Set a speed dial 22
Setting a Speed Dial is a great way to quickly call up to 23 of your most common contacts. Once set, all you need to do is open the keyboard and press one key on the keyboard to access that number. Keep reading after the break to learn how to set these speed dial entries.
In the example below, we will assign the "J" key to call Jon Rubenstein’s mobile number:
- Open the contact for which you want to set the speed dial
- Swipe down from the top-left corner to bring up the Application Menu and choose “Set Speed Dial”
- If there are multiple phone numbers, you will be presented with a list to choose which number to set as the Speed Dial
- You will then be presented with the list of all available keys to assign a speed dial. Just select the Speed Dial key that you want to assign.
- You can not select the E/1 key (automatically assigned to Voicemail), the Z/* key or the B/# key. All other letters are available
- If you select an already-set Speed Dial, you will get a pop-up asking if you want to override your existing setting
- Once you return to the contact, you will see that the Speed Dial has been assigned to that number
- Close out of the contact card
Now, to call the contact, just go to Card View or open the Launcher. With the keyboard, press the letter you just assigned (J, in the example above). The screen will show your Speed Dial on the top of the screen. Just press the 
key or tap on the contact on the screen. This will launch the Phone app and call your contact
Note that if you set a speed dial for any keyboard key that also has a number (e.g. R/2 T/3, D/4, etc), you can also open the Phone app and then press-and-hold that number to call your contact.
22 Comments
I use this a lot...
Thanks for going over some of the basic conveniences available to us. I set up speed dials but forgot what I set for who. But I find that my 1-touch-dial for family and universal search for everyone else works fastest for me.
this was one of the best features of my treo 755p. I only wish you could set not only contacts, but apps and what not. I miss that. Is there a patch for that yet?
Your best be is universal search. Just start typing the name of the app.
Yes, highly valuable. 99% of my calling is done this way.
I second we need a speed dial for apps as well
Thanks for this! I didn't even reaize we could do this!
Press and hold a speed dial letter from launcher and it will connect also. 1 key.
I wonder if that's really Jon Rubinstein's phone number... let's give him a buzz and ask when we can see some updated hardware, eh!
While I love speed dial, it does not work consistently on the Pre when you press and hold the speed dial key.
I have never used this before, thanks!
Can we Speed-Text??? :)
Also, I just tried this on my Sprint Pre...when in the Dialer, press-and-hold also works for W and Q, so press-and-hold in the dialer isn't limited to just the keys with numbers.
:-)
I want to SECOND the suggestion for launching apps using the hardware the keyboard. I did that on my Treo using an app called 'butler'. It exemplifies the "ZEN OF PALM" efficiency.
Want to access your News/RSS feeds? BAM! One keypress--you're reading. Need to send an email? BAM! To do list item? BAM! Addictive Game? BAM! Virtual Flintstones Bam-Bam? Bam!
This would go a LONG way toward WebOS beating the iPhone's in the epic battle between 'stupid-easy' and 'functional efficiency'. Trust me, once you've memorized a few hot keys for things you normally 'do' (whether apps or speed-dials), you'll feel sorry for the poor key-less saps toting their slab-form-factor phones around.
-Karl
My speed dials would all mysteriously disappear after a week or so. Has this been fixed? I now just put contacts into the launcher which seems to work better for me.
speed dials don't survive a Pre replacement, either. But the contacts do, so it is easy to rebuild them.
Why have speed dials? For driving! Even with my Ford Escapes MS Sync, the voice recognition often isn't that good. (Except for calling one of my buddies at 2 in the morning when I am trying to call practically anyone else...) Speed dials are less hassle. Then I can talk to my mirror, etc, w/o being distracted trying to type into the phone or getting mad at that blankety blank voice misrecognition system.
Thanks! I never understood why I could press & hold some of my speed dials but not others!
As alluded to above, the speed dial works with just pressing and holding the key--but inconsistently. Sometimes I have to then press the "Speed Dial on top of the screen" as indicated above. This is quite annoying. Why doesn't it do this consistently?
Palm: please fix this in the next update. Thank you.
Yes, I think the inconsistency comes from lag. I have not tried overclocking but I would guess they don't have this problem. I have noticed you have to hold the button until the launcher begins to slide back down.
For the moment, as soon as you press a button on the keyboard even if you are holding it, the launcher begins to come up. If you are holding a speed dial button, you see the speed dial contact at the top and if you continue to hold, it will call them. If you let go before the launcher starts to slide down you will have to press enter or tap the speed dial contact. If the phone lags you may have to hold the button for 5+ seconds.
I would much rather it wait to bring up the launcher until after you release the button, that way it would know you were holding the button and that you wanted speed dial instead of universal search. On my Treo 755p I just had to hold a button for 2 seconds and it would speed dial, otherwise it would display apps that started with that letter. I would like WebOS to do this as well.
Thanks! I never understood why I could press & hold some of my speed dials but not others!
I hadn't bothered to learn how to do speed dialing so happy about this tip.
Any chance we'll ever get voice dialing? That's so much safer to use when driving. If I were king, I'd force every phone manufacturer to include it.
Thanks for the tips. It was content like this I was really hoping for when I subscribed to the RSS feed a year ago