Android or Oppo issue

[torrent06]

My elderly parent has been complaining about Oppo A79 which is running Color OS14 since I bought it 6 months ago. He has always been using Android but had to change phones because 3G was phased out.

Key complaint is how answering incoming calls is needlessly complicated. I would like to know if this is an Oppo thing or an Android version thing. Can anyone clarify?

1) When the screen is locked, a slider appears in the middle. Need to move the slider up to answer the call instead of just tapping a green button.

2) When the screen is not locked, there is only a small notification at the top when a call comes in. Accidentally touching any part of the screen other than that notification (which happens easily due to full screen touchscreen) can cause the notification to disappear from view. Need to pull down the notification bar to find the option to answer the call.

3) I also noticed on two occasions while testing incoming call, the screen displayed a flickering behaviour (screen alternates between black screen and normal screen very quickly). Is this a memory issue but it has 8Gb of RAM (albeit LPDDR4x) without turning on memory expansion so it should be good enough for basic functions.

4) The shortcut button (from the menu accessible by sliding the finger from top to bottom) for switching between silence, vibrate and not silent is also confusing. In Settings, there is a “vibrate on ringing” option which we have turned on, How does the shortcut button selection affect that setting?

 

[sibeiTrolled]

1) When the screen is locked, a slider appears in the middle. Need to move the slider up to answer the call instead of just tapping a green button.

Context, mine is a Oppo Find X5 Pro.
Just tested calling my own phone, yes, swipe up to accept, swipe down to decline

2) When the screen is not locked, there is only a small notification at the top when a call comes in. Accidentally touching any part of the screen other than that notification (which happens easily due to full screen touchscreen) can cause the notification to disappear from view. Need to pull down the notification bar to find the option to answer the call.

Can't seem to replicate this issue.
For my case, tapping a few times outside of the call notification will full screen my incoming call ( then the swipe up and down will appear)

3) I also noticed on two occasions while testing incoming call, the screen displayed a flickering behaviour (screen alternates between black screen and normal screen very quickly). Is this a memory issue but it has 8Gb of RAM (albeit LPDDR4x) without turning on memory expansion so it should be good enough for basic functions.

Can't seem to replicate this as well.
Though i am starting to face this same flickering when i turn on my screen or trying to unlock my screen, been getting on my nerves recently. This occurs mostly on double tap to wake, power on to wake, raise to wake for my case.

4) The shortcut button (from the menu accessible by sliding the finger from top to bottom) for switching between silence, vibrate and not silent is also confusing

Can't seem to see this.

In Settings, there is a “vibrate on ringing” option which we have turned on, How does the shortcut button selection affect that setting?

Vibrate on ring will be default turned on if you use Vibrate mode or silent mode, though you can adjust the setting. It is only optional if you are on RING mode. For the shortcut button selection you are refering to, probably just to switch between those 3 modes.

I am not sure if this is android or oppo issue, but this is what i am seeing on my own oppo phone

 

[torrent06]

Hi, thanks very much for your reply and for explaining the “vibrate on ring”.

Can't seem to replicate this issue.
For my case, tapping a few times outside of the call notification will full screen my incoming call ( then the swipe up and down will appear)

This is interesting because I thought the OS behaviour should be similar. Are you running Color OS15?

 

[sibeiTrolled]

This is interesting because I thought the OS behaviour should be similar. Are you running Color OS15?

Ya OS15, but to be honest, i didn't mine could do that until you mentioned your dad issue. 3 out of 3, double tap on my screen away from the call notification and the full screen dialer appear

However, i am not sure if that's the correct intended flow. What i think happened was,
1) it triggered my double tap on empty ( no apps) section to turn off the phone screen which i enabled.
2) then because it thinks that it is in off screen state, the full screen dialer appeared.

Maybe you can ask in the Oppo sub forum, probably more ppl will take notice there.
Or alternatively, see if a mod can help you move this thread there.

 

[torrent06]

Ya OS15, but to be honest, i didn't mine could do that until you mentioned your dad issue. 3 out of 3, double tap on my screen away from the call notification and the full screen dialer appear

However, i am not sure if that's the correct intended flow. What i think happened was,
1) it triggered my double tap on empty ( no apps) section to turn off the phone screen which i enabled.
2) then because it thinks that it is in off screen state, the full screen dialer appeared.

Maybe you can ask in the Oppo sub forum, probably more ppl will take notice there.
Or alternatively, see if a mod can help you move this thread there.

We have double tap to turn off/wake the screen enabled also but we didn’t double tap during the incoming call. He was passing the phone to me and the call notification just disappeared. I think he could have touched the screen at the edge. I tried to replicate that but it disappeared after I touched outside a few times.

 

[sibeiTrolled]

call notification just disappeared. I think he could have touched the screen at the edge.

