Making a phone call with swift not working with certain numbers

Question

I have been trying desperately for the past few hours to make a phone call with swift when I call this function.

    func callPhone(phoneNumber: String){
        guard let url = URL(string:"telprompt:\(phoneNumber)") else {
             print("failed to load url, phone number: \(phoneNumber)")

             return
        }
        UIApplication.shared.open(url)
    }

For some reason it doesn't work, I have researched online everywhere and still couldn't find a problem to why this wouldn't work. Some numbers would occasionally work, like if I tried "123456789" it would work. but if i try a different number it wouldn't work; The guard let statement doesn't work and the url would be empty. Please help me. Any feedback would be very much appreciated.

Edit: So I found out when it is not working but I am not sure how to solve it. It doesn't work when I get the phone number from apple maps, but when I hard code the phone number it works. Here is my full code:

import UIKit
import MapKit
import CoreLocation

class ViewController: UIViewController, CLLocationManagerDelegate, MKMapViewDelegate {

@IBOutlet weak var map: MKMapView!
let locationManager = CLLocationManager()
let regionMeters : Double = 10000

override func viewDidLoad() {
    super.viewDidLoad()

    map.delegate = self
    locationManager.delegate = self
    locationManager.desiredAccuracy = kCLLocationAccuracyBest
    locationManager.requestWhenInUseAuthorization()
    locationManager.startUpdatingLocation()
    map.showsUserLocation = true
    if let location = locationManager.location?.coordinate {
        let region = MKCoordinateRegion.init(center: location, latitudinalMeters: regionMeters, longitudinalMeters: regionMeters)

        map.setRegion(region, animated: true)
    }
    searchLocations(search: "Restaurant")

}
func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, viewFor annotation: MKAnnotation) -> MKAnnotationView? {
    let identifier = "Place"
        var annotationView = mapView.dequeueReusableAnnotationView(withIdentifier: identifier)

        if annotationView == nil {

            annotationView = MKMarkerAnnotationView(annotation: annotation, reuseIdentifier: identifier)
            annotationView!.canShowCallout = true

            let btn = UIButton(type: .contactAdd)

            annotationView!.rightCalloutAccessoryView = btn
        } else {
            annotationView!.annotation = annotation
        }

        return annotationView
}
func mapView(_ mapView: MKMapView, annotationView view: MKAnnotationView, calloutAccessoryControlTapped control: UIControl) {

    let subtitle = view.annotation?.subtitle as! String
    let splitted = subtitle.components(separatedBy: "+")
    let number = splitted.last as! String
    let trimmedNumber : String = number.components(separatedBy: [" ", "-", "(", ")"]).joined()
    CallOnPhone(phoneNumber: trimmedNumber)

}
func searchLocations(search : String){
    let searchRequest = MKLocalSearch.Request()
    searchRequest.naturalLanguageQuery = search
    searchRequest.region = map.region

    let activeSearch = MKLocalSearch(request: searchRequest)
    activeSearch.start { (response, err) in
        if response == nil {
            print("no request")
        } else {
            for item in (response?.mapItems)!{
                let annotation = MKPointAnnotation()
                annotation.title = item.name

                if let phone = item.phoneNumber {
                    annotation.subtitle = "Phone Number: \(phone as String)"
                }

                annotation.coordinate = item.placemark.coordinate
                self.map.addAnnotation(annotation)
            }



        }
    }
}

@objc func CallOnPhone(phoneNumber: String){
    let newStringPhone = phoneNumber.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "", options: .literal, range: nil)
    print(newStringPhone)
    if newStringPhone != ""{
        if let url = URL(string: "tel://\(newStringPhone)"), UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url) {
            if #available(iOS 10, *) {
                UIApplication.shared.open(url)
            } else {
                UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
            }
        }
    }

}

}

Thanks,

Possible duplicate of [Calling a phone number in swift](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/27259824/calling-a-phone-number-in-swift) — tomerpacific, Dec 30 '18 at 09:46

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jun 20 '19 at 09:56

Try trimming the phone number.

