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iPhone 101: Special Link Types

by Erica Sadun Jul 25th 2007 at 8:00AM

The iPhone offers three special kinds of links that receive special treatment. Each of these links can appear in Safari or in your mail. When clicked, they tell the iPhone to launch a specific application to handle them.

The first, the mailto: link, you're probably already familiar with. It's just like the Web-based mailto: link that's been in use for the last decade. When clicked, it opens your iPhone's email application, creates a new message and addresses it to the target of the link, e.g. mailto:sjobs@apple.com.

The second link is tel:. As you might guess, it opens the iPhone's calling application and calls the number used as the link's target. This allows Web developers to add "call us" links in their web page that, when tapped, actually place a call.

The third kind involves Google Maps. Instead of opening Google Maps links in Safari, they automatically open in the iPhone Maps widget instead. It doesn't matter whether you click them in Safari or Mail. The iPhone recognizes the link and launches the Maps widget for viewing.

Thanks iDan.



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iPhone 101

The iPhone offers three special kinds of links that receive special treatment. Each of these links can appear in Safari or in your mail....
 

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john

wow! mobile phones are becoming so much of a necessity that it is hard to imagine a life without them and also hard to even comprehend how the previous generation survived so many years!!!
:) LoL

August 02 2007 at 4:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Andrew Mellenger

so the href="callto:+11234567890" protocol doesn't work? it works in safari on mac.

July 27 2007 at 4:55 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Donald Burr

Not to pick nits, but mailto: is a standard URL type, it's not just iPhone specific. Try it on your desktop browser sometime.

July 25 2007 at 12:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike D

ok, that didn't work so good... LOL

To make a map link, format the A tag like this:

[a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=cupertino"]Cupertino[/a]

You can put a full address in there as well:

[a href="http://maps.google.com/maps?q=123 Main St. Anytown, CA 12345"]Our Office[/a]

July 25 2007 at 11:19 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Mike D

To make a map link, format the A tag like this:

Cupertino

You can put a full address in there as well:

Our Office

July 25 2007 at 11:17 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Shan

You forgot the 4th type of link... YouTube. It works like Google Maps... go to a YouTube page, get redirected to the YouTube app.

July 25 2007 at 10:55 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
nseaver

Don't forget: youtube links do the same thing as google maps links; they just rarely work out to be one of the few videos optimized for the iPhone so far.

July 25 2007 at 10:41 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Johnny Thrash

And what would be the prefix for the Google Maps link? =)

July 25 2007 at 10:14 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kramer

Damn! Why they have to invent another call link? There is already "callto:" link for phone calls.

July 25 2007 at 9:00 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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