Shortcut: Starred Contacts & Speed Dial
So far in the poll, you all are saying you want something that helps you get organized, and you want a desktop widget recommendation. We hear ya, posts on those topics are coming! If you haven’t voted in the poll yet, please do so in the sidebar!
In the meantime, I thought I’d write a quick post that helps organize your contacts so you can make calls quicker, and it’s a shortcut on your desktop, so it’s semi-related to your requests! This is a trick that has helped me when I’m in a hurry and don’t have time to scroll through lots of contacts or dial a number.
First, you need to go through your contacts and add a star to the ones you’re most likely to need in a hurry: A good place to look is the “Favorites” tab in the phone interface, but you can do this with any contact. Click on a contact to open it, and click on the little star in the upper right corner of the contact record so it turns yellow.
Once you’ve “starred” your important contacts, go back to your homescreen. Long-press on the background and select “Folders”. Scroll down and select “Starred Contacts”. Now you have a quick shortcut to call the people you’re most likely to need to call in a hurry! Just click to open the folder and select a name to quickly get to their contact, then press the green phone icon to dial them. No more scrolling through long contact lists!
Another trick for your one or two most-dialed contacts is to long-press the home screen and select “Shortcuts”. Next, click “Direct Dial”, then pick the contact/number you’d speed-dial most often. An icon will appear on your desktop to dial the number, and if they’re a Google contact with a photo, the shortcut icon will be their picture!
And, if they don’t have a Google contact photo, you can add one through your desktop by uploading individual photos to the contacts. I do this and it makes incoming calls SO much easier to identify…especially when driving!
Thank you this was super easy to follow in comparison to when I was figuring it out on my own.