Special links: phone calls, sms, e-mails, iPhone and Android apps,, adrian – s blog
adrian's blog
Special links: phone calls, sms, e-mails, iPhone and Android apps, …
Everyone knows to include a link into a page, but what I want to discuss today is how you can include some special links.
Phone calls
This is something cool and with the explosion of wise phones with which you can lightly browse this is undoubtedly to consider having on the mobile version of your website. Such a link will initiate a call on your mobile to a specified number. But here the things are a little bit more complicated, requiring different links for different phones. You can lightly find how to create such a link consulting the WURFL database and looking at the wml_make_phone_call_string property in the wml_ui category.
Basically this is done as goes after:
callto:[phone_number] mainly adequate for iPhone and Nokia phones wtai://wp/mc;[phone_number] mainly adequate for Android phones tel:[phone_number] reported to work on most of the newest devices. If you want to have only one type of URI, use this one.
In the phone number you can use +(plus) sign for international numbers. What’s also interesting to know is that this can even work on a desktop if you have an application like Skype installed. So maybe it’s a good idea to have this on the classic/desktop website too.
Later update from comments. Another interesting phone link will be how to call a teleconferencing phone number. There you call a phone number and then you come in your conference code, usually followed by hash(#) . To do this from a link you will need a pause after the phone number and this is done with , (comma), usually entered by a long press on starlet(*) . I tested this on Android and iOS and it works fine, but you usually need two pauses (,) inbetween the phone number and conference code. Same way you can dial an extension line.
Examples
From a web page you can open the SMS sending application on the user phone with a link like below:
The link contains a comma separated list of phone numbers and an optional message assets. The phone numbers are specified as in the call links. Detailed information you can find in the URI Scheme for GSM Brief Message Service (draft)
Examples
There is also an URI version for MMS embarking with mms: . On some (mobile) browsers (devices) it is also reported to work smsto: and mmsto: , albeit I would recommend the very first version.
iPhone/iPod/iTunes
When developing a website iPhone is undoubtedly to be considered. You can include links to items in the iTunes store, such as movies, music or application. Apple provided for your convenience a web interface to create such links: ITMS Link Maker. Just specify the country, the search keyowrds and what type of iTunes items. You will get a list of items and when you click one you will get the link. You can even get the link for an author. These links will both work on the desktop and iPhone.
Android market
Android is gaining market share as we speak. Nexus One was just released and in my opinion will strike iPhone. As you include links to iTunes, you can include links to applications in Android Market.
The query can include keywords or can identify a specific application using q=pname:your.package.name and then the link will be market://search?q=pname:<your.package.name> .
Ovi Store
Nokia created a fresh fresh application repository for their latest phone – Ovi Store. If you want to include a link to an application, search for it and then copy the link that it will look like http://store.ovi.com/content/XXXXX?clickSource=publisher+channel . Just liquidate the last part and include http://store.ovi.com/content/21309 into your page, where XXXXX is the application Id. You can also include a link to a publisher’s page containing a summary of their application. The link is found on any of the publisher’s application (see by Publisher Name) and it will look like http://store.ovi.com/publisher/Publisher+Name
Windows Marketplace
We cannot exclude Microsoft from the list with their Windows Phone Marketplace. Same steps to find out the application link: search it, copy the link location and de-robe the last part. The link will look like http://marketplace.windowsphone.com/details.aspx?appId=xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx , where xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx is the application ID, clearly resembling a GUID. Here publishers don’t have a individual page.
BlackBerry App World
For all those BlackBerry fans, there is BlackBerry App World. Again same process: search for the application and copy the link location of the application icon. The format is http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/XXXXX , where XXXXX is the application ID. The app authors have a page here with a summary of their apps. See the by Author link under each application. The link will be like http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/vendor/XXXX , where XXXX is the author ID.
Geolocation
Nowadays you cannot even imagine a world without maps and GPS. More and more contact pages include a map too. Nowadays brainy phones usually include a map application and opening a map with your location in it would be fairly nice for the user
As plain as this and you know where to go.
Messengers
From a web site you can also interact with the messenger applications installed on your machine.
Yahoo Messenger
The possible deeds are addfriend , sendIM and call . The message can, of course, be specified only for sendIM act. The USERNAME should be [email protected] or [email protected] .
Windows Messenger
The possible deeds are talk , add (to add a contact), voice (for voice call) and movie (for movie call). The USERNAME should be [email protected] or [email protected] .
Google Talk
The possible deeds are talk and call (for voice call). The USERNAME and YOURNAME should be [email protected] . The parameter from_jid is optional and it should be specified only if you use numerous accounts.
Skype
The possible deeds are talk , add (to add a contact), userinfo (to view a profile) and voicemail (to leave a voicemail). The USERNAME is your Skype ID.
Updated on 03/15/2015
The main thing here is the sip protocol. It is possible that this protocol can be used by other applications too, not being something specific to Lync.
Updated on 06/09/2016
There are also other messengers but these are the most widely used. If you need another one, just post a comment.
It’s pretty effortless to include a link for sending an email into your webpage. Basically it’s substituting the http scheme with mailto . So the link will look something like:
Such a link will practically open the system application for sending emails (like Outlook or Thunderbird) and the message will be prepopulated with some values. As you can notice you can use numerous email addresses (To) separated by comma.
The possible arguments to be included are:
subject the message Subject field cc the message CC field as a comma separated list of addresses bcc the message BCC field as a comma separated list of addresses bod the message figure. If you include a fresh line in your message you should include %0A .
Examples
Just as a side note in the end, it’s better not to rely on this kind of mechanism for treating email on your website. A contact form that sends an email could be a better idea.
Most of these URIs work not only on browsers, but on QR codes readers as well.