In a surprising turn of events, Google has renamed its Phone app to ‘Phone by Google’ app on the Play Store. It is not a hidden fact that in the past few weeks, Google has been rolling out changes to its apps.
But the Phone app, which got its name since its inception, is now changed. It will be officially called Phone by Google Caller ID & Spam Protection, as listed on the Play Store.
Well, if you have been following us, we reported some days ago that Google rolled out the verified calls feature. The latter part of the new name of the Phone app seems to highlight this feature.
For the unaware, the newly introduced feature would help users to get notified about verified business calls. The legitimate business calls will show a company’s name, logo, and a small verified badge along with a reason for its call.
So, this would enable the users to reject spam calls, if none of the information is provided by the business. This feature is already available to the Google Phone app or now, Phone by Google Android app users.
Besides, the new name also attracts the customers as it highlights the key capabilities of the Phone by Google app. In fact, adding the ‘by Google’ naming is pretty standard for the company.
The ‘by Google’ naming scheme has become a standard for Google
As noted by 9to5Google, other applications that carry the same naming scheme are Files, Wear OS, PhotoScan, Gallery Go, Read Along, Lookout, and Socratic.
However, there are no changes in the actual app itself. Meaning that you will not find any new features or any in-app changes with this new name change.
It is just an aesthetic makeover done by Google, to streamline one of its oldest apps, with all the modern ones. Notably, the ‘Phone by Google’ tagline was used to advertise and introduce the Pixel and Pixel XL devices.
The new name change is now visible on the Google Play Store. In fact, it will be interesting to see whether the Messages app also gets a name revamp of not.
Keep in mind that the Messages app was previously known as Android Messages. But soon Google dropped the word ‘Android’ from the app-name and went ahead with Messages.
If Google follows the same treatment as other apps, we might get “Messages by Google” app name soon. It is widely available on all the Android devices as default RCS client.