When you want to message someone, a Messenger Chat Head pops up, adding another app to your screen. Another annoyance is that you don't actually text through Hello.

The fact that Hello also integrates Google Contacts information means that you're accessing information already on your phone. This means that it communicates with Facebook contacts through Messenger and searches through Facebook, but doesn't actually call phone numbers.

Hello acts like a phone dialer, but is more of a Facebook overlay. Any calls to an actual phone number uses the stock Android dialer. But if you actually make phone calls, Hello is kind of useless. If you communicate with friends and family through Facebook, Hello is perfect. But calling an actual phone number used the stock dialer app rather than Hello.Īs a replacement dialer, Hello functions well but could use some speed improvements in search. Hello calling uses either Wi-Fi or your data connection so the quality can vary depending on your connection. Hello pulls information from Facebook, but it also pulls information from the Google Contacts app. You can call through Facebook Messenger or chat with them, but this opens a Messenger Chat Head rather than working directly inside the app. You can see a snippet of information about the contact but you can also go to their full profile to see your relationship with that person.

To call friends, simply search in Hello and their name and picture will display. Searching for general queries takes just a bit longer as it pulls relevant information from Facebook. Searching for businesses is very similar to Android's stock dialer, but Hello pulls information from Facebook Pages as well. Inside Hello, you can search for both contacts and businesses. While Facebook claims to block unwanted calls, the only options are to mute 'commonly blocked numbers' or block hidden numbers. On its first start up, you are choose caller ID options and how you want to address unwanted calls. You have to use your Facebook account to log into Hello.

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