Assistance Dialing a Prompt When on a Phone Call

By Adam, 15 October, 2012

Forum

iOS and iPadOS

Does anyone have information about a podcast or instructions on how to quickly and easily dial a number when prompted during a phone call? i.e. you call a bank & are asked to press 1 to access the automated system or enter a "pin" number to access your information, etc. I am having difficulty using the keypad to quickly do this when using voice over. I've heard that there may be a way to set up a contact to dial the number, create a pause, dial the desired "prompt" number, create another pause, dial that "prompt #", etc. If this process exists, I'd appreciate receiving instructions on how to set it up. This would be extremely helpful when I'm traveling & have to contact a transportation service to schedule or check a ride. There are usually several prompts to go through before I can get to an operator. It's very difficult to attempt to press numbers on the keypad while having voice over activated & there's never enough time (at least for me) to select & enter the correct number. Hopefully some of you out there have encountered this issue & have some ideas , instructions &/or podcasts you can direct me to for assistance. Thanks.

Options

Comments

Suggestions

What I have done in the past is that I have created a Contact for my Pharmacy in such way as you mentioned above. Where you have an assortments of numbers you have to press. So what I have done is this. Create a new Contact. Give it a new name. Where ou enter the phone number is what I've done. Say the number is 123-4567. I need to press 2 on my phone to get in to another set of menu. Lastly I need to enter 1 for another menu option. So in the phone number filed you have the following: 123-456,2,1 The comma is the pause. Sometime you may have to time it out. So have two commas to wait a bit longer. So it would look like this. 123-4567,,2,,1 Now save the results. Now place a call in using this new Contact you have created. Let me know how that works for you.

Suggestion Worked

Thanks Tom. I used your instructions on 2 contacts where I have to enter numbers at different prompts & it worked . I really appreciate your help.

Hi, the comma inserts a

Hi, the comma inserts a pause, and dials the next set of numbers automatically after the pause time is up. Another feature you can use is a semi colon, a ; symbol. If you use that symbol, you can insert that before the first set of extra numbers you have to dial, and then the phone will wait for you to tap the dial button before beginning to dial it. Of course you do have to take the phone from your ear to be able to navigate the screen to find the dial button, and I think you have to tap the hide keypad button before you can get to it, but can't remember for sure. Either way I have found using the semi colon useful when companies or businesses change there pre recorded information which can throw your timings off. What I do with my bank for example is have a semi colon before my account number and then sort code and pin after that seperated by commas. Yes I know its not very secure having that set up, but unfortunately interacting with these kinds of systems is the one drawback to not having a proper dial pad.

Final Results

Glad that it worked out. Glad you submitted this posting as I learned some new things with the ;. Good to know!

Hello. I read your topic on

Hello. I read your topic on dialing prompts. I like the suggestion that anonymouse gave. I tried it while adding a contact for a social networking service I use. When I called the contact, I was able to log in with ease. Another idea I have is to use headphones while on a call. If you wear them, you can access the key pad easily because the phone is away from your ear already. Hope this helps. Good idea

Similar Challenge

I have the similar challenge. I can get through the menu options i.e. dial 1 for, dial 2 for etc. but when it comes to entering my debit card details over the IVR I get timed out since it is almost a 10 digit number and the IVR does not allow me enough time to punch it in

Difficulty using number pad during phone call

I'm presently using an Iphone 8 with IOS 12. Whenever I make or receive a phone call, it is difficult to impossible to use the number pad on the phone. It's as if the number pad disappears from the phone. Tapping the screen doesn't always produce a response from voice-over. When I use a bluetooth keyboard, I have the same kind of problems hitting numbers. It's almost as if, when the phone is making or receiving a call, the key pad is pretty much disabled. It's also hard to make voiceover read the "answer call" "end call" and other buttons usually found at the bottom of the screen. Does anyone have suggestions? Thanks

Interacting with keypad during a call

Yes, the interaction with the keypad during a phone call and when using VoiceOver is very problematic. The phone seems very sluggish to respond to swipes, taps, etc. and it is very difficult to enter numbers reliably and quickly. The suggestions above are very helpful but it would be nice is Apple could improve this experience with VoiceOver during calls.

--Pete

Holding the star key

When you call a phone number from the phone keypad, such as to the bank, you can insert a comma by simply just holding the star and lift it when a comma has been inserted.
You may have to do this multiple times depending on how many seconds you need to wait, doing it once does it for approximately six seconds