Making a phone call in an iOS application

I have some code which attempts to make a call within an application, but it doesn't seem to be working:

    UIApplication *myApp = [UIApplication sharedApplication];
    NSString *theCall = [NSString stringWithFormat:@"tel://%@",phone];
    NSLog(@"making call with %@",theCall);
    [myApp openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:theCall]];

Sometimes, the variable phone is something such as @"(102) 222-2222". How can I make a call with a phone number like this? Do I need to manually extract the numbers out of it and get rid of all the extra punctuation?

Solution 1:

Yup. You need to take those out yourself. Or you can use the snippet below...

NSString *cleanedString = [[phoneNumber componentsSeparatedByCharactersInSet:[[NSCharacterSet characterSetWithCharactersInString:@"0123456789-+()"] invertedSet]] componentsJoinedByString:@""];
NSURL *telURL = [NSURL URLWithString:[NSString stringWithFormat:@"tel:%@", cleanedString]];

Note: you may be tempted to use -stringByTrimmingCharactersInSet:, but that one only removes characters at the start and the end of the string, not if they appear in the middle.

Solution 2:

To go back to original app you can use telprompt:// instead of tel:// - The tell prompt will prompt the user first, but when the call is finished it will go back to your app:

NSString *phoneNumber = [@"telprompt://" stringByAppendingString:mymobileNO.titleLabel.text];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:phoneNumber]];

just an update on above answer.

Solution 3:

Here's a simple method that can be used to make a call and return to the app after the call is finished.

Add the following to your .m file

- (void) dialNumber:(NSString*) number{
number = [@"telprompt://" stringByAppendingString:number];
[[UIApplication sharedApplication] openURL:[NSURL URLWithString:number]];
}

Then add the following code wherever you want to make the call from:

[self dialNumber:@"5031234567"];