TL;DR
- Apple will introduce T9 dialing to the iPhone dialer with the iOS 18 replace.
- T9 dialing permits customers to sort a contact’s title utilizing the quantity pad, immediately suggesting matching contacts.
- Till now, customers have needed to sort in telephone numbers or seek for contacts by the Contacts app to make calls.
Apple’s WWDC bulletins about iOS 18 primarily revolved round Apple Intelligence and the corporate’s implementation of AI in its core merchandise. The characteristic that acquired me probably the most excited was that iOS 18 is lastly bringing T9 dialing to iPhones. Is that this an indication that I’m getting outdated? Possibly. However am I nonetheless thrilled about it? Completely.
What’s T9 dialing?
T9, quick for “Textual content on 9 keys,” is a predictive textual content know-how that revolutionized typing within the pre-smartphone period. With T9, customers may sort in English phrases utilizing a numeric keypad by urgent a single key for every letter (as an alternative of getting to multi-tap numbers to register letters), and the software program would intelligently predict the phrase.
For the reason that early days of Android, T9 dialing has been a staple characteristic on its dialer apps. Customers can begin typing the title of a contact utilizing the quantity pad, and the telephone will instantly counsel matching contacts.
For instance, to dial a contact named John in my telephone, all I’ve to sort is ‘5646’, and the dialer app will record all contacts with the phrase John in them. This makes dialing a contact a swift and seamless course of, usually achievable inside simply a few seconds.
T9 dialing is coming to iPhones
As seen from the video shared by journalist Varun Mirchandani (@beingmirchi on X/Twitter), Apple is lastly embracing the ability of T9 dialing in iOS 18. Now, it is best to have the ability to begin typing the letters akin to a desired contact’s title, and the app will begin suggesting contacts based mostly on the important thing inputs.
Till now, iPhone customers had been conspicuously disadvantaged of this handy characteristic. The iPhone dialer remained stubbornly conventional, requiring customers to both manually enter a telephone quantity or navigate to the contacts web page to seek for a contact after which provoke a name. To me, this strategy felt cumbersome and outdated even ten years in the past, and it looks as if many individuals share this opinion.
For what it’s value, iOS does supply various strategies for fast dialing. One such technique is utilizing Highlight Search. Customers can swipe down on the Lock Display screen or House Display screen to entry the Highlight search bar, sort the primary few letters of a contact’s title, and faucet the telephone icon to name them straight.
Whereas some would say that Apple’s omission of T9 dialing was justified, arguing that customers who began with QWERTY keypads won’t discover it helpful, the addition remains to be a optimistic change. iOS 18 beta is already obtainable to obtain, and the broader public rollout is anticipated later this yr.
