I use a dozen of Google products daily for years, including making phone calls using Gmail's Call Phone. I have had quite a few problems and issues with Google products, but amazingly Google has never ever address any of them, including this one which I will address.When you click the Phone icon on the left pane of Gmail, the telephone keypad pops up on the lower right hand corner. You can then enter the phone number to initiate a call, or you can start typing and the phone numbers of the matching Google Contacts would be displayed as hints and you can press Enter to initiate a call. This is very handy as you won't have to remember any phone number that is in your Google Contacts.
Many months ago as Google continuously "improved" the integration among its products, I noticed some of my contacts stopped showing up on the "hint list" of the Call Phone keypad, especially notable were those of my immediate family.
I began to search for causes and solutions to no avail. People are having the same
problem but no one has the solution. I then noticed that my family are in my Google+ circles and their Google profiles are automatically appended in Google Contacts. May be that's why? But one family member who is in my Google+ circle does show up on the keypad... Soon I found a pattern, and thus the solution. Ready? It turns out that if a Google contact has a Gmail address *AND* you enter it in the email field of Google Contact form, it would not show up on the "hint" list of the Call Phone keypad!!! An apparent software bug! One solution is to cut the gmail address and paste it inside the notes field instead.
Another Google bug circumvented.
