Question

According to Apple’s documentation, in order to make phone call from my app, I need to implement the following protocols:

HTML link:

<a href="tel:[phone]">1-408-555-5555</a>

Native application URL string:

tel:[phone]

However, upon completion of a phone call initiated from an HTML link inside a UIWebView, I am redirected right back to my application. But upon completion of a phone call made from a native application URL string, my iphone stays in the iphone’s regular phone application, and if I want to return to my application I have to do so manually.

As far as I can tell from reading what others have said, there is no way to change this behavior.

Here is my question:

1. Is it true that it’s impossible
   to return to an application after
   making a phone call from a native
   application URL string?
2. Would there be any downside to
   implementing a UIWebView instead of
   a UILabel in situations where I
   really wanted the user to be
   redirected back to my application
   after completing a phone call?

Answer 1

1. Behavior does differ between calling -[UIApplication openURL:] with a tel: URL, and clicking a link to the same URL in a UIWebView.

2. Using a UIWebView instead of a UILabel might have some downsides, but you don’t have to actually display the UIWebView to get its tel URL handling behavior. Instead, just load a tel URL request in an instance of UIWebView without adding it to your view hierarchy.

For example:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import <UIKit/UIKit.h>

@interface PhoneCaller : NSObject
{
  @private
    UIWebView *webview;
}
- (void)callTelURL:(NSURL *)url;
@end

@implementation
- (id)init
{
    self = [super init];
    if (self)
    {
        webview = [[UIWebView alloc] init];
    }
    return self;
}
- (void)callTelURL:(NSURL *)url
{
    [webview loadRequest:[NSURLRequest requestWithURL:url]];
}
- (void)dealloc
{
    [webview release];
    [super dealloc];
}
@end