Website phone numbers on Iphones

**scottysweb** · 26 September 2012, 05:40 PM

Using Xara Designer Pro X

I have some sites that when pulled up on the Iphone, the phone number apears white or light grey even though the font color is black. However, the phone numbers appear in their real colors on a pc, mac, or droid phones.

examples:

www.alertamericaar.com -- on this one the phone number for the business is in blue font, but when pulled up on Iphone the number is white and you cant see it, but you can 'touch' where the number is and it will call, you just cant see it.

Clients with the iphone say they have no problem seeing the 'touchable' phone numbers of other sites. Is this a Xara setting that is conflicting with the Iphone?

**gwpriester** · 26 September 2012, 06:36 PM

Not sure about iPhone but on my Nokia Lumea Windows phone, phone numbers are automatically linked. So the user can tap the phone number and it dials the number. And like a hyperlink, the phone number color changes to blue. I wonder if this is what is happening.

**scottysweb** · 26 September 2012, 07:03 PM

Well, this is what I was thinking too. The number is automatically linked. But on an Iphone that linked color is apparently white or light grey. Is this a setting that can be changed in Xara or on the phone or what ? When the number is on a white or light colored back ground then Iphone users (which make up most of my clients) can't see it.

But the other point is this. While your phone and my phone change the number to blue AFTER we 'touch' it, the Iphone apparently changes the color of the number prior to even touching it.

**Big Frank** · 27 September 2012, 12:58 PM

Yep, you're right, and this has been known for quite a while - the iphone overwrites the designer's (customer's?) choice of colour for telephone numbers. This is by design and yet another reason to want to bomb Cupertino.

You may find this blog post of intetest: http://litmus.com/blog/remove-blue-links-ios

**Cloud** · 27 September 2012, 10:50 PM

This has bothered me for a while now, it seems strange at first until you remember that apple like to CONTROL things. Nice informative post Frank.

**scottysweb** · 29 September 2012, 03:29 PM

Thats right. I have a website that has the phone number in white but on Apple devices its blue, and I have another that works vice versa, with a phone number in blue but the iOS turns it white.

I read the blog article and the link it provided to some coding strings that will disable the phone number detection controls for the iOS, but the article did not say whether that code simply deactivated the 'coloring' of the numbers or deactivated the ability to tap and call. Since I want to get rid of the iOS coloring system but not the ability to tap and call.