Apple's Phone App Finally Supports T9 Dialing in iOS 18

[henkie]

Look they added AI dialing!

“And we call it NokiAI and we think you are going to love it! Can’t innovate, my ass!” All kidding aside, this should have been in the iPhone 1. On Android it took me 4-5 presses at most to call Ben: phone app, 2,3,6(huge keypad so hard to miss), call button. All easily with one hand.
If I was calling Ben more often it even took me only to press the 2 to get Ben on top of the list (that is the NokiAI magic for you!).

 

[ChedNasad]

Zero interest in this but I'm happy for the 10 people that wanted it. Doesn't hurt to have more options

 

[Analog Kid]

When you finally reach the bottom of your Jira backlog…

 

[God of Biscuits]

Why not just swipe down and search for the contact and click the phone button? That seems like the fastest way. I guess this feature could be faster if you're making several calls and are in the phone app, but it also might be as fast for some people to swipe up ('close' phone app), swipe down (to pull up Spotlight), and search for the contact.

Options are great. I'm not knocking this feature; I'm simply offering some other ways to quickly pull up a number.

why not have one more option of finding and selecting a contact? Seriously.

 

[atomic.flip]

Very interesting they chose to add this. Especially after all this time it’s been absent from the interface. This smells like it’s a feature being pulled from users feedback with experience on Android which has done this for many many software generations.

The only place it really applies these days is on the dialer when you’re typing in a number to call someone you will have a list of “probable” names of contacts that come up so you can quick lookup a contact with T9 text or dial the number directly.

But the current ios18 beta implementation doesn’t appear to prioritize contacts you dial frequently instead just doing an ascending alphabetical lookup which can be really annoying when you have thousands of contacts many with similar names.

You do get a prompt to show more numbers but that’s just one more step taking you away from a simple workflow.

On Android you do this and it shows you the similar named contacts in order of those most contacted first. That’s a better way to do it in my opinion.

But really the dialer via T9 is not how I ever look up contacts on iOS as it’s never been an option. So I can only imagine this is to blur the lines between Android and iOS features and make it easier to grab more new users of former Android phones.

When we start digging this deep into the redundant feature stack it makes me think the market for growth is looking very very shallow with more and more coming from competing product owners rather than net new mobile users. Not good for the market in general.

 

[Frantisekj]

It seems Apple is watching android users trying iOS videos 😂 and their complaints. So now is missing scheduled messages. Apple somehow messed messages with iMessages. Hopefully RCS support could bring it to all messages

 

[atomic.flip]

When you finally reach the bottom of your Jira backlog…

Brilliant and funny 😅 But idk if we’ve gotten that lucky with the “issues” backlog.

 

[EightBitJoe]

My thoughts, in beeper code:
15!
50*50.
187.

 

[henkie]

But the current ios18 beta implementation doesn’t appear to prioritize contacts you dial frequently instead just doing an ascending alphabetical lookup which can be really annoying when you have thousands of contacts many with similar names.

That is really a stupid way to do T9! I thought ios18 was all about “AI”? But the most barebones easy version of “AI” and Apple fumbles. I assume this will get corrected in the release version of iOS 18.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Lol qns Apple cals his e "i" Phone - and this was supposed to be the phone that's easier to use than anything else on the market since 1987 but like then ignoring mms how on earth did Apple leave this out for soooo long?!

Eessh. T9 has always rocked ever since my Ericsson T-19z back in 97

This brings me back. Who else misses being able to send a text from your pocket without ever looking at your phone?

 

[svish]

Very happy to see that this is finally available on iPhones

 

[vabello]

Is this really a feature anyone was missing from the iPhone? I thought having a touchscreen was supposed to eliminate the need for such a feature. Are we going to add floppy drives to the iPhone next?

I've seen floppy drives work on Android and that was years ago, so maybe. It was done as a goof with an adapter and USB floppy drive and we were shocked it actually worked. It may actually work now. I don't have one to try.

 

[Infinity Vortex]

I remember using T9 back in high school lol.

