T9 Dialing Lands on Your iPhone with the iOS 18 Betas
Apple released the second public beta of iOS 18 on July 29, more than a month after the tech giant announced the software at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June.
The update brings many new features to developers and beta testers’ iPhones, including more ways to customize your home screen, lock screen And Control CenterThe update also brings T9 dialing to your iPhone, making it easy to call your friends and family by simply typing their name.
Read more: Everything you need to know about iOS 18 public beta
I recommend only downloading a beta on something other than your primary device. Since this isn’t the final version of iOS 18, the update may be buggy and your battery life may be poor. It’s best to keep those issues on a secondary device. I downloaded all of the iOS 18 betas to my old iPhone XR to avoid any issues on my iPhone 14 Pro.
Note: The beta is not the final version of iOS 18, so more features may land on your iPhone when iOS 18 is released. Apple has said iOS 18 will be released to the public this fall, but no firm date has been set yet.
Here’s what you need to know about T9 and how to use it to make calls on your iPhone.
What is T9 dialing?
T9 stands for Text on 9 keys. Before mobile phones had full keyboards, many phones had 12 keys. These were for the numbers 0-9, star and the pound sign or hashtag — I felt old writing that. To text someone, you usually used the nine numbered keys.
Each numbered key had three or four corresponding letters, with the 0 key being the space bar and the 1 key being blank. If you go into your Phone app and tap Keyboard at the bottom of your screen, you’ll see the corresponding numbers and letters.
In the beginning, if you wanted to type “Hello” you had to type 44(H)-33(E)-555(L)-555(L)-666(0). That’s a lot of typing for one fairly short word.
T9 texting was introduced later and is an early form of predictive typing. It allows you to press fewer keys and send messages faster. So for “Hello” you type 4-3-5-5-6. Much easier.
How to use T9 dialing
With iOS 18, you can now use T9 dialing to make calls. Here’s how.
1. Open your Call app.
2. Crane Keyboard at the bottom of your screen.
That’s not his real number.
From here, you start typing the name of the person you want to call using T9 principles. So if you want to call your dad, you’d type 3-2-3 on your keyboard, and for your mom, you’d type 6-6-6 — nothing to worry about, we promise. Their name should appear at the top of the screen. As you type, a backspace button will appear under the pound sign/hashtag if you make a mistake. Press this as many times as you need to. There is no space bar, though.
Once you find the right person, tap on their name and their phone number will automatically fill in. Then press the green call button and you’re done.
If there’s more than one person in your Contacts with a certain name, as you type you’ll see an option beneath the top result that says something like “3 more…” Tap this to open a new menu listing all the associated contacts. Tap the call button next to the correct contact and your conversation will begin immediately. Be prepared to explain why you’re calling the other person and not just sending them a text, though.
For more information on iOS 18, here’s my hands-on experience with the iOS 18 betas, how remove your flashlight from your lock screen and what you need to know about RCS messages. You can also read our iOS 18 cheat sheet.
Look at this: iOS 18 Hands-On: Exploring the Big Design Changes
