It used to be that the only way to get Google's contacts app on a non Google Pixel or Nexus device was via manually installing the APK file. This meant you would not receive automatic updates and it would not be installed automatically when you restore the rest of your apps from the Play Store. Many third party apps existed, but few could match Google Contacts. However, now any Android device on Android Lollipop or higher you can install Google Contacts from the Play Store!

Google Contacts has some advantages over its competitors, the biggest being the fact it is Google made and thus follows the Material Design specification quite closely. With built in support for multiple Google accounts, third party integration, contact merging and more, this contacts application is one of the best around. You can simply replace your current contacts application with this one and start your calls from it!

However there is still no sign of Google Dialer which is another long-sought after application to replace the stock AOSP. You still need to flash the Google Dialer Framework or install a modified APK with some broken functionality.

Getting the Google Contacts app is a start, though, and hopefully in the coming months we can see Google providing Google Dialer to other devices as well. Go check out Google Contacts, it's one of the best contact applications around, especially if you save all of your contacts to your Google account!