 

[SnowCrocodile]

Why not just swipe down and search for the contact and click the phone button? That seems like the fastest way. I guess this feature could be faster if you're making several calls and are in the phone app, but it also might be as fast for some people to swipe up ('close' phone app), swipe down (to pull up Spotlight), and search for the contact.

Options are great. I'm not knocking this feature; I'm simply offering some other ways to quickly pull up a number.

Because T9 is quicker. This was my #1 missed feature from Android days.

 

[Haiku_Oezu]

Linus Sebastian will be finally be able to rest

 

[Neberheim]

When I got my first iPhone (4/4s?) the inability to do this was the very first thing I noticed, and it annoyed me enough to remember it clearly to this day 😝 My old Kyocera started listing contacts with just one key pressed, so it could go from pocket to ringing my best friend with two digits and the call button without pausing to check the screen.

I've now had an iPhone longer than I ever had a dumb phone*, but I still default to T9 dialing on the rare occasion I call someone not in my favorites. You'd think that I would've unlearned that by now, but I used that dozens of times a week (or day; I was a chatty teen 😛) compared to rarely using the iPhone keypad.


*edit: I just counted and realized this is the first year I'll have had an iPhone longer than a dumb phone. That seems weird for some reason.

 

[Neberheim]

But the current ios18 beta implementation doesn’t appear to prioritize contacts you dial frequently instead just doing an ascending alphabetical lookup which can be really annoying when you have thousands of contacts many with similar names.

Alright, this is reason enough for me to install the beta and start dumping feedback. My old Kyocera did this and it wasn't even a flip phone.

 

[mjs916]

Is this really a feature anyone was missing from the iPhone? I thought having a touchscreen was supposed to eliminate the need for such a feature. Are we going to add floppy drives to the iPhone next?

Yes. An old android I had by HTC had this and when I switched to the iPhone I immediately noticed.

I read years ago it was omitted due to a patent or something but I’m not sure how true that was.

 

[mjs916]

If you already have the person in your contact, wouldn't it just be easier to search for the name the normal way?

Although I guess if the phone app looks for numbers in mail or messages, this would be a good way to dial those numbers.

This essentially merges the contact search with the dialer keypad. No need to open the contacts app, target the search field and start typing on the qwerty(or whichever layout you use).

Open Phone, tap a couple of numbers, and the relevant contacts appear.

If you don’t recall this feature I think you’ll like it after getting used to it.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Yes. An old android I had by HTC had this and when I switched to the iPhone I immediately noticed.

I read years ago it was omitted due to a patent or something but I’m not sure how true that was.

True

Patent info:

T9, which stands for "Text on 9 keys," is a predictive text technology primarily used in mobile phones and other devices with small keypads. It was developed to allow users to type text messages more quickly and efficiently by predicting words based on the combination of keys pressed. The original patent for T9 technology was filed by Tegic Communications, a company founded by Martin King, Cliff Kushler, and John Schilling. The patent outlines the method and system for efficient text entry on a limited keyboard. Here are some key points about the T9 patent: 1. **Patent Number**: The most significant patent related to T9 is U.S. Patent No. 5,818,437. 2. **Filing Date**: The initial filing date for the T9 patent was September 14, 1995. 3. **Issue Date**: The patent was issued on October 6, 1998. 4. **Inventors**: The patent lists Martin King, Cliff Kushler, and John Schilling as the inventors. 5. **Assignee**: The original assignee was Tegic Communications, Inc. The T9 technology became widespread in the late 1990s and early 2000s, being adopted by many mobile phone manufacturers to improve the text messaging experience on their devices. T9's predictive capabilities made it significantly easier to compose messages compared to traditional multi-tap text input methods. For more detailed information, you can look up the patent document directly through the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) database or other patent information services using the patent number 5,818,437.

 

[mjs916]

Wow, so I’ve never done this but plaid-knight via Reddit is correct. Other than the non-one-handed aspect it’s just as fast.

Instead of Phone>Contacts>Search, it’s Swipe Down>Search.