Hiya AI Phone App
Product Design / AI / Product Strategy / UX writing
The phone dialer app has remained the same for as long as smartphones have existed. Our team set out to bring something new to the game, expanding how people think of making and receiving phone calls. With v1 launched in early 2025, the Hiya AI Phone app is on a course to do just that.
(Case study still in progress)
My role
I was the Lead Product Designer on this project, collaborating closely with one of our Principal Product Designers.
A completely new team was spun up to tackle this project, and I was there from day 1 alongside the Chief Product Officer, the VP of Technology, and a handful of engineers to help define and shape what the product would and could become.
Throughout the product’s conception and execution, I have helped craft the product roadmap, defined the product design and strategy for both iOS and Android apps, as well as contributing to AI voice design, branding, and QA.
The challenge
Your Phone is boring
The “dialer project” had been an on-and-off effort at Hiya over the course of several years. The stock dialer apps for iOS and Android did the same basic things: receive incoming calls, dial outbound calls, show a call log with basic details, and record and play voicemails. There was so much room to do more, but what substantial value could be added had never been totally clear.
No one wants to answer the phone
We had no shortage of research that showed us one important fact: people don’t want to answer the phone if they don’t know what the call is about. If they see a number they don’t recognize, they simply don’t answer. This is often harmless but can sometimes result in missing important calls or beginning a game of “phone tag.” What if we could take the uncertainty out of the equation?
Spam and the new enemy of AI fraud calls
No one in America is immune to spam calls. Hiya already had an effective spam blocking app that used best-in-the-industry technology to block and label spam and fraud calls.
And they were working on ways to identify fraud calls and AI voices in real-time. A perfect match for the new AI-fueled app.
Don’t make me think
For as long as phone calls have existed, there has been no easy way to quickly distill the content of a phone call into something that is easy to access and reference. What if we built it directly into the phone app?
The solution
Finally, in the spring of 2024, with an engineering team excited to explore what they could do with AI, the vision started to take shape. Over the course of weeks, we explored ideas, investigated technology and tools, and gathered as much data and research as we could to refine the vision. Research
Build a phone dialer app that uses AI to extract and provide the most valuable details about a user’s calls
Create actionable interactions based on call content
Provide information about incoming calls that helps the user know whether or not they want to answer the call
Bring in the benefits of Hiya’s industry-leading spam fighting tools
Detect AI deepfake voices in real time to warn users of fraud or scams
Expand the AI’s capabilities to serve as a robust assistant than can handle
And then we started building.
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