Call Manager

We looked at what users already valued and found that millions relied on Missed Call Alerts. These SMS notifications inform users who called while they were out of network coverage, a frequent issue for this user base.

This was a trusted service, but the SMS format was limiting and hard to manage.

We decided to move this service into the app to build a Call Manager. By starting with a utility users already trusted, we could expand the app into a daily communication tool featuring spam alerts, voicemail and call screening.

The MVP was designed to test whether users would switch from reading SMS notifications to managing alerts inside the app. We focused on a singular, high-value flow: viewing and acting on missed calls.

By integrating with native phone permissions (Contacts, Calling, and SMS), we enabled users to see exactly who called and immediately call them back or text them from within the app. This turned a static text notification into an actionable tool.

We launched the MVP quietly, using push notifications as the primary way to bring users into the app. While the MVP helped us test the technical stability of the system, we also used this period to observe how users interacted with the feature in a live environment. The initial results showed encouraging signs. Seeing users utilize the calling feature confirmed strong demand for this capability.

We were looking to understand the feature landscape of this space and map out what gave us a Right To Win.

We narrowed down the feature list to the two most essential ones that could enable us to improve on the MVP and build towards the North-star. We focused on enabling the core functionality:

• Build a Call Log
• Contextually add Missed Call Alerts

A call log seems simple until you realize how messy human communication is. Users don't just 'make calls'; they miss them, get cut off by bad reception, and obsessively redial. Analysing call logs of colleagues and friends, we realised users could get overwhelmed scrolling through endless lists of the same name, unable to distinguish between a 'missed call' and a 'network failure'. We couldn’t just list out every single entry interspersed by alerts.

We structured the timeline based on relevance and recall. A user's mental model for recent calls relies on precision—'Who called me at lunch?'—requiring exact timestamps for today. However, as the timeline extends beyond 48 hours, that cognitive need shifts from precision to scanning. Therefore, we progressively simplify the data: moving from exact times to day names, and finally to simple dates for older history, reducing visual noise where high-fidelity data isn't needed.

Standard call logs often treat all failed calls the same. I improved this by designing distinct visual identifiers for Incoming, Outgoing, and Network-Failed calls. This small detail removes ambiguity, letting users know at a glance if a call was missed personally or dropped technically.

Since the alerts in the MVP didn't need to sit alongside ordinary calls, we styled them like missed calls from the native call log. Now that this feature had grown to incorporate and accommodate the native call log, it became important to distinguish calls from alerts and give a human-readable summary.

The Call Log took shape through careful detailing, human-centric grouping, and a focus on what's important while removing unnecessary information.

The call log underwent further detailing regarding how grouping calls from the same number would work, how to handle multiple alerts from different calling numbers, when to request various permissions, and so on.

A detailed redlining document was prepared to help development teams understand the exact specifications.

This project was a roaring success. There was a significant rise in the sign-ups to the app and increased frequency with which a portion of the user base accessed the app.

Looking at our feature roadmap, we built out where this feature could go next incorporating elements of spam detection and enabling spam reporting — a major pain-point in voice calling in India.

As we were building out spam detection features, Airtel leadership pivoted to address spam at the OS level rather than within the app alone.

While a perfect move for our users, this saw the Call Manager feature defunded.