Comparison

DianYiTong vs Tower

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

DianYiTong

This app offers a T9 dialer with offline functionality for iPhone users. It allows for quick contact searching via Pinyin input, provides a simplified interface for seniors, and includes offline lookup of number origins and service lines.

Highlights
  • Offline T9 Pinyin contact search
  • Senior Mode with large contact icons
  • Offline number origin and carrier lookup
  • Direct dialing for service and emergency numbers
  • Customizable contact sorting
  • Multiple app icon choices
Features
Read full description

DianYiTong — fills the gap in the iPhone keypad: T9 search by pinyin. Type digits, and the contact appears. 【No network. Fully offline.】 This is DianYiTong's firmest promise: the app itself never goes online. With no network at all, everything still works — calling, finding people, resolving a number's origin, looking up service lines. No account, no sign-up, no server; not a single contact is uploaded. 【Senior Mode: big faces, tap who you want】 The mode built for your parents. Favourite contacts become large icons, three per row, labelled with the nickname you set (Son, My daughter, Husband) instead of the full name from the address book. Tapping one speaks the nickname first, then you confirm “Call” — so the wrong person never gets dialled. The keypad starts collapsed, so the app opens on a screen of big faces. 【T9 pinyin search: find someone in a second】 Type the digits that match a name's pinyin: 526 (initials l·a·m) finds Liu Amei, 94264 (full pinyin zhang) finds every Zhang. Initials, full pinyin or partial matches; surnames that are easy to misread (曾/单/解/仇) are corrected automatically. Millisecond responses even with a thousand contacts. 【Number origin and carrier, resolved offline】 Type a number and its province, city and carrier (China Mobile / Unicom / Telecom) appear instantly. The database is built in, so looking one up never touches the network. 【Service numbers: search and call directly】 Emergency numbers (110/119/120/122), the anti-fraud line 96110, government hotlines (12345/12315/12306…) and around a hundred official service lines for banks, couriers, airlines and electronics brands. Every number comes with a note on what it does. Type a brand's pinyin: 42437 (haier) brings up Haier's service line. 【One contact, several numbers — call the one you want】 A tap opens the full list with mobile / work / home labels. Tap the number you need. 【Sort contacts your way】 By name (pinyin index), most recent call or most called. The unique “Region” view groups your contacts by province and city based on where the number is from — handy for sales and anyone who lives on the phone. 【11 app icons to choose from】 Eleven icon styles are built in; pick your favourite in Settings. 【Privacy commitment】 Contacts are read and searched on this device only, and never uploaded. No accounts, no data collection, no analytics SDKs. Number origins are resolved offline. No third-party ads whatsoever. 【About incoming calls】 iOS does not allow third-party apps to read the system call log. DianYiTong provides a “Phone” shortcut that opens the Phone app in one tap, where your incoming and missed calls live. Psychological services are provided by GeiliXinLi.

About

Tower

Features
Read full description

Tower is a native iOS client for your Unraid server. It talks straight to your own machine — there is no account to create, no service in the middle, and nothing of yours on anybody else's computer. Tower does not provide, host, stream, or download any media. It is a remote management interface for a server and the applications you already run on your own hardware. A search you start runs against the indexers you configured on that server, and the result goes to your own download client. No media file is ever downloaded to your phone. YOUR SERVER, AT A GLANCE • Array status, capacity, and parity state the moment you open the app • CPU, memory, uptime, per-disk temperature and usage • User shares with their allocation settings, disks and the pool they live on • Notifications and system logs without reaching for a terminal DOCKER AND VIRTUAL MACHINES • Containers with real state — start, stop, restart, pause, resume • Per-container logs, ports, and the volumes actually mounted • Virtual machines, including force stop when a guest stops listening • A container and the service it runs, cross-linked both ways CONTROL THE SERVICES YOU RUN ALONGSIDE IT Tower drives the self-hosted applications on that server too, each through its own local API, and each appearing only once you have given Tower its address: • Sonarr, Radarr and Lidarr: library, calendar and history; add, edit or remove a movie, series or artist; start a search and send a result to your own download client • NZBGet: queue, progress and speeds; pause, resume or remove a download; retry from history • Prowlarr: indexer health, and adding, testing, enabling and removing indexers • Bazarr: subtitle status, and a manual subtitle search your server carries out • Overseerr: search, request, and approve or decline what is waiting on you • Tautulli: who is watching what, with bandwidth and transcoding at a glance Tower sends the instruction; the applications on your own server do the work. BUILT FOR iPHONE AND iPAD • Adaptive layouts with proper split views on iPad • Dynamic Type, semantic colors, and system controls throughout • Light and dark, or pin whichever you prefer PRIVATE BY CONSTRUCTION • Connects directly to your own machines over your own network • Every API key is stored in the iOS keychain and sent only to the server it belongs to • No accounts, no analytics, no ads, no telemetry, no backend of ours TRY IT FIRST • A built-in demo mode runs the whole app against sample data — every service, every screen — so you can see everything before pointing it at a real machine Tower requires an Unraid server with its GraphQL API enabled, and network access to it from your device. Service features require the corresponding application to be running and reachable on your network. Tower is an independent project, and is not affiliated with or endorsed by Lime Technology, Inc., Plex Inc., or the projects whose APIs it speaks.

Screenshots

DianYiTong4 screens
Tower4 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is update cadence: Tower at every 5 days against DianYiTong's every 3 weeks. DianYiTong's advantage is iOS requirement (16.0 vs 26.0). On price, ads, in-app purchases and device support there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. Neither carries in-app purchases, so what you see is what you pay.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

DianYiTong ships an update every 3 weeks, Tower every 5 days. The most recent releases landed on November 10, 2026 and November 8, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard2 real differences · 6 level
DianYiTong versus Tower: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterDianYiTongTower
PriceFreeFree
Positive reviews100.0% of reviews—
Update frequencyEvery 3 weeksEvery 5 days — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNoNo
MonetizationFree—
DevicesiPhoneiPhone, iPad — better
Requires iOS16.0 — better26.0
Further details — not scored
Size18 MB7 MB
Age rating4+4+
Developer长沙给力信息技术有限公司CARSON BOONE UNDERWOOD

In-app purchases

None

DianYiTong

No in-app purchases

None

Tower

No in-app purchases

Questions

Is DianYiTong free?
DianYiTong is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is Tower free?
Tower is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Do DianYiTong or Tower have ads?
Neither DianYiTong nor Tower shows ads.
Which is updated more often, DianYiTong or Tower?
DianYiTong ships an update every 3 weeks, and Tower every 5 days. Most recently, DianYiTong was updated on November 10, 2026 and Tower on November 8, 2026.

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