It would be nice if Airtable added a “click to call” formatting for phone numbers. That way if you use Skype/Teams or another service you can simply click the phone number you want to call. The mobile app allows it, so not sure why we can’t have on web app.
I believe the tel protocol works in an Airtable URL field. But, the ability of a computer to actually dial from a tel-based URL is independent, of course, of the use of this protocol in web pages (such as Airtable).
I’m not a VoIP expert at all, but I think if the browser has a pathway to an installed SIP phone such as that provided in Apple’s continuity features, Airtable tel protocol links should work.
The reason is simple - the mobile app is running in the context of a device that is a phone, whereas, the same cannot be assumed for laptops and desktops. As such, your browser is not able to interpret such abilities and provide that feature.
Yes - that’s exactly how I did it. I’m not sure if you can use a formula field to mimic this behavior, but I suppose you could use the API to populate clickable tel fields.
Even though this won’t help your situation, I’m throwing this out there in case anyone else wants to extract the digits from a phone field. Thankfully the VALUE function will do the job very simply, no nesting of SUBSTITUTE functions needed:
Yeah, I agree, but unfortunately, this is likely the only way to get a clickable tel:// link into the table given the current design of Airtable.
But once again, this is another example showing a key missing concept that (if present) would address a huge number of problems and open a vast number of cul-de-sacs that users often hit. Since this is in the Product Suggestions category, I’ll take the liberty of going off message a bit.
Opinion from here down…
The feature that @RnJ wants is not a clickable link. Rather, what he (and thousands of others) really need is for every data type to support inline formulaic logic. (i.e., any given cell – regardless of data type – should support formulas). And such formulas should support HTTP references (i.e., the ability to request external data from other services).
Architecturally speaking, any cell value should be able to be rendered in a late-binding process that allows us to shape the data into arbitrary formats (indeed, rendered values as opposed to actual values) using formulas. Ergo, cells must support logically attached formulas that are applied to the data value which transform it into a rendered value. The original value is untouched and the rendered value is interpreted, not compiled.
It should be simple work for anyone to factor a link (for example) from existing cell data and other data in the record and/or constants.
In my view, the “formula” data type leads users down a path that results in increasingly complex arrangements, specifically convoluted data models. In fact, there is no such thing as a formuladata type.
