Dialpad

Note: Dialpad offered gift certificates to reviewers. I think that’s shady. But I have used the app 2+ years.
Best: I am a sole proprietor (single user) & love that this app gives me a business phone number that rings to my personal device. That’s genius, a good value, and worth all interface hassles. Also, support has improved a lot. I get timely, thorough responses to issues: there’s a star-rating requested every outgoing call, and when I have reported issues (rare, such as one-way audio), they’ve sent detailed analysis explaining what happened. At least one bug I reported (an issue where the keyboard covered most of the comment field on a feedback window, with no scrolling) has recently been fixed.

Dialpad scores terribly on its interface and on interoperability with other apps. The contacts-search function won’t access iOS Contacts (even with access granted in Settings): type a name in search, and it will sit & spin all day. It doesn’t even time out. The app provides a skeleton contacts function (name, phone numbers, emails, company, and title—that’s it), so I lose a lot of functionality that’s essential for a communications app. Similar fail when sharing a picture from Photos: tap Share, select Dialpad, and the app will open to the eternal spinner (yet the app will acceess Camera and Photos the other way around). Also, unlike iOS Messages, when I start a text in Dialpad and need switch screens or apps, the draft text goes away. Lost time & effort. These issues are all long term, so clearly, the development team just has not prioritized basic functionality in their phone app.