Current Caller ID by WhitePages (App Review)

Cost: Free

 This app, which was developed by Whitepages is a pretty cool app. Its base function is exactly what it says; it is a caller id system for your android phone.
Depending on how integrated your phone is with Facebook or Twitter you might find this app to be a bit intrusive but if you give it some time, it will grow on you. When you get a phone call, it drops down an information toolbar that displays the name of the caller, the phone number, a photo of the caller, where he/she is from, and their local weather (this screenshot is from a number generated for a VoIP service).

It seems like some of the information is being pulled from social networks and the rest is filled in by Whitepages’ databases but it seems to be fairly useful even if you already sync your phone with your social networks.  They allow you to connect with Twitter, Facebook, and even LinkedIn which is something I’ve never seen before and could be useful for people who prefer to have more professional relationships through LinkedIn rather than less professional networking such as Facebook. What I’ve found to be pretty cool about this app is more than just its ability to give you accurate caller Id phone calls is that it can also give you caller id for text messages.  If you open the app and scroll through the recently contacted list it will show you the name and phone number of people that you may not have had in your contact list or been friends with on Facebook. Something that I really appreciate about this app is that the developers seemed to stay pretty close to the HOLO guidelines, which makes the app very attractive and easy to use. They probably could use a more “HOLO friendly” color scheme and make things a little smoother but I still like the design of the app a lot. The frequently contacted and the stats tab give you more detailed information about how you communicate. On the frequently contacted side you get data such as  how many times you’ve called certain people and how many times you’ve texted them, where they are from and the weather in that area, it also gives you the social that you have a connection with them on. (I blurred out my friend’s names for their privacy). If we take a look at the stats tab we get similar information in a different format. As you can see in the picture, I do a lot more texting than I do calling. One thing I think they could adapt down the road is your emailing frequency, since a lot of people’s communication is done through email, I know mine is. If you scroll down you can see what times of the day you communicate with people and how. For example, the app has determined that the best time for people to call me is from 3-4 PM and the best time for people to text me is from 11-12PM, it also gives you a crowning of your “top texters and callers” (the people you communicate with the most).

I would say that if you even if you already link your social networks to your phone then this is a great app for you because it takes all of the syncing that you would normally have to worry about out of the equation for you. On the other hand, you might be concerned with its intrusion. This app’s permissions are actually quite extensive which may turn people off to it. All-in-all, though, I really like this app for its ability to give you information about numbers that you don’t know and its organization of your communication stats.

Download from Google Play