click to call tel: link do not send the '#' symbol

Question

I'm having trouble to make a tel: link that sends a specific code: *1#

the link is a normal tel: link:

<button class="call">send the code</button>
<script>
$(".call").click( function()
       {
         window.location = "tel:*1#";
       }
);
</script>

The * are sent right, but when the phone number pops up, here is no # symbol.

I have tried to escape it with %23 (instead of #), but nothing, I see %23 in the link. Any idea?

Answer 1

I am assuming you are using an iphone - this is an exerpt from apple help

To prevent users from maliciously redirecting phone calls or changing the behavior of a phone or account, the Phone application supports most, but not all, of the special characters in the tel scheme. Specifically, if a URL contains the * or # characters, the Phone application does not attempt to dial the corresponding phone number.

They relaxed it on the * but not on the hash - it is annoying I know!

Answer 2

Android will let you call with special characters in the link, but iOS will not.

The closest you can get to auto-populating the dial pad with special characters is to use the URL encoding format: http://www.w3schools.com/tags/ref_urlencode.asp

%23 is the character for #