Google is fixing one of Android’s most annoying calling problems

As part of the Material 3 Expressive refresh, Google made its Phone app a lot more customizable. The addition of Calling Cards further helped enhance the experience, giving the incoming call screen a visually appealing look. Despite these improvements, the Google Phone app still suffers from one major limitation: it cannot properly display VoIP calls from third-party apps. Google is finally addressing this long-standing issue for good.

With the Jetpack Telecom v1.1.0 update, Google is adding "native-level visibility and convenience to third-party VoIP apps." This will enable the Phone app to display a unified call log for all calls, native callback functionality, and better call handling.

In a nutshell, this improvement means WhatsApp or Telegram VoIP calls will now appear in the Phone app's call log. And you can even directly initiate a call from the Phone app — it will redirect you to the original app. The integration is coming to the Google Phone app as well as the native dialer app on most Android phones.

Apple has long offered this integration on the iPhone's native Phone app through CallKit. Google is only now getting on board, though it previously offered Meet integration in the Phone app.

In case you don't want calls from select third-party apps to appear in the Phone app, you can exclude them from the list.

Third-party VoIP apps still have work to do

For now, Google says the integration is rolling out in phases and is initially limited to Google Meet. So, only Meet calls will appear in your phone app’s native call log once the feature is available on your device.

Unfortunately, you may have a long wait ahead to see this integration in action. Third-party VoIP apps will need to test the APIs and update their apps accordingly. The integration is also only coming to devices running Android 16.1 or later. It appears to be live on Pixels running the latest Android Canary build.

AP tipster Armando R also got a WhatsApp integration toggle in the Phone app on his Pixel. This at least indicates that major third-party VoIP apps are already testing the API for Phone app integration.