Monodial

AppCookery

About this app

Monodial turns a button on the home screen into a phone call.

It is built for someone who cannot work an ordinary phone — because of poor eyesight, unsteady hands, or simply panic. There is no contact list to scroll through, no keypad, and nothing to read. There is a button, as large as the home screen allows, and pressing it calls someone.

On some phones a hardware key can be set to do the same thing, so that not even the screen has to be found.

HOW IT WORKS

You make a list of the people who should be called, in the order they should be tried. Pressing the button calls the first person. If they do not answer, press it again and it calls the next one. Past the last name it returns to the first, so the button never runs out. Left alone for five minutes it starts again from the top, ready for whoever matters most.

There is nothing to confirm, nothing to dismiss, and nothing to find on the screen. One press, one call.

SEVERAL LISTS, SEVERAL BUTTONS

You can make more than one list — family on one, a neighbour on another — and give each its own name, its own colour, and its own button on the home screen. Buttons can be as large as the home screen grid allows, so the right one can be found by its colour rather than by reading it.

SETTING IT UP

Setup is meant for the person helping: a son, a daughter, a neighbour, a carer. Numbers can be typed in, or picked from the phone's own contacts.

Monodial never asks for permission to read your contacts. Android shows its own contact picker and hands back only the single number you chose, so the app never sees the rest of your address book.

WITHOUT TOUCHING THE SCREEN AT ALL

Many phones let you choose which app a hardware button opens — a side key, a call key, an SOS button on the back. On those phones Monodial can be chosen as that action, and pressing the key calls the list you picked. Nothing has to be found on the screen, and the screen does not even have to be looked at.

Not every phone has such a key, and where the setting lives differs from one make to another — it is in the phone's own settings, not in Monodial. Monodial's setup screen explains which half is yours to do.

YOUR NUMBERS NEVER LEAVE THE PHONE

The names and numbers you enter are stored on the device and are never uploaded — not to us, and not to a cloud backup. There are no accounts, no adverts, no advertising identifier, and no usage tracking of any kind.

The app sends one thing: an automatic report if it crashes, so that faults can be found and fixed. A crash report never contains a phone number, a list name, or a name you typed, and reports are deleted after ninety days. The full policy is at https://monodial.appcookery.com/privacy.html

ALSO

• Works with TalkBack, and with the system's largest font sizes.
• No home screen needed at all, if a hardware key is doing the calling.
• Nothing to sign in to and nothing to subscribe to.
• Free, with no purchases inside it.

Monodial is not an emergency service and cannot call one for you. It dials the numbers you choose, and a phone call can always fail.

What’s new

First release of Monodial.

It puts a big button on the home screen that calls the people on a list, one at a time. Press it again and it tries
the next person on that list.

If something does not work, or a button is hard to find or hard to press, please write to
[e-mail] and say so.