Hi James,

n the case of Phone support, MobileSafari on the iPhone automatically converts any phone number on your webpage to a phone link. When the user taps a phone link, a dialog appears prompting the user to dial the phone number. If the user taps the call button, the Phone application launches and the phone number is dialed.

If your webpage contains numbers that could be mistaken for a phone number, you can turn off telephone number detection by using the format-detection meta tag, as follows:



Note that when using this capability you can still format phone links using tel: links; however this combination could pose a usability issue to your users.

For example, with format detection disabled, your iPhone visitors can now tap the specially formatted phone number to instantly contact you. However, that same link will throw an error when clicked from a desktop browser. To solve this issue in the event format-detection is necessary, you may consider updating your page to reformat the link using syntax appropriate for each group of users. When using this approach, the traditional desktop viewer will see your phone number formatted as text only, while an iPhone visitor will be able to tap on the linked phone number to call you.

One benefit of the aforementioned interaction is that the OS returns the user to your website when they are done contacting you.

Now I did a quick check on the source of the pages and on many of the pages, the phone number listing is a link to a next page. Only in the notes, the phone number could be clickable, so apparently due to formatting (P and DIV) it could be that the iPhone does not recognize the phone number. Maybe you can post this request (as it is an enhancement most probably) in the Ideas forum.

Arvid

So the meta tag which was mentioned above should be;

I'm sorry, but I am very confused by the exchange above. For starters, Arvid seems to know what he is talking about, but the "format-detection metatag" he mentions (twice) shows up blank for me... in both desktop Safari as well as Firefox.

I am also having a hard time figuring out if Arvid is speaking on behalf of RTM, with advice on how users can get this working... or if he's just a smart and helpful web developer telling RTM how to integrate the feature into their service by injecting new code in their pages.

I need an iPhone app that helps me keep track of calls I owe. I need to be able to tap the number to call, especially because the phone has no copy-paste. And then be able to tag those calls as pending, done, whatever... just as I would with any other task on my list.

I want RTM to be that app, whether it's via their Pro WebApp, an upcoming official (native) app, or Appigo's ToDo app.

Any real-world, right-now advice appreciated.

I've dived into this and figured out a clunky workaround for now. This is the only way I could get it to work, and it relies on the kindness of a free, third party server (for now.)

I enter a task (in this case, a phone call I owe) into RTM, and then for the URL, I enter their phone number as:

http://xxxxxxxxxxx.tel.QLNK.net

(where xxxxxxxxxxx is their phone number)

Then, it is tappable. The number pops up and I confirm the call, automatically dialing from my iPhone.

What RTM needs is a better format detection metagtag, so phone numbers anywhere are tappable without this nonsense.

Along with, perhaps, a "phone number" field so we can expressly put this info there if we want.

Lastly, a "date/time created" for every task would be helpful. That way I know how old a call is.



Inspired by this:
http://cre.ations.net/blog/post/iphone-113-webclip-hack---speed-dial-on-your-home-screen

Hey guys, thanks for the info. I will try that third party website (even though it is a bit of a hack) and also post in the ideas forum.