Answer My Phone: Fix the issue

Stuck with not being able to Answer My Phone? Tired of using the same old boring app with little to no features? Learn how to use Google’s Phone app and what features are there to answer my phone. See how you can fix the problem of your Phone app not working properly? Learn what is causing your Phone app not to work again properly. And see how you can fix the problem which we identified. If you are stuck anywhere then see the video on our YouTube channel.

It is an absolute necessity nowadays that we can attend our calls without any interruptions. But there’s always a better way of taking your call without must hassle. In the article, we are going to see how we can make and receive calls on our android smartphones. Also, we will be seeing how we can solve the problem of the Phone app not working properly.

How to make and receive calls?

We can make phone calls with the default phone app which comes with our phone, but also with third-party apps like truecaller. By default, you can just open the phone app and tap on the number which you want to dial with the “tap to dial” feature. But in case you do not see the phone app for any reason, then you can download it from here.

Now if you can’t download it from the playstore, then your device is not compatible or not supported. But if you have downloaded the app then you need to set it as your default phone app, a bottom menu will open asking you for a default phone app.

How to make calls?

Before we move forward, keep in mind to set the phone app as a default, a popup will ask you to do the same while making calls. Now follow the steps mentioned below to make a call:

1. Start your phone and open the phone app.
2. Now enter the number in the dial pad or tap on “Contacts” if you have the number already saved.
3. Once you enter or pick the number, tap on the call button.
4. You should see a new screen with the name/number on top and ring going, your call is going now. To end the call, simply click the end button at the bottom of the screen.

NOTE: Some carriers are supported by video calls, conference calls, conference video calls, etc. See the options on the screen after you accept the call.

How to Answer My Phone?

You will be able to hear the ringtone when you will be getting a call and a screen will appear. On this screen, you will be able to see the caller’s ID or caller’s number. Now follow the steps to answer the call:

1. Swipe the white circle towards the green circle, mostly it will be on the top. (Some phones have it towards to bottom, so slowly move it and see where is the green circle.)
2. If you want o reject then do the opposite of what we did in step 1. You can even leave a message to the caller if you want by clicking on the message button. Here you can either write your message or send a pre-written one. 
3. You can also answer another call when your first call is going on, just accept the incoming call and the first one will be put on hold automatically. 

Other call features

Here we will be seeing the other features which are available on the android platform to answer my phone, all these will be available when there is a call ongoing.

1. Tap the dial padcheckour button to open the keypad(write any number while on call).
2. Tap on the speaker button to switch where the audio is coming from like speaker, earphone, other Bluetooth devices.
3. Tap on the mute button to silent your mic, the other person will not be able to hear you now. Do the same for unmuting, click the icon and the person will be able to hear you againcheckouron the hold button to put your call on hold, do the same if you want to resume the call. The other person will hear the message “Your call is on hold, please wait”.
4. Tap on the switch button to change between current calls, the other will be put on hold.
5. Tap on the Call merge button to merge all the calls in one, all callers will be able to hear each other.

NOTE: If you want to minimize the call and use your phone while on the call, simply press the home button (middle button on the bottom). A bubble will come on the screen, it presents the current call and you can move it around.
To hide the bubble, tap and drag the bubble to the cross at the bottom of the screen.
To maximize the call again, tap on the bubble.

Video call feature (dependant on the carrier):

1. While the call is active, tap on the add button .
2. Now enter the phone number of the caller you want to video call with.
3. Tap on the video call button to start a video call with the caller.
4. Once the video call is active, tap on the transfer button to transfer your call to call the number you entered earlier.

How to fix Answer My Phone?

If you are facing a problem while receiving or rejecting the call then we got some tricks for you, follow them one by one and your problem should be fixed in no time.

1. Rebooting

Sometimes this can be caused by a minor bug that might come in the form of a new update. This can be easily fixed by a simple restart, the next update will fix this issue like always. But if this is not working for you then it’s time to move to the next step.

2. Check for any change in UI

Now sometimes the UI of a device will change so drastically that you will face problems doing things the old way. For example, Samsung changed its UI to a refreshed design. However, it changed how they accept and reject the call, before the update, there were two distinct buttons but now they are gone.

Another example is of OnePlus, to accept the call you need to swipe downwards, however, in Samsung, it will reject the call if you swipe downwards.

