answered
2014-01-15 01:49:58 +0200
Some background, from my point of view:
If I want to phone somebody there are typically 3 routes I take
a) use the call history -> call somebody who called me / who I called recently /missed call etc.
b) call somebody I know, already stored as a contact, but have not had contact with recently (not in call history).
c) call a "new" number, entered via the dialer (and often saved as a contact after the call).
On the N9 the phone app offered these 3 routes as tabs: thus from a UX point of view, almost equally weighted.
The Samsung Note 3 offers a 4th route: "favourties", but to my mind that overlaps enough with call history to be ignored.
Thinking about how I call people: most often I use the call history.
The phone app of Sailfish - defaults to a) the call history, and offers b) and c) via pulley menu. Thus a) (which I use most often) has a higher weighting than b) or c).
I tend to use the People app mainly to manage contacts (add, edit, delete). But it does offer a secondary route to call and SMS the contact, thought I don't think I have ever called or SMSed yet from the People app.
So I guess If you really wanted to merge the Phone and People apps, you would probably also have to merge SMS into the same. And as Netzvieh points out in his answer, the People app is more than about just contacting people, so you would have to integrate even more apps into the mix.
However i do agree with CaTom, that is a little bit strange that the People app also seems to display a short recent history. Perhaps this causes the confusion. Maybe it would be better if the people app gave higher priority to the Alphabet Sections - displaying the whole alphabet rather than just A to I.
I am not saying that your idea is not possible, and that it might not result in a mega-cool phone/contacts/messaging app, but I don't yet see any compelling benefits of an integrated app over the current setup.
for what it is worth: by design Sailfish does not support tabs: menus are used instead
FlyingSheep ( 2014-01-14 22:18:47 +0200 )editwith tabs I meant swiping pages, sorry.
MarkQ ( 2014-01-15 00:32:04 +0200 )edit