Got a missed call from an unknown number? It might be spam, or it might be a genuine concern. The easy way to find out is if you have the new Truedialer app, made by the team behind Truecaller, a free caller identification app.

The app stands out from the crowded market of the best phone dialer apps on Android, of which Contacts+ is our current favourite. Truedialer's approach is to integrate your phone book with a globally crowd-sourced phone book, so that it can fill in contact information that you are missing.

What Is Truedialer All About?

Truedialer's feature list is quite cool, even for just a phone dialer app:

• Swipe left and right on the keyboard to switch between numeric and alphabetic, making it easy for you to dial a number or search for a contact. The numeric keypad also works as a T9 contact search, which some other phone contacts apps also offer.
• Above the keyboard, you'll see a list of all the recent incoming, outgoing, and missed calls. If a number does not have a contact, Truedialer will search its database and provide a contact name for that number, as well as their location. You will need an active Internet connection for this.
• Similarly, when you dial a number, Truedialer will quickly search its database to give you a contact name.

• Swipe left on any contact to send them a text message. It's a handy shortcut that some dialers already have, like the default Phone app in Samsung handsets.
• Swipe right on any contact to view their details. Here, you can also add a contact to your phone book. If a contact is in your phone book already, you can choose to edit their details.
• If a phone number has been marked as spam by several Truecaller users, you will be notified of that in a dark red message before the calls is placed, in case you want to play it safe and hang up.

Once you start using Truedialer, you might just realise how many calls you get from people you know, but don't have them stored in your phone book. There are websites to identify people by phone numbers, but it's obviously easier to have it right on your smartphone. Not only does it help you return those calls, but you can also quickly add those people without the worry of filling out appropriate information.

Where Truedialer Falls Short

Right now, Truedialer cannot become your default dialer on a phone, which makes it severely restrictive. To combat this, the developers have given a workaround of having a shortcut to Truedialer in your notifications bar, but it's still not as convenient as making it default. You can work around this by choosing to always call from Truedialer, but there are small things that you will still miss. For example, you cannot dismiss missed calls directly from Truedialer. For that, you need to open the default phone app and dismiss them there.

A user on the Play Store points out that Truedialer also does not work well with dual-SIM phones. It dials only with the primary SIM and can't make a call with your secondary number.

How Accurate And Safe Is Truedialer?

Truedialer uses the same crowd-sourced phone book as Truecaller, so the same privacy concerns apply here. It will take your contacts list and upload it to its server, so you have to be prepared for that. Yes, it seems like a violation, but if you want to use the numbers saved by others, you need to give back to the community.

In our tests, we found that Truedialer's database is a little outdated. For example, we tried a phone number which was used by a person over a year ago for a short while, and has been used by a different business for the last year. Yet, Truedialer identifies it with the person, not with the business.

Should You Install Truedialer?

Personally, I quite like the app for its simplicity and the added functionality it provides. I often return to my phone to see several missed calls, often from people I don't know, so to see who they are before I call is a welcome change. The app also looks pretty good and the T9 dictionary as well as the swipe-to-message features work flawlessly, which is a nice bonus.

If you get several calls from unknown numbers and habitually like to return calls that are important, the Truedialer app is a good way to save yourself from calling back telemarketers and such.

Truedialer is also available for Windows Phone, but the interface is significantly different and it lacks some of the features of the Android version.

Download: Truedialer for Android (Free) [No longer available]

Truedialer for Windows Phone (Free)

What Do You Think Of Truedialer?

Apps like Truedialer raise an interesting question about privacy. Would you be willing to give out your own contacts to gain access to the world's phone books? Where do you draw the line in privacy?