If you are a Samsung user and you want to change the new design to the older one, simply follow these steps:

1. Open Settings on your phone and go to Accessibility.
2. Now look for Interactions & Assistant Menu, once found turn on the toggle.
3. You will find the “Single tap to swipe” option under the toggle, enable it.
4. Now you should be able to use the single tap buttons to answer and reject calls.

NOTE: If you want to remove the floating menu icon after enabling the single tap, long tap on the floating menu icon and drag it to hide it. You will no longer be able to see it after this.

3. Reinsert your SIM

This is more likely to have occurred if you recently changed your phone or sim, or you dropped your phone. Whatever the case may be, the trick usually works even if you did not do anything with the SIm or phone.

Simply open the SIM tray and remove the SIM, clean the contact chips (goldern chips at the back of the SIM) with a micro-fiber cloth. Insert the SIM again and restart your phone.

4. Turn on & off airplane mode

Restricting the network connectivity and forcing us to reset the connection may work for us. It’s worth the try since it only takes around 10-20 seconds to execute, follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Drag the menu from the top of the phone (some phones have this menu at the bottom).
2. Once the menu comes, tap on the Airplane mode which will be shown by a plane icon.
3. Now, wait for 15-20 seconds before turning it back on, tap the button again to turn it off.
4. You should be able to make calls now.

5. Wipe the data and catch (Phone app)

This trick works for many users as the problem is with the App itself and not with the SIM or the phone in general. You can clean the data of any app which is causing problems but keep in mind that it will clear all your login info and other files.

In this case, your contact files and call history will be erased after performing the data cleaning. So do this only if you are not able to fix it with any of the other tricks in the article. Follow the steps mentioned below to reset the app data:

1. Open your phone and go to Settings.
2. Under settings look for Apps & Notifications and open it.
3. Now search for the “Phone App” (If you are not able to find it then press the 3 dots at the top and tap on “Show system apps”).
4. Tap on the app and now open “Storage”, first tap on “Clear cache” and then tap on “Clear storage”.
5. If you are asked for confirmation then give it and then open the Phone app, you should be able to make calls now. This will fix answer my phone issue.

Alternate way:

1. Press and hold the Phone app icon and look for “App info”, tap on it and you will be taken to settings for the app.
2. Now tap on the app and now open “Storage”, first tap on “Clear cache” and then tap on “Clear storage”.
3. If you are asked for confirmation then give it and then open the Phone app, you should be able to make calls now.

6. Update the OS

This is not the most useful trick since the update is not in our hands unless the developers release a new update, but still, it’s worth the try. To check if your device has received any new update or not, open settings and search for “Update”.

Also, you can check if the Phone app has any updates available or not, click here to check for it. If there is an update available, tap on the update button and wait for it to be completed. Restart your device once the app is updated successfully.

7. Fix third-party phone app

If you are using any third-party phone apps which as truecaller, then it may be causing the problem. We need to either set the native Phone app as default or disable the third-party app to fix the problem. Follow the steps mentioned below:

1. Open Settings on your phone and look for “Apps & Notifications”.
2. Now look for “Default apps”, tap on the three dots at the top of the screen.
3. Tap it and a new menu will open, select Phone app.
4. Now tap on “System default app”, look for “Caller ID & Spam settings”.
5. Tap on it and select the native phone app or select “none” if you want to use a different app next time.

8. Reset app preference

This is an alternative for the App data cleaning trick since this will not remove any data and still reset the settings in the app. However, keep in mind that all the settings will be reverted to the default once(as it came when it was new). Follow the steps below to do this:

1. Open Settings and look for “Apps” or “Apps & Notifications”.
2. Now tap on the three dots at the top of the screen and tap on “Reset app preferences”.
3. If you are not able to find the settings then go to Settings -> System -> Reset Options -> Reset app preference.

Summary

In the article, we saw how we can fix the problem of the answer my phone or Phone app not working and we learned how we can use Google’s Phone app. The advantages of using the native phone app are not much but it’s more stable and reliable.

If you are not able to fix the issue after all these tricks then you should try resetting your phone back to factory reset. However, keep in mind that this will remove ALL your personal data and you will not be able to recover it after that. And if you want to take a short way, then checkout the video on out YouTube channel.