Ever had to make a call using your iPhone to a friend or colleague whose phone number includes an extension? You may have thought you had to use their phone system, or remember their extension, in order to reach them. But you don't, thanks to a not-very-well-known feature of the iPhone's phone app. Here's how to program phone extensions into iPhone:
- To begin, determine which contact you want to add the phone extension to
- Then, in either your phone app or Contacts app, tap that contact
- Tap the "Edit" button at the top right of the contact
- Tap the phone number you want to add the extension to
- Tap the "+*#" button at the bottom left of the screen
- When the new options come up on the screen, you'll see a "pause" button at the bottom center. Tap that
- That will add a comma to the phone number. After the comma has been added to the phone number, type in the person's phone extension
The comma that gets added to the phone number is a pause, which automated phone systems understand to be the thing that comes before an extension is entered. As a result, when you call that person's number, the extension will be automatically dialed, saving you from doing it.
Of course, this means you'll be forced to call the extension, rather than the main number or another option, but that's what you'll probably do most often anyway.
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