Alternative to swipe to answer

TheChizler

My father in law recently "upgraded" from a really cheap basic Nokia Android to a cheap Amazon Doogee X97 running Android 12. He just needs it for calls, texts and Whatsapp only so it seems more than capable.

The only thing is he's complaining that he's missing calls. As designated technology expert I'm responsible for the problem but I'm having a hard time getting to the bottom of it. It's hard to get a straight story out of him as to exactly what the problem is, he's a proud technophobe and any time I ask what happens when he misses the calls I just get a rant about every call he's missed that day, how he had to ring them back, and the old phone wasn't like this, what did I do to change it.

The best I can figure out is that when he gets a call it ends before he manages to properly swipe to answer. He'd be swiping away and it does nothing he says. He has cataracts which have got worse recently and needs reading glasses so always operates it at arms length, and I've noticed him kind of jabbing at it when he does answer calls. I think when he's out and about he might be missing the smallish button that you drag to answer and can't see that he's missed it. If the phone is locked a tap to answer button does pop up for a few seconds but disappears after a couple of rings or if you touch anywhere else on the screen.

I don't think there's anything wrong with the phone itself, myself and other people have tested it out and had no problem answering, it's only when he's using it. There's never a problem if he answers it in front of me. Weird how there wasn't an issue with the old phone though.

There must be a way to change the swipe to answer to something else, people with dexterity issues might have issues swiping but I can't find anything under accessibility. Ideally you'd be able to use one of the volume buttons like you can do on Samsung, but I can't find an app that does this. I can't find a way to make the button bigger either. I've considered voice control but he wouldn't have the patience for it.

Has anyone had similar issues and found a solution?

jgbyr

Have you tried to increase the call ringing duration.

You can increase the time from 5 to 30 seconds, or in multiples of 5 seconds.Just dial the following on your mobile:**61*(mailbox number)**(number of seconds you want it to ring for)# and then send.

Another option might be auto answer. You'll find it in the phone app settings.

Don't know if these might be of any help to you.

TheChizler

Thanks a million I wasn't aware you could change the duration. I don't think there's a mailbox enabled but I'll try it out.

I'll have a look at auto answer too, I dismissed it early on because I was worried it would answer in his pocket which I can't imagine him liking.

Thanks for the ideas.

swampy353

What you are looking for is an alternative dialer app, there are loads on the app store. Big phone for seniors might be of some use but it's going to be in case of trying a few and seeing what works for him https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=name.kunes.android.launcher.bigphone