Why is my "smart"(ass?) phone SO badly designed, that it won't display the number of the caller while I'm talking to them?

Probably because this isn’t really an issue for most smartphone users.

@Zaku: “Are other people really SO INCAPABLE of dealing with complexity, that UI designers are thinking they need to dumb down the information presented?”

Yes and no.

I have been an Android user since 2009. Android was the techie’s OS for awhile, but it turned out that Apple had the “it just works” and “even my grandfather can operate it” market and was making a ton of money (in the US anyway). It was considered a kid’s phone by Android users because it was simple and had a philosophy of “we know what you need and want more than you do”. I tried every couple of years to dive into the Apple/iOS world, only to be frustated that at what I couldn’t do.

But every iteration of Android has been to reduce functionality. The two platforms are closer than ever now, and that means that people are less likely to get themselves into trouble with their Android phones because Google now has adopted the same philosophy of dumbing things down.

That said, what phone are you currently using that is not displaying who you are talking to?

It’s a Samsung Galaxy, when using the keypad to communicate with a robot call.

Robot call: “This is your electric company. There’s been an outage… If you currently have power, press 1…”

I go into keypad mode. Press 1.

Robot call: ”... if you have any questions or etc., dial 206 563–9739…”

I want to see if that’s the number they called from, or if I need to write that down before they hang up… but it’s in keypad mode, which doesn’t show what the calling number is, and I failed to figure out how to get it into any mode that would show me the phone number to check, before it would stop telling me the number and/or I would forget what number it said.

I realize there’s probably something I could do, but in the moment, it’ll probably be too late and/or I’m as liable to do something that hangs up the call before I figure it out. If the screen still would show somewhere what number I’m connected to, that wouldn’t be a problem.

I wish I had a 3rd party phone designed for adult use and privacy, but those are expensive and not offered by my preferred phone company… ah well.

Invest in a few pens & pencils, then stash them in different locations around your house, in your car, etc.

@Zaku how about recording the phone call? I’m sure your phone has that function because mine has. That way you don’t have to worry about missing the number.

To be fair, the problem isn’t the hardware, it’s the software.

Two points:

1) for Android there are dozens of alternative dialers in the Play Store. Try one of those to see if you like them better.

2) The main issue is that you have people in your Contacts that match the numbers, and the system assumes you want to be able to read names instead of see numbers. The easiest way to fix your problem is to delete all your contacts – then the numbers will show. Although that approach has its downsides as well, obviously.

@cheebdragon Thanks. I do have such, and yes I should probably deploy them for more immediate use. I just mainly wanted to rant that if my high-tech device bothered to include the call number, I wouldn’t have to do that.

@Mimishu1995 If you’re in the middle of a call, your phone has the “record this call” option? Interesting… I’ll look.

@elbanditoroso Yes, if “The easiest way to fix your problem is to delete all your contacts”, I’d hate to meet the harder ways.

It’s ok. I just wanted to vent at this most recent encounter with my dislike of current popular UI design.

Good suggestion though on looking for dialer software I might like better.