Don't Dial it, Auto Dial it! A Guide to Dialing Extensions and Hard-to-Remember Numbers on a Call automatically

Intro

Have you ever wondered if there was a way your phone could just dial into an automated system without you needing to dial anything? Turns out, you can do just that.

Making the iPhone dial any number

Dialing a number directly within the phone app

Within the phone app, hold the star (*) key. VoiceOver should then say "Comma". - This is how you would enter a pause. You can dial the next part of the sequence of digits you want to dial. - You can enter multiple commas in a row. Each provides roughly 2 seconds of pause. You can dial stars or pound signs to be entered into the automated system if you need. - For example, to dial the digit 1 after 10 seconds on hold, you would enter something like 2125551212,,,,,1. - This waits 10 seconds after the call connects.

This is more known. What isn't so common is having the iPhone wait for you to press a dial button before dialing digits.

• You can enter a semicolon by holding the pound key.
• When you dial digits after a semicolon (;), your iPhone will wait for you to press the dial button. You can string several of both types together.
• For example, the number 8005551212;1,123456,7890;123# will show a dial button on the main call interface (not the keypad). Nothing happens until you hit that button. Once you do, the digit 1 would be dialed out, followed by a 2-second pause. The digits 123456 would then be dialed out followed by another 2-second pause, before the last digits 7890 would be automatically dialed. You would see another dial button which would dial 123#, but only after you press the dial button.

Save these numbers to your contacts

You can save these numbers to your contacts by activating the Shift key in the number field. You can then type the comma and the semicolon keys. This allows you to have your device dial long numbers out such as credit card numbers or other hard-to-remember numbers.

Supported devices

• In order to dial commas, you need iOS 2 or later. Yes, even your old iPhone 3G could do this.
• For the ability to have your device wait for you to press the dial button using the semicolon, you need at least iOS 6.

Conclusion

As you can see, this is a great feature for saving numbers to your contacts where you need to dial extensions, long numbers, etc. This is a great way to save time if you have to enter the same information over and over again.