call history - Changing default behaviour of the Phone app in Oreo

Each time when I open the Phone app, I see Favourites tab (first one) as default.

This is completely useless for me, because Google uses its weird logic to tell me which contacts are my so called favourites and this logic produces completely wrong results -- i.e. I see "favourite" contacts which aren't truly my favourite ones.

This tab is also useless, if your contacts have more than one phone number, because instead of showing a list in this case and letting you pick the number, it always calls the default number. This isn't working in my case, because I have a lot of contacts which I contact both privately (i.e. during weekends and evenings; using private phone number) and on business grounds (using company phone number). So using the default phone number and Favourites tab is pointless in my case.

For the above reasons, I am not using Favourites tab at all and I am always forced to switch manually to recent phones / call history tab.

Is there any way to make that tab displayed as default each time I open up the Phone app.

My stack:

• Motorola Moto Z2 Play,


• Android 8.0 Oreo.

I am using the default, system Phone app. No 3rd party solution.

Answer

A possible solution is to automate the process of clicking the Call history tab when the phone app is opening. It is not elegant but may help you.

Using Automatem create the following flow:

1. In the Apps section, select App start. Click it, in the Package option select the Phone app from the list. Click Done.


2. In the Interface section, select Interact. Click it, set the Proceed option to When UI element appear, then click Record Interactions. A small widget will appear. Open the Phone app, then click on the call history. Click the check mark on the widget. It will take you back to Automate, and many parameters of the Interact block will be filled for you. Click Done.


3. In the Flow section, select Flow stop.


4. Click the Flow beginning block, give the title a name; then click on "Install home screen shortcut".


5. Link the blocks as seen on the image, then save and give the flow a name.


6. Give the required permissions when asked.

On your home screen, there will be a shortcut created with the label (title) you inserted in step 4. Clicking it will open the Phone app, then show the call history,

It is not elegant because for a fraction of a second, you will see the Favorites tab before the call history is shown.