As you probably know by now, it is a lot easier to access favorite and most recent contacts in iOS 8.
All you need to do is, double click on the Home button, tap on the Contact, and select how you want to contact them.
If you’re not a big fan of the feature, and worried about the wear and tear of the Home button, then you can check out the Swipe Dial widget, that allows you to add the speed dial numbers to Notification Center, making it even easier to access and dial the number of your favorite contacts from anywhere in iOS.
Add Favorite Contacts
- Download Swipe Dial widget from the App Store using this iTunes link. Note: It’s a freemium app, so it gives you the ability to add only 3 contacts for free. You need to pay $0.99 for the ability to add unlimited contacts.
- Tap on Add Contact at the bottom right corner, and then choose the contact you want to add to your favorite contacts. If there is more than one phone number in a contact, then you will be prompted to select the appropriate one.
- It automatically adds the label such as work, mobile, main. To re-order your favorites, tap on Edit, and drag each contact into the order you want just like you would do in the Contacts app.
Add Widget to Notification Center
- After you’ve added your favorite contacts, you need to enabled the Swipe Dial widget, so that your favorite contacts are visible in the Today view of Notification Center. If you need help, check out our guide on how to enable widgets in iOS 8.
Making Calls to your Favorite Contacts
After you have enabled the Swipe Dial widget in the Notification Center, you can pull down on the Notification Center, and tap on the contact to call the number. If you do it on the Lock screen then you will have to enter the passcode or unlock it with Touch ID.
Limitations
You can only call your favorite contacts. The Swipe Dial widget doesn’t allow you to FaceTime or message your favorite contacts at the moment. I’m not sure if it is an iOS limitation or something that the developer plans to add in the future.
If you’ve jailbroken your iPhone, then check out Favorite Contacts jailbreak tweak on Cydia (it is not yet compatible with iOS 8). It doesn’t have the limitations mentioned above, and uses Favorties from the Phone app, which makes it a lot easier to manage.
