• Re: Replacing Contacts app with latest from Play Store, risky?

    From Theo@theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk to uk.telecom.mobile on Sun Feb 15 15:41:01 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.telecom.mobile

    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
    I have a new Xaiomi Redmi A5 which does give me VoLTE and VoWifi on
    spusu. It only cost -u58.45 so I'm fairly happy. :-)

    However I have hit one annoyance, there are no Widgets in the Contacts
    app so I can't make 'direct dial' icons for my most used numbers. I've searched a bit on the web but there doesn't seem to be a quick and
    easy workaround for this.

    I **think** it's because the Contacts app on the phone is a cut down
    or custom version. It certainly doesn't appear to be the default
    Google Contacts app, see:-

    On phone Contacts app: version 1.0.3.2, com.android.contacts

    App Store Contacts app: version 4.72.5.xxxxx

    Can I safely install the version from Google Play Store? Version
    4.72.x does provide widgets on my old phone.

    com.android.contacts is the open-source contacts app from AOSP. It's pretty basic. You should be able to install Google Contacts with no problems.

    As an aside, I'm running com.android.contacts v1.7.34 so you version is also ancient.

    Theo
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  • From Chris Green@cl@isbd.net to uk.telecom.mobile on Sun Feb 15 17:55:52 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.telecom.mobile

    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
    Theo <theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
    I have a new Xaiomi Redmi A5 which does give me VoLTE and VoWifi on spusu. It only cost -u58.45 so I'm fairly happy. :-)

    However I have hit one annoyance, there are no Widgets in the Contacts app so I can't make 'direct dial' icons for my most used numbers. I've searched a bit on the web but there doesn't seem to be a quick and
    easy workaround for this.

    I **think** it's because the Contacts app on the phone is a cut down
    or custom version. It certainly doesn't appear to be the default
    Google Contacts app, see:-

    On phone Contacts app: version 1.0.3.2, com.android.contacts

    App Store Contacts app: version 4.72.5.xxxxx

    Can I safely install the version from Google Play Store? Version
    4.72.x does provide widgets on my old phone.

    com.android.contacts is the open-source contacts app from AOSP. It's pretty
    basic. You should be able to install Google Contacts with no problems.

    Thanks. Will Google Contacts replace the open-source one or will I
    have two Contacts apps? I guess nothing awful will happen if I just
    try it! :-)

    ... and it does "just work", installing Google Contacts has added the
    required Contacts widgets and I can add the direct-dials that I want.

    The old Contacts app is still installed but it doesn't seem to cause
    any problems, as it's tiny (1.74Mb) it's not worth removing.

    So, thank you again.
    --
    Chris Green
    -+
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  • From Theo@theom+news@chiark.greenend.org.uk to uk.telecom.mobile on Sun Feb 15 18:22:17 2026
    From Newsgroup: uk.telecom.mobile

    Chris Green <cl@isbd.net> wrote:
    ... and it does "just work", installing Google Contacts has added the required Contacts widgets and I can add the direct-dials that I want.

    The old Contacts app is still installed but it doesn't seem to cause
    any problems, as it's tiny (1.74Mb) it's not worth removing.

    It's likely part of the OS image, so you can't remove it. You can disable
    it, which doesn't save any space but stops it running and stops it
    cluttering up your app drawer.

    Theo
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