Summary
For a while, a call in-progress showed up as a Pill or Tidepod in the notification bar, and had a different appearance in the notification dropdown. Currently, there is a floating avatar for calls in progress. The incoming call popup-up interface also looked cleaner.
Solution
Re-enable the notification bar "Pill" icon, and the newer (Android 12+) interface for incoming, and ongoing calls.
Examples
The first two images show the difference in the pop-up notification for incoming calls. I prefer the newer method where the answer & hang-up buttons are icons, rather than the partial words with "...". The last three images show two with the floating avatar, and one with the pill icon in the notification bar. Currently the Phone app is using the style I don't like.
Alternatives
I would like if the DialerMod could give a choice of which interface to use, and modify the phenotype.db database accordingly.
Context
It looks much cleaner. It was enabled in late 2021, then removed for a number of months. It returned briefly in late 2022, then mysteriously disappeared again. The floating avatar for ongoing calls is annoying, as is the pop-up when there is an incoming call. I know both are available in the Phone app, because for a month or two it showed up on one of my Pixel phones, but not the other. Both were Pixel 6 phones, running the same version of the Google Phone app.