One of the biggest shortcomings in stock Android is the lack of a T9 dialer app. For those who aren't familiar with the feature, a T9 dialer basically allows you to search for phone numbers from your contacts using the classic phone pad by simply pressing numbers instead of letters for contact names. The feature has been present in even a decade old phones, but for some reason, it hasn't made its way to stock Android, even in Jelly Bean 4.2.
Some custom OEM skins such as HTC Sense include T9 functionality, and a lot of custom ROMs include it by default. There are also third-party dialer-replacement apps that allow you to use it on any phone. Reactiv Dialer is one such app developed by XDA Senior Member Phat7, which aims to be a fast, lightweight replacement for the stock Android dialer with a lot of added features including T9 support.
The app offers a lot of useful features including
- multiple languages,
- smart contact search,
- quick access to several contact actions,
- quick redial for the last dialed number,
- call history display in dialer,
- number editing before dialing,
- swipe gesture to hide the dialpad.
The app is available in a fully functional free version, as well as a paid plus version that adds theme support to make it look like GB, ICS, HTC or TouchWiz dialer. The app is compatible with Android 2.3 or later. You can learn more and find the Play Store link for the app in the application thread.