Last month, Google’s Phone app for Pixels in Japan gained a shortcut to search for unknown phone numbers online directly from the call history. The tool may soon roll out globally, helping you identify unknown callers. Called “Lookup,” the new feature is currently in development and available with some flags in the latest beta version of the app.
Google Phone is readying a number “lookup” tool
Google Phone is a phone app for Pixels and other Android devices. It offers features like caller ID and spam protection, letting you identify whether an unknown caller is a scammer or a genuine business even before you pick up the call. It cannot accurately detect all scammers and businesses but works fairly well. With Lookup, the company is giving users an option to run a web search for numbers that it didn’t identify.
Spotted by code sleuth AssembleDebug, the Lookup button appears when you tap on an unknown number in the call history. It sits next to the existing options to save the number, send a message, or check its call history. Tapping the button lets you select an app to run a web search, including Google. You will then get a result from the web. It helps you determine whether the number belongs to a business.
Like the Japanese version, Lookup on Google Phone can’t identify individual callers but only businesses that have their contact details on the web. So, it cannot replace Truecaller or similar caller ID apps, most of which use crowdsourcing to identify individual callers. Google’s new tool only offers a shortcut to search for phone numbers online. You can already do that by copying the number and pasting it on a search engine.
However, the company may be looking to integrate apps like Truecaller into Lookup later on. This would make it a lot more useful. We may get to know more about it in the coming weeks as Google continues with its development. Pixel users in Japan got the tool with the March feature drop. Maybe a global rollout will come with the next feature drop in June. We will keep you posted.
The app may also get a minor UI tweak
Lookup was spotted in beta version 127.0.620688474 of Google Phone. The source also noticed a minor UI tweak of the Emergency number dialer. Google moved the keypad and speaker buttons a little higher. There is no change to the functionality. If you want to try out the new tool and UI tweak early, you can enable the following on a rooted phone. You can also join the Google Phone beta program to test new features.
Package: com.google.android.dialer.directboot#com.google.android.dialer
Flags: 45531185, 45428163
