s image of your choosing fills the display along with their name in a custom font and color. The effect instantly feels more personal and engaging.
It’s surprisingly simple to set up, although the feature is only for Pixel devices right now. There are a few ways to set up a calling card for yourself. First, when a call comes in, the updated dialer will prompt you with a big button and ask you to create a calling card for that person. Tapping it takes you to the setup process.
But the best way to explore it without waiting for a call is with the latest version of the Contacts app. Open a contact, tap “Try adding a calling card” and you’ll enter a lightweight editor that includes a preview of your handiwork.
From there, you can choose an image one of three ways: take a new photo with the camera, select from your on-device gallery, or pull from your Google Photos cloud library.
I prefer that last option because of its comprehensive nature, especially because I’ve already spent time labeling faces in the People and Pets section of the app. This makes it incredibly easy to sort through and find high-quality, well-framed shots for your favorite contacts.
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Once the image is selected, you can pinch to zoom, crop, and tweak the framing to fit the long rectangular format that appears during the call. The fonts for the contact’s name are customizable, and the color of the caller’s name is also customizable.
That said, the color palette is a bit limited in my opinion. I’ve found that light text can easily blend into a bright background, and there’s no option to apply an outline or shadow to separate the text from the image.
I hope Google includes those options in a future update to improve readability. Choosing the right color definitely takes a little trial and error, but when it clicks, it transforms a once boring call screen into something that feels personal and yours.
I’ve found that tight facial expressions usually work best. You want the person’s face to be big enough to be immediately recognizable. It is also important to choose photos that are already close enough to the person’s face. Otherwise, the image may be blurry or pixelated when zoomed in to fit the calling card format.
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My obsessive tendency to get these things “just right” means I may spend more time choosing the perfect image than I want, but in the end the work is worth it.
Once you finalize the design, the system asks if you would like to use the same image as the contact’s standard profile picture. It’s a nice touch, although I often prefer a separate profile picture that fits better in the smaller, rounded proportions than some of the images that work best in the larger, rectangular calling card layout.
new call experience
Along with calling cards, Google also changed the way calls are answered. In place of a button to answer a call, there’s an elegant swipe gesture: slide right to answer, slide left to reject. It’s a clean look and matches the visual refresh of the new call screen, not to mention the improved design dynamics of Material 3 Expressive.
I heard there was a way to switch back to the single-button approach for those who don’t like sliders, but I came up empty handed trying to find it. The slider step is not just about aesthetics, but also aims to prevent sudden button presses within the pocket or purse.
The action takes a little time to adjust to, but after a few days, I found that the swiping motion finally feels intuitive, especially since it now keeps up with the calling card’s more expressive, image-heavy design. Both changes are simultaneous.
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After setting up calling cards for my most frequent contacts, I realized that I actually enjoy receiving calls now. There’s a psychological element to it that’s hard to name, but when the call screen is filled with a bright, curated image of the person calling, I find myself more inclined to answer. It adds a touch of warmth to a function that is all too easy to take for granted.
A word of caution for those who regularly change phones: At the time of this article, I had confirmed that Google does not include calling cards with its system-wide backups. This means that buying a new Pixel phone will mean resetting those calling cards, and while the process takes time and attention, it can be a frustrating discovery with a new phone.
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The trick for anyone who wants to take advantage of this is simply timing and duration. I like to think of calling cards as a mini photo project that brings some of my favorite pictures of my friends and family front and center.
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