Phone Dialer
Place voice calls with a keypad, your recent calls, and your agency contacts.
The Phone screen is a full softphone. It has three tabs — Keypad for dialing a number, Recent for your call history, and Contacts for your directory. A status label at the top tells you whether the calling service is connected. When a call starts, a dedicated call screen takes over with mute, speaker, keypad, and end-call controls.
Overview
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Status label | Reads Connected when the calling service is ready, Disconnected when it is not. |
| Keypad tab | The number pad for dialing. |
| Recent tab | Your incoming and outgoing call history. |
| Contacts tab | Your agency directory, searchable. |
| Number display | Shows the digits you have entered so far. |
| Number keys 0–9 | Add that digit to the number. |
| Star key | Adds *. Press and hold it to insert + instead. |
| Delete button | Removes the last character you entered. |
| Call button | Places the call to the number on the display. |
| Search field | On the Contacts tab, filters the directory by name. |
| Back button | Disconnects the calling service and leaves the screen. |
Getting Here
- From Home, open the Phone feature.
- The dialer opens on the Keypad tab.
- Tap Keypad, Recent, or Contacts to switch, or swipe sideways between them.
When the screen opens it asks for microphone permission if it has not been granted before, then registers with the calling service. A brief loading indicator runs while that registration happens, and the status label switches to Connected when it succeeds.
The active tab's label is shown in red with an underline beneath it. The keypad column resizes for phones, tablets, and landscape so the keys stay comfortably large.
Place a Call
- On the Keypad tab, tap the number keys to enter the number you want.
- To start an international number, press and hold the star key for about half a second. A
+is inserted. - Use the delete button to correct a mistake — it removes one character at a time.
- Tap the call button.
What happens next:
| Situation | Result |
|---|---|
| The number is valid | The call is set up and the call screen opens with the status Calling.... |
| The number is not a usable phone number | The app shows "Please enter valid number" and no call is placed. |
| The service returns no number to dial | The app shows "Dial number is empty" and no call is placed. |
| You are offline | Nothing is sent. Calls need a live connection. |
| Microphone permission is declined | The call is not placed. |
Every outbound call is set up through your agency's calling service, so the dialer needs both a working internet connection and microphone permission. Without either one the call button does nothing useful.
Review Recent Calls
- Tap the Recent tab.
- Each row shows the day, the number, how long the call lasted, and an arrow.
- The list is rebuilt from your device every time you open the tab or return to the screen, so it always reflects your latest calls.
| Element | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Arrow pointing down-left | An incoming call. |
| Arrow pointing up-right | An outgoing call. |
| Day | The call's date written out, for example Tuesday, March 04. |
| Number | The number that was called or that called you, with the service's routing prefix and domain stripped out so it reads as a plain number. |
| Duration | Minutes and seconds, or hours, minutes and seconds for a call over an hour. |
Recent calls are stored on your own device for your current agency, so the list works with no connection. Switching agencies shows that agency's history instead.
Call from Contacts
- Tap the Contacts tab.
- Type a name into the Search field, or scroll the list. Search matches the person's name, or their company name for an organizational contact, and ignores capital letters.
- Tap the cancel control beside the search field to clear it and restore the whole list.
- Tap a contact to open their directory profile, where their numbers are listed and you can place the call.
| Element on a row | What it shows |
|---|---|
| Initials badge | The contact's initials, from their name or their company name. |
| Name | Their full name, or their company name. Your own row is marked (My Profile). |
| Directory name | Which directory the contact belongs to. |
| Color dot | The contact's directory color, so they look the same everywhere in the app. |
During a Call
The call screen shows the caller's name and number, the current status, and a running timer.
| Status shown | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Calling... | The outbound call is being set up. |
| Connecting... | The service is connecting the two ends. |
| Ringing... | The far end is ringing. |
| Connected | The call is live and the timer is running. |
| Incoming Call | Someone is calling you and the ringtone is playing. |
Available controls:
| Control | What it does |
|---|---|
| Mute | Toggles your microphone. The icon shows a slashed microphone while you are muted. |
| Speaker | Toggles speakerphone. The icon shows more sound waves when the speaker is on. |
| Keypad | Opens an in-call keypad for sending touch tones. Each key you press is sent down the line and also shown on a small display; a delete control clears the last digit. Close the keypad to hide it and clear the display. |
| End call | Hangs up. |
| Answer | Shown only for an incoming call. |
| Minimize | Closes the call screen without ending the call. |
For an incoming call, an answer button is added and a ringtone loops until you answer or decline. If something else interrupts the phone while it is ringing, the ringtone pauses and resumes on its own.
Use the in-call keypad to work through automated phone menus — each key you press sends a touch tone to the other end rather than changing the number you dialed.
When the call ends, for any reason, it is written to your Recent list with its direction, number, duration, and date.
How This Connects
- Where the calling service comes from. Opening the screen asks your agency's server for a short-lived calling credential and your own calling address, then registers with the voice service. The Connected label reflects that registration. Leaving the screen with the back button deliberately disconnects it again, which is why the label resets each time you come back.
- How an outbound call is placed. Tapping call sends the number you typed to your agency's server, which returns the routed number actually to dial. That is why a number can be rejected with "Dial number is empty" even though it looked fine on the display — the routing step found nothing to call.
- Where the contacts come from. The Contacts tab is the same agency directory used by the Directory module and by the Messages people picker, read from the copy stored on your device. Names, initials, and colors therefore match everywhere, and a directory change appears here after the next sync.
- Where recent calls come from. Call history is written to your device by the call screen when each call ends, per agency. Nothing else updates it, and it is never fetched from the server — so it is complete offline but specific to this device.
- Incoming calls. Calls arrive through the device's own call handling, so an incoming call can reach you when the app is in the background. Answering opens the same call screen you see for an outbound call.
- Phone versus radio. The dialer is for one-to-one telephone calls. Talking to a whole channel at once is push-to-talk instead — see Push-to-Talk (RTP Audio) and Live Audio Streaming.
- Offline behavior. Browsing Recent and Contacts works with no connection. Registering the service and placing a call both need one, and nothing is queued — reconnect and dial again.
Troubleshooting
| If this happens | What to do |
|---|---|
| The status reads Disconnected | The calling service has not registered. Leave the screen and reopen it to retry, and check your connection. |
| "Please enter valid number" | The digits on the display are not a usable phone number. Check the country code, and press and hold the star key for a leading +. |
| "Dial number is empty" | Your agency's routing returned nothing for that number. Confirm the number with your dispatcher. |
| The call button does nothing | Microphone permission was declined, or you are offline. Allow the microphone in your device settings and reconnect. |
| The other side cannot hear you | Check the mute control — a slashed microphone means you are muted. Then check nothing else on the device is holding the microphone. |
| You cannot hear the other side | Turn the speaker on, then raise the device volume. If a headset is connected, the audio is going there. |
| The call is going to the wrong output | Disconnect or reconnect the headset, or toggle the speaker control, to move the audio. |
| Touch tones are not recognised | Use the in-call keypad, not the dialer keypad. Press the keys slowly and only once the call reads Connected. |
| A call is missing from Recent | The list is per device and per agency. Check you are in the right agency; a call taken on another device will not appear. |
| Numbers look odd in Recent | Routing prefixes are stripped for readability, so a number may read differently from how it was dialed. |
| The ringtone keeps playing after answering | Answer with the answer button on the call screen rather than dismissing the notification. |
Related Pages
Next: Select an Audio Channel ➡️