let myphone:String = phoneNumber.trimmingCharacters(in:.whitespacesAndNewlines)

Full code:

if let url = URL(string: "tel://\(myphone)"),UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url) {
        if #available(iOS 10, *) {
            UIApplication.shared.open(url, options: [:], completionHandler:nil)
        } else {
            UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
        }
    } else {
        Util.shared.showToast(message: "Can't make call from this device", view: self.view)
    }

Yogesh Tandel · Answer 2 · 2019-01-03T11:14:09.150

0

Below code show calling a number on button click. Also removing space if phonenum has spaces.

var phoneNumber = "Phone Number: 1234567"
var finalNumber = ""

let number = phoneNumber.split(separator: ":")
let tempNum = "\(number.last ?? "")"
print(tempNum)
let trimmedNumber : String = tempNum.components(separatedBy: [" ", "-", "(", ")"]).joined()
print(trimmedNumber)
finalNumber = trimmedNumber
print(finalNumber)

btn_Call.addTarget(self, action: #selector(CallOnPhone), for: .touchUpInside)

@objc func CallOnPhone(sender:UIButton){
    let newStringPhone = finalNumber.replacingOccurrences(of: " ", with: "", options: .literal, range: nil)
    print(newStringPhone)
    if newStringPhone != ""{
        if let url = URL(string: "tel://\(newStringPhone)"), UIApplication.shared.canOpenURL(url) {
            if #available(iOS 10, *) {
                UIApplication.shared.open(url)
            } else {
                UIApplication.shared.openURL(url)
            }
        }
    }

}

edited Jan 03 '19 at 11:14

answered Dec 30 '18 at 11:15

Yogesh Tandel

1,738
1
19
25

what version of swift are you using – Yogesh Tandel Dec 31 '18 at 04:42
I am using swift 4.2 – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Dec 31 '18 at 21:23
hi, can you send me your code to review. it has to work as it works on my iphone. also share your string for the phone number – Yogesh Tandel Jan 01 '19 at 02:59
ya sure, how can i send it to you? – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 01 '19 at 06:48
What are you getting in - let number = splitted.last as! String. Can you post that pls – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 10:25
Since the subtitle comes as “Phone Number: 1234567”, I am splitting it up and assigning number to be the second part of the list ( which is the phone number) – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 03 '19 at 10:39
if it consistent for all i.e "Phone Number: ". If yes split using ": " and get the value for send array in value and use that fornumber – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 10:42
Yes. And if I explicitly assign trimmedNumber, then the call would work – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 03 '19 at 10:44
Have edited the code and should work now. Please check and let me know – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 10:50
After splitting what is the finalNumber you are getting? – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 11:01
I am getting " ‭+1 (905) 848-8222‬" – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 03 '19 at 11:03
So you have your "Phone Number: +1 (905) 848-8222" . Let me check and revert – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 11:05
Still doesn't work, do you think something is wrong with my iphone? – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 03 '19 at 11:24
Are you checking on a device or simulator? That can be a problem – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 11:26
i am checking on a device – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 03 '19 at 11:27
Do you get this in console - SampleApp[7217:336557] -canOpenURL: failed for URL: "tel://+19058488222" - error: "This app is not allowed to query for scheme tel" – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 11:54
Difficult to say now. This code worked on my iphone and I got the above error in simulator. You need to check if the final number you are getting is passed on to the CallNumber function. I have made use of Swift 4.2. – Yogesh Tandel Jan 03 '19 at 12:20
The final number is getting passed to the CallNumber function but for some reason it still doesn’t work – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 04 '19 at 02:04
What is passed in CallNumber function? – Yogesh Tandel Jan 04 '19 at 04:29
The phone number strong – Abdel Rahman Ellithy Jan 04 '19 at 18:20
I tried passing even characters in place of Number and I could see the alphabets in the alert box – Yogesh Tandel Jan 05 '19 at 07:43
@AbdelRahmanEllithy were you able to solve? Got the same issue, some numbers aren't able to load the url – Iona Ryder Nov 25 '20 at 12:12

Making a phone call with swift not working with certain numbers

2 Answers2