Dialer & messaging app

[mubharad]

I'm new entrant to WP land on a Lumia 521. Coming from Android which is the king of customizations, I didn't had much expectations on WP, but the two biggest letdowns so far has been the native dialer & messaging app. I find both of them to be the most unbaked of all apps. With stock dialer if one clicks the dialpad, it doesn't show any history or searches contacts as you key in the numbers. There's no favorites option either. Also inspite of linking dupe entries, every time i invoke the dialer the dupe entries still exists. Since i use Google voice the only app that seems to work with it is Metrotalk. Stock dialer doesn't work with GV. Same is the case with messaging app.

I'm not sure if i'm missing anything, but i've tried RapDialer, DragAndCall and few others but none seems any good. Can someone suggest good alternatives for dialer & messaging? In Android RocketDial & Textra were quite good, of course i can't expect them here, but anything that can come close?

 

[Laura Knotek]

You mentioned messaging. Are you interested in something for SMS, Facebook, IM of some type, or something else?

 

[mubharad]

Sms.

 

[Cindy_H]

If you go through People hub, you will have a search button at the bottom of the screen to search your contacts. Tap on the desired contact, and then you will have the option to call or text. Your call history should be displayed as soon as you hit the Phone tile...unless you have cleared it. In the messaging app, if you click the + sign, you it will create a new text message. Tap next to the empty space next to "To:", and your keyboard should fly up. Type the first letter or two of the recipient's name to find the desired recipient. HTH