How To: Prioritize Frequent Contacts with This KitKat-Style Dialer on Your Samsung Galaxy S3

It's a done deal. KitKat is the shit, and everyone wants in on it.

Unfortunately, the Samsung Galaxy S3 won't see any of Android 4.4's features incorporated into TouchWiz for some time, as we're still on a 4.1 version. Still, we can throw a few of KitKat's features onto the device ourselves, like the home launcher and new keyboard. And now, we can even get a feel for its smarter phone app.

The phone has been redesigned to provide as much relevant information as possible when receiving phone calls, and it automatically prioritizes your contacts based on the people you talk to the most.

If you want to try out something very similar on your GS3, you can with Calchas, a free app by Andreas Komninos that takes the "smarter phone" concept from 4.4 and runs with it.

Calchas speeds up the calling process by predicting the contacts you are most likely to call based on your previous and frequent dials. The app will gather information from your calls, whether or not you call from the app or use the default phone app.

Now, it should be noted that Calchas is not going to be as impressive as the KitKat version. Also, it is a separate app than the default contacts and phone on your GS3 right now, so you can try it out without giving up the default option.

Setting Up Calchas on Your GS3

You can alter the way your contacts appear in the settings. With Calchas open, hit the menu button on your phone to bring up the settings which is divided into user and developer settings.

The User Settings

In the user settings, you can choose whether or not a contacts photo appears as well, change the number of suggestions, turn on the search function, and choose between Calchas interfaces.

The interface allows you to chose between Suggestions (only), Suggestions (A thru Z), Suggestions and Call Log, Suggestions and Contacts, Suggestions and Call Log (A thru Z) and Suggestions and Contacts (A thru Z).

The Developer Settings

In the dev settings, you can specify the frequency and regency of suggestions in days and hours. Basically, the frequency is the window in days of recent calls and the regency is window of hours.

If you're not confused yet, you can also change the prediction score under the Set wf. This takes the window regency minus the window frequency to give you a better prediction of who you may be trying to call. So pretty much, if you are calling someone often and the hours between those calls are rather short, then that contact will appear higher in your suggestion list.

The Drawbacks of Calchas

The interface is pretty bland and just doesn't look as good as the default Samsung phone app. The settings are also a little bit confusing, especially under the developer options.

But the app is free and does not replace your defaults, so there's no harm in trying it out. If you're interested in getting some better contact and phone prediction before 4.4 rolls out on your device, make sure to check out Calchas, available for any Android device running 2.2 or higher.