Check out 9 ways to quickly call your family and friends without digging through your lengthy contacts list.
On old feature phones and some Android phones, you can configure the numbers on the Phone keypad (like 2, 3, 4, up to 9) to speed dial a contact. This specific feature isn’t supported on iPhone, but there are some other ways to call important people without spending time looking around for their entry in your contacts list.
1. Use T9 dialing
iOS 18 adds the T9 dialing feature to your iPhone. This gives you appropriate suggestions from your contacts when you tap the number keys in the Keypad section of the Phone app that corresponds to the name of a saved contact. For instance, if you have a contact saved as “Dad,” tap 323, and it should show Dad as a suggestion. You can tap the suggestion, followed by the green call button, to reach your dad.
Similarly, if you have a friend named Chris, you can tap 24747, and the app should show Chris as a suggestion. Of course, if you have more than one contact saved as Chris or something related, then the suggestions may not exactly be what you are looking for at the moment. In this case, you can tap “n more…” and then select the right Chris.
2. Use the Favorites as iPhone speed dial
You can add some of your family members and friends to your Favorites list to call them quickly in a couple of taps.
1) Open the Phone app and go to your contacts list.
2) Tap the person’s name.
3) Now, tap Add to Favorites > Call and tap the phone number.
4) Tap the Favorites tab from the bottom left to access the contacts you have marked as favorites. From here, just tap their name to call.
Like standard calls, you can also add FaceTime calls, iMessage, SMS, Mail, and third-party calls (like WhatsApp) to the Favorites. Choose these accordingly in step 3 above.
Alternatively, you can add your favorite contacts by tapping the plus icon on the Favorites screen.
If you no longer want a person on this list, tap Edit from the Favorites section, followed by the red minus button to remove them. You can also change the order of your favorite contacts and move them up or down by dragging the hamburger icon.
3. Ask Siri to fast dial
Another way to call someone quickly is to invoke Siri and ask it to do that for you. For instance, ask it to “Call Sebastien” or “FaceTime Sebastien.” In addition to your iPhone, you can also use Siri on your Apple Watch and AirPods to fast dial a person.
Related: How to teach Siri your family and friends relationships
4. Add speed dial to iPhone Home Screen
You can speed dial a person in just a single tap by adding a contact to your iPhone Home Screen using the iOS Shortcuts app. After that, you can instantly reach them by tapping their name or photo from the Home Screen. Out of all the methods listed here, this one is the quickest to speed dial someone on the iPhone.
5. Add the contact to Today View
Today View is the screen you see when you swipe right on the first Home Screen page or the Lock Screen. You can add the Contacts widget here to speed dial from the Lock Screen.
1) Go to Today View, and touch and hold an empty spot to enter editing mode. You can also touch and hold a widget and choose Edit Home Screen.
2) Tap Edit > Add Widget.
3) Scroll down and tap Contacts. Now, tap Add Widget under one of the three sizes and hit Done.
4) The Contacts widget will show you some contacts. They may be the ones added to Favorites. To change this, touch and hold the Contacts widget and tap Edit Widget. Now, tap an existing contact and choose a different one. After that, tap outside the widget to dismiss the editing screen and save the changes.
5) With the widget customized to your liking, access the Today View, tap the person’s contact on this widget, and then tap the call button.
Tip: If you want to add more than six people, follow the above steps and add the Contacts widget multiple times. Don’t forget to customize each with different contacts.
Note: The widget may blur out the contact’s picture on the Lock Screen. But the moment you lift your iPhone with Face ID, it should unlock the device and let you see everything properly in the Contacts widget.
You can repeat the above steps to add the Contacts widget to your iPhone Home Screen.
6. Speed dial from your Apple Watch face
You can quickly get in touch with someone right from your Apple Watch by tapping the phone call complication right on your watch face.
1) Make sure your watch face supports complications. If not, you’ll need to switch to a different watch face.
2) Touch and hold the watch face and tap Edit.
3) Swipe left until you reach COMPLICATIONS. From here, tap a complication location.
4) Scroll the list of complications and tap Contacts. After that, select the person.
5) Press the Digital Crown to exit the editing screen. You will see the person as a complication on the watch face. Tap it, swipe up, and then tap the phone number to start a call.
7. Use third-party speed dial apps
Instead of adding the built-in Contacts app widget to the iPhone Home Screen, you can also add third-party widgets to speed dial a person. However, all third-party widgets have the following drawbacks (because of the way iOS is designed):
- It takes at least three taps to call a person from the Home Screen.
- After disconnecting the call, you may see that widget app on the screen, and you will have to exit that. This is one extra after step.
If you are still interested, check out these apps to add contacts widgets to the iPhone Home Screen. Note that all these applications offer nearly the same function with different visuals.
1) Favorites Widgets Pro: The major highlight of the Favorites Widgets app is that it lets you add up multiple people for speed dial on the iPhone Home Screen. Configuring the app is easy, and the ability to customize the widget with the desired color and font are handy additions.
2) Widget Contacts: This is another suitable app to display your contacts on the iPhone Home Screen and speed dial in just a few taps. Please note that you can only add up to two people as favorites in the free version.
3) QuickContact – One Touch Call: This doesn’t offer a Home Screen widget but lets you add several favorite contacts to a screen. For elders, it might be a decent experience to open this app and tap the person’s picture they wish to call. The app has several handy customization options to make it comfortable!
4) Call Widget Speed Dial Pro: Open the app, add the desired contact, and save the widget. Next, follow the standard steps to add an iOS widget to the Home Screen. Going forward, you can tap this widget, followed by the call button. Note that the free version of the app only supports adding one contact.
8. Use Emergency Contacts as iPhone speed dial
It may sound a bit absurd (because it is), but for the sake of information, I thought to put it out here.
You can add your family members or friends as your iPhone Emergency Contacts. After that, you can call these contacts by going to the power-off screen, swiping right on Medical ID, and tapping the person’s name.
The downside is that it requires a few taps, and every time you access your iPhone’s power off screen, Face ID or Touch ID is disabled, so you’ll have to enter your passcode manually the next time you want to unlock the device.
9. Use a jailbreak tweak
Finally, if you’re into jailbreaking your iPhone, you can check the following guides and try the mentioned tweaks to add speed dial functionality: