C. Scott Brown / Android Authority
TL;DR
- Google is developing a new calling feature that would allow you to mark your calls as Urgent using the Phone app.
- Callers might be able to add a short message along with an emoji to make their call appear important.
- The feature would also override the recipient’s DND settings, reducing the likelihood of the call being missed.
Google’s Phone app offers a host of nifty features, including Spam Rejection and Call Screen, that let you fend off spammers and keep unwanted calls at bay. However, it may be now be working on a feature that could allow urgent calls to reach you, even when you might not be in the mood for talking.
Just like important emails, Google may soon let you mark your calls as important, prompting the other person to pick up urgently. With the recent public beta (version 201.0.833052069) of the Phone app, Google appears to be working on a new feature called “Expressive Calling.” With this option, callers will be able to add text messages to their calls to justify the urgency.
To users, however, the option might appear as “Call Reason” based on what we’re able to see from the bits of code we have discovered. The following strings show up in the Phone app’s code, also suggesting the feature’s potential description:
Code
Call Reason
Notify and see when a call is urgent While dialling, users should be able to choose the option and add a reason. At the moment, we see the following four options, accompanied by relevant emoji, that callers will be able to choose among:
- 🚨 It’s urgent!
- 🔔 News to share
- 👋 Catch up
- ❓ Quick question
It’s possible that by the time the feature is ready to ship, we might see more choices — or the option to add custom messages.
Based on the code, these messages are sent via RCS and will require you to grant SMS permissions. That also means there’s a chance these messages may not always show up for recipients, especially if they use another dialer app other than Google’s. We’d love to be wrong, though, especially since this can be a useful feature.
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From what we expect, Expressive Calling on Google Phone should be restricted to contacts only, to prevent a barrage of spam from unwanted callers. That measure is necessary since Expressive Calling will override Do Not Disturb on the recipient’s phone, even if the caller isn’t added as a favorite contact. We believe so because the following additional strings indicate that:
Code
Mark call as urgent?
"Ring thru and show \"It's urgent!\""
Allow incoming urgent calls to make sound
Urgent call can interrupt Do Not Disturb Additionally, Urgent Calls will also include special notifications where you’d be explicitly informed that you’ve “Missed an Urgent Call.” This text has been added to the app’s code too.
We’re unsure of the placement of the prompts or buttons in the app’s interface, since we couldn’t get the feature to work. That means Google may take some time before bringing it.
However, we could spot another minor feature that is being worked upon. Google might soon add a toggle to prevent the Phone app from switching to landscape mode while you’re in a call, even if auto-rotate is turned on for the device. This feature may arrive much earlier than expressive calling, and below is a preview.
Tushar Mehta / Android Authority
⚠️ An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.
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