805964 - Selecting a contact in the dialer app starts an app transition and makes me press "dial" to call

Status: VERIFIED FIXED

(Firefox OS Graveyard :: Gaia, defect, P1)

Description

[Chris Jones [:cjones] inactive; ni?/f?/r? if you need me]

STR
 (1) Open dialer
 (2) Go to "contacts" view
 (3) Select a contact

We show the full contact info, including options to send email, send SMS, edit address.  I don't care about all that, I want to make a phone call.

When I tap the phone number "link", a disorienting app transition is initiated ... back to the dialer.  I'm already in the dialer, why am I switching back to it?

Then we get back to the dialer, I have to manually press "call" to make the call.  I was already in the dialer, why do I have to reconfirm.

What I expect to happen is,
 - tap the contact
 - call is initiated without any extra fuss

This is a major usability issue, suggest blocking.

Comment 1

[Vivien Nicolas (:vingtetun) (:21) - (NOT reading bugmails, needinfo? please)]

This will be easy to fix while bug 804073 is done. Just calling telephony.dial will show the call screen on top of your app.

Comment 2

[alberto.pastor]

Don't placing the call directly was a UX decision. That's the reason it asks you to click 'call'. I would suggest confirmation by UX on this (although I agree I prefer calling directly).

Comment 3

[Chris Jones [:cjones] inactive; ni?/f?/r? if you need me]

This bug isn't discussing calls placed by a "dial" activity created by a random app.  For security reasons, those must be confirmed.  That's not a UX decision.

This bug is talking about trying to place a call by tapping a contact *in the dialer app*.

Comment 4

[alberto.pastor]

Yep, I see.
The point is that right now, contacts app and "contacts inside dialer" are sharing the same code. I do agree to directly calling when you are in the second case. 
I disagree on doing it just clicking on the contact list. What if the contact has several phone numbers? iOS, for example, do it in the same way we are doing it right now. There is where I think UX opinion is important.

Comment 5

[Josh Carpenter [:jcarpenter]]

Good feedback here.

Ayman designed the app but is out on paternity leave right now, so am cc'ing Rafa and Ricardo so they are aware of this thread.

> We show the full contact info, including options to send email, send SMS, 
> edit address.  I don't care about all that, I want to make a phone call.

If the user taps on a contact from Dialer app, and that contact has only one number assigned, ideally we'd intiate the call immediately without forcing the user to first view the Contact profile page. I'm not sure if that was in Ayman's original specs. 

If the contact has multiple phone numbers, we need to provide the user an opportunity to select from said numbers, per Alberto. 

> When I tap the phone number "link", a disorienting app transition is 
> initiated ... back to the dialer.  I'm already in the dialer, why am 
> I switching back to it?

Agreed that using an app-to-app transition for a call initiated from the Dialer > Contacts is terrible, and should be fixed. It sounds from Alberto that this is a result of using the same code between Contacts and Dialer, wherein Contacts needs the app-to-app transition, and as a result the Dialer implementation of Contacts inherits the transition. Alberto, is it possible to introduce minor differences between the implementation of contacts in the Dialer app vs Contacts app, while still sharing the bulk of the code between the apps?

> Then we get back to the dialer, I have to manually press "call" to make
> the call.  I was already in the dialer, why do I have to reconfirm.

There are other factors at play in our treatment here for v1. We're working with TEF UX on a final implementation that may or may not impact how this works.

Comment 6

[Rafael Rebolleda]

Absolutely agreed. I'm all for placing the call directly (no dialer involved), at least in "trusted" apps. I understand it might make sense to confirm (in a dialog fashion) when browsing a website and tapping on a phone link, though.

Comment 7

[alberto.pastor]

Attachment: Pointer to Github pull request: https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/pull/6267

Pointer to Github pull-request

Comment 8

[alberto.pastor]

https://github.com/mozilla-b2g/gaia/commit/c56ed42bd91bfe0815d5151944df72e43b61a512

Comment 9

[Deepa Subramanian]

Verified on Unagi device Build ID: 20130103070201