Add individual contacts to the home screen

[tomg35]

My mother in law, 88, has been given a iPhone 8.

What I would like to do is add a couple of key contacts (family) to the desktop (not the contacts app just a couple of family members).

I've been looking through her phone settings and can't find a way to do this. I have spent about an hour online trying to find how to do this, to no avail.

Has anyone any idea how to do this? I did find a couple of references to apps that let you do this but nothing conclusive.

I did think about her using Siri, but I think my mother in law would reduce her to tears.

Thanks



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[ferrarr]

You didn’t say which version of iOS the iPhone is running, but you should be able to create a Shortcut to make a phone call? Or so I would believe, Run shortcuts from the Home screen - Apple Support


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[IWT]

Hi and welcome.

Well, all hail to your mother-in-law - 88 years old and an iPhone 8. Good for her

Not to nitpick or embarrass, but assist in our understanding of each other, the iPhone has "screens" and what you want is something on the "Home Screen" - that is, the screen that first appears when she opens the iPhone.

I don't believe that is possible; but I can suggest how she can find the crucial few people and their numbers by tapping just one app. Bear with me because we have to use Contacts to achieve this.

1. Open Contacts and input the Name and Number of each of the two or three people you consider essential.

2. Once you have tapped "Done" - for each one - scroll to the bottom of the entry and tap on "Add to Favourites".

By doing this, you have placed a shortcut to each of these people in the Favourites list which is found by tapping the Telephone app, found usually by default, at the very bottom of any screen, far left (The Dock). The icon looks like a telephone handle. Being in the Dock, it will stay there no matter what screen is displayed.

This means that your mother-in-law only has to open the iPhone, tap on that one Telephone icon, and all Names will appear. Tap on the one you want. It will ring out immediately.

As you are talking about two or three people this will not be a challenge. May I suggest that when you create each contact, you make the "name" very personal - eg Son John, Daughter Margaret, etc. In other words use the name that she would automatically recognise.

Worth a try?

Ian

 

[tomg35]

Sorry it's iOS 13

Thanks Ian that looks a good possibility

She did make me smile when she said my old phone did it (a android 7 phone).

She has also discovered emoji's. It's a bit like deciphering Egyptian hyrogliphics

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[MacInWin]

There is an app called "Over" that lets you customize any image that can then be made the wallpaper on the home screen. You can add the contact information and it will be displayed on the screen, but not operational as a link or hot spot to dial out. If that is what you want, it's a good way to go. I suppose one could also take a screen shot of the home screen, then move the image to a Mac and use Preview to do the same thing (add text to the image), the put the image back on the phone and make it the home screen. (Settings, Wallpaper, choose a new wallpaper).

 

[tomg35]

Thanks but she needs to use a contact to be operational

There is an app called "Over" that lets you customize any image that can then be made the wallpaper on the home screen. You can add the contact information and it will be displayed on the screen, but not operational as a link or hot spot to dial out. If that is what you want, it's a good way to go. I suppose one could also take a screen shot of the home screen, then move the image to a Mac and use Preview to do the same thing (add text to the image), the put the image back on the phone and make it the home screen. (Settings, Wallpaper, choose a new wallpaper).

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[Slydude]

Apparently there is a way to do this without jailbreaking the phone. It does require ue of a web driven app to create the shortcut. See video here I've never used this method personally.


Edit: Here's another option that puts the phone number/contact on the home screen with a name of your choosing. As far as I can tell it does not use a custom picture or icon rvrn if the contact card uses one.

IOS 13 features something called Shortcuts. For all practical purposes each "shortcut" is a macro that can execute several steps with one tap on the icon. Here's how it works:

There is an app called Shortcuts that's probably already on the phone.
1. Tap Shortcuts to open the app then click Create Shortcut
2. When the next screen appears choose Add Action
3. On my phone one choice that appears is Call. It shows the last several contacts I've called and a + button to select a contact that's not shown.
4. Before you click Next tap the three dots at the top of the screen. When the next screen appears you can name the shortcut and choose to add the shortcut to the home screen.

 

[tomg35]

Thanks shortcuts looks quite useful

Apparently there is a way to do this without jailbreaking the phone. It does require ue of a web driven app to create the shortcut. See video here I've never used this method personally.


Edit: Here's another option that puts the phone number/contact on the home screen with a name of your choosing. As far as I can tell it does not use a custom picture or icon rvrn if the contact card uses one.

IOS 13 features something called Shortcuts. For all practical purposes each "shortcut" is a macro that can execute several steps with one tap on the icon. Here's how it works:

There is an app called Shortcuts that's probably already on the phone.
1. Tap Shortcuts to open the app then click Create Shortcut
2. When the next screen appears choose Add Action
3. On my phone one choice that appears is Call. It shows the last several contacts I've called and a + button to select a contact that's not shown.
4. Before you click Next tap the three dots at the top of the screen. When the next screen appears you can name the shortcut and choose to add the shortcut to the home screen.

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[Slydude]

There are several sites with additional shortcuts out there.I haven't played with this feature a lot but plan to get back to it soon.

I was working on one that would be useful for travel. We go there from time to time but not often enough to be worth memorizing the directions to the place we want to go to. I want the shortcut to get the weather for the destination city and pull up the driving directions to the address that's been saved into the shortcut. Everything works except weather for the destination city.

 

[tomg35]

Thanks - I think the shortcut app will do for her

There are several sites with additional shortcuts out there.I haven't played with this feature a lot but plan to get back to it soon.

I was working on one that would be useful for travel. We go there from time to time but not often enough to be worth memorizing the directions to the place we want to go to. I want the shortcut to get the weather for the destination city and pull up the driving directions to the address that's been saved into the shortcut. Everything works except weather for the destination city.

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[Slydude]

You're welcome.

Please post back and let us know how well it works for her. I'd love to find a step that allows adding a picture or other distinctive icon to the shortcut. That might really be useful for some of the students that I work with.

BTW For those following the thread this feature was introduced in IOS 12 and is available for iPad as well.

 

[tomg35]

You're welcome.

Please post back and let us know how well it works for her. I'd love to find a step that allows adding a picture or other distinctive icon to the shortcut. That might really be useful for some of the students that I work with.

BTW For those following the thread this feature was introduced in IOS 12 and is available for iPad as well.

The downside of using the shortcut option is that is that as soon as you tap the shortcut, the call starts (unlike android where tapping the shortcut opens the contact first), so we have had some erroneous calls. However splitting the contacts accros screens has reduced this



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[IWT]

Not being bumptious about this, but - one tap on telephone icon brings up the favourites list. Then one tap on the desired recipient starts the correct call - as in Post #3

And as the telephone icon is in the Dock, this applies to all screens

Ian

 

[Slydude]

The downside of using the shortcut option is that is that as soon as you tap the shortcut, the call starts (unlike android where tapping the shortcut opens the contact first), so we have had some erroneous calls. However splitting the contacts accros screens has reduced this

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Thanks for the update. When I have a bit more time I'll try to see if there's a fix. Before I do that let me make sure I understand what's happening:

Were the erroneous calls to contacts where you have to numbers listed (home and work or cell and landline for example)? If that's the case I suspect that the shortcut is dialing the first number for a given contact. The "Recents" last seems to behave that way. As a consequence my mom's number is listed twice in my recents list (landline and cell).