Skip to main content

Click on phone number on Mac

  • November 4, 2022
  • 3 replies
  • 99 views

Is there a way to configure a Phone field to allow clicking it and calling the number on MacBook. This would be super helpful not to have to type it into my iPhone.

3 replies

ScottWorld
Forum|alt.badge.img+35
  • Genius
  • 9808 replies
  • November 4, 2022

If you use Safari instead of Chrome, you can highlight a phone number (you can also triple-click to quickly highlight the entire phone number). Then, macOS will give you a pop-up menu to dial the number. Unfortunately, this doesn’t work in Chrome. Maybe there’s some Chrome extension to make that work.


Forum|alt.badge.img+19
  • Inspiring
  • 3263 replies
  • November 5, 2022

I think the issue is that Airtable chose not to support the tel: protocol (i.e., tel://999-999-9999) natively in its URL field. There are many different URL protocols and tel: is the one that makes it possible for click-to-dial. This same behaviour should be possible on the mobile devices (not sure - never tested).

Unlike Chrome, Safari chose to support it as well as native entity extraction to make it possible to dial phone numbers even when the tel:// protocol was not applied.

But… there’s an out on Mac that requires no additional effort.

Simply enter your phone number data into a URL field like this:

… and it will work.


ScottWorld
Forum|alt.badge.img+35
  • Genius
  • 9808 replies
  • November 5, 2022

I think the issue is that Airtable chose not to support the tel: protocol (i.e., tel://999-999-9999) natively in its URL field. There are many different URL protocols and tel: is the one that makes it possible for click-to-dial. This same behaviour should be possible on the mobile devices (not sure - never tested).

Unlike Chrome, Safari chose to support it as well as native entity extraction to make it possible to dial phone numbers even when the tel:// protocol was not applied.

But… there’s an out on Mac that requires no additional effort.

Simply enter your phone number data into a URL field like this:

… and it will work.


Nice tip, @Bill.French! That’s a great one! :cowboy_hat_face: :raised_hands: