Autodialer too fast for conference call dial-ins

Question

Level 1

7 points

Autodialer too fast for conference call dial-ins

When I dial into a conference call, I typically use the autodialer feature that lets you append the tones to the end of the phone number. The phone number looks something like this:

18887776666;4567890#

The iPhone dials the phone number correctly every time. However, ever since upgrading to iOS 10 on my old iPhone 6, and now with my new iPhone 7, it seems like the tones go twice as fast and, sometimes but not always, the conference call system fails to recognize some of the tones. This website claims that the pauses between the DTMF tones are too short:

http://bluedonkey.org/2016/09/29/ios-10-tone-dialing/

The problem cropped up repeatedly on Friday, but i just tried it again on a Sunday morning about five times and it worked great every time. It's hard to believe something magically fixed the issue without an iOS update, but perhaps the conference system does a better job when it is not under its usual call load.

Is anyone else seeing this issue? Does anyone have a workaround that does not involve manually dialing the tones?

iPhone 7, iOS 10.0.2

Posted on Oct 9, 2016 5:44 AM

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Answer 1

TDOG85

Level 1

9 points

Jan 12, 2017 5:35 AM in response to jjackel

I have been very frustrated with this issue. I have been experimenting. I think it is more related to WiFi calling in my situation. When I turn off WiFi calling there is no issue recognizing the DTMF tones.

Sometimes even when I am dialing the tones slowly while on WiFi calling it misses some of the numbers.

I am on Verizon.

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Answer 2

Oct 9, 2016 6:46 AM in response to jjackel

You might need to add more comas between the phone number and the code.

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Answer 3

TheOasis

Level 1

4 points

Oct 10, 2016 8:03 AM in response to jjackel

Same issue here. iOS 10 reduced the pauses between the tones. Services like Join.Me and GoToMeeting require a slower dialing speed. This is frustrating because it makes dialing into conference calls painful. It used to be very easy.

Peter

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Answer 4

Oct 10, 2016 8:12 AM in response to TheOasis

Try adding a comma between the digits. This will add a pause.

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Answer 5

jjackel Author

Level 1

7 points

Oct 12, 2016 5:39 AM in response to IdrisSeabright

Meg,

That is a fine suggestion for one or two conference numbers, if you don't mind waiting three seconds between numbers. For a 10-digit conference number, that's 30 extra seconds! Also, it won't work for me because I dial into lots of conference calls with different codes, and most of the time I am dialing in from a calendar item in the Good app, which does a great job of identifying conference codes and passing the digits to the Phone app, but has no configuration options. It doesn't even dial # at the end, which is super annoying.

I have noticed that dialing has been more reliable in the last few days with no failures. Perhaps the conference system adjusted to the iPhone. But I'm still worried about a recurrence.

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Answer 6

Nov 9, 2016 12:43 PM in response to jjackel

I'm having the same issue. And for everyone else reading this, i'm automatically pulling in the conference code from parsed email. when you click on the phone number, it asks 'do you want to add a conference code?' and gives you several options based on the email you're in and you pick the conf code and it automatically starts the dialing process. there is no way to go back in an add commas (not that I should have to). it only started happening since iOS 10 GM, so it's definitely a software issue that has nothing to do with the additional commas.

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