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iPhone Calling and Texting Links

This is the calling one (probably more useful if the clickable text is words, as the iPhone auto-detects phone numbers and does this automatically):

<a href="tel:1-408-555-5555">1-408-555-5555</a>

This is the SMS one, which overrides the default calling behavior:

<a href="sms:1-408-555-1212">New SMS Message</a>

Not sure what other things these links might work on... Might be a little dangerous as having non-standard links that don't work or bring up errors is kinda bad UX. Best for mobile-only sites. If someone know if this works on Android/Blackberry/Other Mobile, comment below.

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  1. Aaron

    I think using “callto:” instead of “tel:” is more useful – these work with Skype on the desktop too.

    Reply ↓
  2. Andrej Badin

    Should be combined with some device detection script, which would keep us from non-standard link on unsupported devicec.

    Reply ↓
  3. Dinesh Verma

    will this work with android too.

    Reply ↓
    • traq

      if you hold-click on a phone number, android will bring up a dialing menu. I think you need a dedicated app to actually make the call, however, at least when I tried it on a 2.2 tablet

  4. Josh

    Yes i can verify it works on android with one exception it doesn’t auto call you have to hit call yourself…so all it does is bring the number up when trying to call but texting opens a new message.

    Reply ↓
  5. russ

    hey team,
    stumbling back onto this thread, email signatures in mind.

    means by which we might optimize a phone number to play ball with a wide-range of devices/interfaces/clients when clicking from an email signature (mac mail in this case)?

    e.g. i’m joe recipient in calgary, got an email from a colleague in buenos aires (yep) – skype happens to be my preferred mode of contact right about now.. any means of making it so that i can choose between ‘phone,’ ‘text,’ ‘skype,’ when i click the telephone number on my phone or desktop?
    sure would be awesome – but too idealistic a query?

    Reply ↓
  6. Mike Swizzy

    Reference IETF Standard RFC3966 [ http://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc3966 ]. I have verified that this works on most mobile units… Click (tap) the link, and you’re taken directly to the dialer with the phone number auto-filled. Include *meta name=”format-detection” content=”telephone=no”* in the header to force this format on all devices.

    Reply ↓
  7. David Do

    This is new to me, but let me try

    Reply ↓

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