Our phones these days are pretty amazing devices. We surf the web, message, navigate, and even play games. Sometimes however, we actually receive a call (I know right?!) ! While this action is expected, (it is a phone after all) a lot of times we find ourselves in the middle of something when someone wants to reach out and say hello.
What’s worse, even if we don’t care to speak to whichever girlfriend we may be blowing off tonight in favor of a marathon session of Temple Run, it switches out of the game! Not cool. What we need is a way to dismiss that strumpet and get on with our evening, without having to pause the game…What we need, is CallBar!
CallBar hit Cydia a month or so before iOS 5 dropped, and given we were all testing the beta, we couldn’t install it. Once it was finally updated for 5.0, we jumped on it like a pack of hungry wolves on a pile of meat. Could this be as awesome as we had hoped? Short answer: Yes.
CallBar uses a notification banner type alert that unobtrusively slides down from the top when receiving a call, allowing the user to continue on with whatever it is he might be doing, no matter who calls him. Aside from that, if you have some aversion to the actual phone app, callbar even includes a nifty gesture based dialer.
CallBar was recently updated to v2.1 and comes with iOS 6 support and:
- Integrated iOS 6’s “Reply with Message” and “Remind Me Later” hangup options. Tap the phone or FaceTime icon on the incoming call banner to view options menu
- iOS 6 “Reply with Message” and “Remind Me Later” options available for iOS 5 users too.Ability to define reply messages for when hanging up a call in Settings.
- Call-back options scrollview added to lock screen.
- Dismiss view on lock screen changed to table cell
- Added option to use CallBar for all outgoing calls, including phone numbers on pages, dial commands from Siri and Bluetooth headsets.
- Improved visual representation of remote calling party
- Added tap to answer. Swiping right on incoming call banner still answers.
- Added color options for extras views and the keypad in Settings
- Improved minimized view
- Improved show/hide animations
- No longer rings after the call has been dismissed once
- Adjusted the label’s width to fit the screen and display more text if needed.
- Improved tap handling on banner with excellent precision
- Removed buttons for incoming call banners
- Drastically improved all UI, buttons, backgrounds, labels, etc.
- Removed Skype and Viber handling
- Added DTMF commands handling to Dialer (e.g. *#06#)
- Dialer can initiate Facetime calls to emails from Recents or Favorites
- Dialer can handle calls initiated by Bluetooth headset
- Added localization for 19 languages
Fixes:
- Fixed blocking taps below banner when minimized or in dismiss mode
- Fixed speaker button not toggling speaker correctly.
- Fixed mute button not working correctly.
- Fixed Bluetooth button not working correctly.
- Fixed DTMF tones randomly not being sent to the remote party
- Corrected grouping in Settings for better user experience.
- Fixed lock screen not undimming in some cases
- Fixed proximity detector not dimming the screen when in call in some cases.
- Fixed keyboard not showing up in Contacts search field when in lock screen
- Fixed keyboard not showing + sign when holding down the zero key
- Fixed sleep button behavior for outgoing, incoming, and active calls
- Numerous bug fixes
CallBar is available for $3.99 in Cydia Store via BigBoss repo…