Ok, just did another test.

The call notification cannot be swiped away on mine.
1) Swipe left and right on the call notification - won't go away
2) switch between screen left and right - won't go away
3) disable double tap to sleep, kept tapping non stop on empty spots - won't go away

But once i "accidentally" pull down on my home screen and then release, which resulted in the notification screen coming down and then dissapearing, the call notification went "missing" which i had to swipe down again to view it.

Other than that, just can't replicate your events.

 

[loganrunning]

this may not help directly, but what i remember from my old phone (OnePlus 6)

2) When the screen is not locked, there is only a small notification at the top when a call comes in. Accidentally touching any part of the screen other than that notification (which happens easily due to full screen touchscreen) can cause the notification to disappear from view. Need to pull down the notification bar to find the option to answer the call.

i recall during the initial phone setup, there was an option for the phone dialer app to write over the whole screen. i had to enter the settings app and enable this. After that, when the phone rang, the entire screen would be black with a flashing green accept/reject call logo.

no more small notification at the top.

3) I also noticed on two occasions while testing incoming call, the screen displayed a flickering behaviour (screen alternates between black screen and normal screen very quickly). Is this a memory issue but it has 8Gb of RAM (albeit LPDDR4x) without turning on memory expansion so it should be good enough for basic functions.

Again, during phone setting, there was an option to flash the screen during certain events eg incoming call, alarm etc.
Again, to enable this, i had to enter the settings app, and enable this setting.


i guess that for the above 2, you can check the apps menu in the settings, and look in the permissions section.

 

[torrent06]

Again, during phone setting, there was an option to flash the screen during certain events eg incoming call, alarm etc.
Again, to enable this, i had to enter the settings app, and enable this setting.


i guess that for the above 2, you can check the apps menu in the settings, and look in the permissions section.

Hi thanks for your reply. I contacted Oppo customer service before and they told me it’s the default and cannot be changed. I’m just wondering if this is due to newer Android versions because he used an Oppo many Android versions before and it wasn’t like that.

 

[loganrunning]

Hi thanks for your reply. I contacted Oppo customer service before and they told me it’s the default and cannot be changed. I’m just wondering if this is due to newer Android versions because he used an Oppo many Android versions before and it wasn’t like that.

can try other phone/dialer apps, and if they don't work then have to live with it then.

 

[firesong]

Hi thanks for your reply. I contacted Oppo customer service before and they told me it’s the default and cannot be changed. I’m just wondering if this is due to newer Android versions because he used an Oppo many Android versions before and it wasn’t like that.

Oppo was changing ColorOS quite aggressively over the past few years, partly because of BKK's unification of sub-brands (including OnePlus) and partly because of the desire to shift the interface to become both "modern" and "unique".

in fact, if you compare skins across many brands, I'd argue that Pixels and OneUI are the most consistent across the past few years. The other brands have had some shifts. I note that Xiaomi has also moved to just using Google Phone/Messages as the default rather than try to use their own custom apps. iirc, Samsung has its own 3rd party dialer. Oppo still defaults to using their own custom 3rd party dialer but my mom has also complained about her Oppo phone UI changing so drastically so we got her a Samsung A53->A55 and it has been stable for her over the past few years.

Here from Oppo saying they shifted away from using Google Dialer.

Beginning with ColorOS 15.0.0 and newer versions, the default calling application on recent models has gradually transitioned from Google Dialer to OPPO Dialer.

https://support.oppo.com/lb-en/answer/?aid=2219247

You can try and install Google Dialer to see if it helps. If it still isn't good enough, consider other brands with their own UI skins. Or get a Pixel.

 

[chenaz]

I think there is a senior mode or single mode which make it easier for senior

 

[torrent06]

I think there is a senior mode or single mode which make it easier for senior

There is but other than the icons and font size being bigger, I don’t really find the operations simpler. It also doesn’t solve the dialer issue.

 

[torrent06]

.

Here from Oppo saying they shifted away from using Google Dialer.

https://support.oppo.com/lb-en/answer/?aid=2219247

You can try and install Google Dialer to see if it helps. If it still isn't good enough, consider other brands with their own UI skins. Or get a Pixel.

I think the current dialer is either Google dialer or some version of that as Google is slide up to answer (there is some discussion online that Google is testing a different way to answer calls so it may change this year). I think the latest ColorOS is also answering calls the same way even if it is not Google Dialer. So far only Samsung seems to have that tap to answer interface.

 

[firesong]

I think the current dialer is either Google dialer or some version of that as Google is slide up to answer (there is some discussion online that Google is testing a different way to answer calls so it may change this year). I think the latest ColorOS is also answering calls the same way even if it is not Google Dialer. So far only Samsung seems to have that tap to answer interface.

Then you have your answer.