When an app is running and the phone rings, I get the notification across the top with the choices. All that’s fine but when I decide to answer, the phone app does not present the same view as when I make a call displaying the caller with the other options like mute, keypad, phone, etc. Instead, what I get is a tiny dot with the caller’s first initial and a smaller dot with a handset. If I want to switch to speaker phone, I have to tap the larger dot to display a context menu so I can select the speaker. I want to be able to have the option of using the speaker as soon as I answer the phone. Tapping answer then some microscopic dot, then a context menu is way too many hoops. I like android. But for all its flexibility, it can gets in its own way sometimes. IOS does this functionality better.
Have you looked at any replacement phone/dialer apps? (I have NEVER had a voice call on my phone, so I don’t know much about the category, but I know there are other choices that exist like the Trucaller one that some people love because it gives all their data away 
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Anyway, just making sure you do have the Google phone app to start, in case you somehow got a customization you were unaware about:
@amen_ra rather than touch on Answer or decline you can touch on the circle showing the initial or the picture of your contact who is calling you. This brings up the normal answer screen that you get when the screen is locked and you can put it onto loudspeaker from there.
Hmmm…I never knew that circle was even active. Good to know. I’ll have to retrain myself. I just tested it by calling my phone from the my office phone 
