How to call someone from your contacts
- Tap the 'Contacts' tab on the bar at the bottom of the screen or press the '+' in the top right of the call screen.
- iPhone will pop up your existing contacts. Choose someone's phone number the same way you normally make a call.
- After you've picked the contact, the call screen will show the number to call, the person's name, and the country you are going to call in the top half of the screen.
- If Smart Caller got the country you are dialing wrong, tap on the country box in the top half to change the country.
- Towards the bottom of the screen you can see the calling card that Smart Caller will use to place the call. If you tap on it, your list of calling cards will pop up and you can make a different choice. Note that one of the choices is 'don't use a calling card'.
- Then just press the big blue 'Call' button at the bottom to place the call. iPhone will go to the normal phone screen and dial for you. You can hear it dial all the calling card codes for you.
How to call a new phone number
- Tap the box at the top of the call screen where the phone number goes, the phone keypad will pop up and you can enter the number you want.
- Smart Caller will analyze the number and tell you what country it is.
- If the number and the country are correct, you can continue on to place the call in the same way as if you were calling someone from your contacts.
What does the country box at the bottom of the call screen do?
This box is the country you are calling from. If you are traveling abroad, you can change it to the new country you are in. Smart Caller will then show you how to dial international calls in that country. Eg, when you are in the USA you have to dial 011 to make an international call, but in France you dial 00. New features will be coming to Smart Caller to help international travelers.
Does it use minutes on my phone bill?
When you make a call with Smart Caller, you are talking over the normal mobile phone network, so yes it does use your minutes. However, you can avoid those expensive international rates because your mobile provider thinks its a local or domestic call.
What about roaming charges when I travel abroad?
Smart Caller uses the normal mobile phone network, so if you use it when overseas you will probably have to pay roaming charges on your phone bill. One advantage of using calling cards is that you can use your calling card account on any phone, but it's a hassle to have to remember all the access numbers in all the countries you travel to. Features will be coming to Smart Caller to show you how to dial when abroad using a pay phone, your hotel phone, or the local phone of the person you are visiting. Then you can avoid roaming charges.
What acount WiFi and VoIP, Voice Over IP?
Some pure VoIP phone apps are coming to iPhone. These only work when you are on a WiFi network. Smart Caller uses calling cards over the normal mobile phone network, using you mobile provider. So Smart Caller works all the time you have a signal / bars on your phone. VoIP apps only work when you are on a WiFi network.
My Bizon Calling Card setup got deleted or broken
If you accidentally changed the settings of your Bizon calling card and now it does not work, there are two ways you can fix it:
- Delete the card from the card list using the Choose Rate screen by swiping to the right. Then go through the 'Buy calling card' process again. Stop before actually buying another card or topping up your account on the web site. When you come back to Smart Caller, the Bizon Card should be set up again.
- Edit the settings for the Bizon card. The settings you need are:
- Access Number: 2132268436
- The other fields are all empty
- International Code: Yes
About calling card rates
Calling card prices can be hard to understand. To figure out how much a call will cost, or if a calling card is a good deal for you, you have to check:
- the rate to the country you want, from the country you are in;
- if you calling to a land line or mobile phone;
- if there is an additional service charge;
- if there is a connection fee;
- if there is a monthly membership or account fee;
- if the card will expire if you don't use it.
Features will be coming to Smart Caller that do all the number crunching and tell you how much your calls will really cost.
What is pinless dialing?
In the US, most calling cards offer pinless dialing. Pinless dialing is when the calling card uses caller id to recognize who you are. This lets you use your calling card account without dialing in your own phone number and account pin. This is very helpful because it means that Smart Caller has fewer numbers to dial (those tones you hear) and can connect your call quicker. At the moment, iPhone doesn't dial those tones very quickly, and some calling cards are impatient, not giving your iPhone enough time when dialing. Those calling cards will only work with Smart Caller if you use pinless dialing, which may only be available when you are calling from the USA.
Why doesn't Smart Caller work with all calling cards?
Unfortunately is not currently possible for Smart Caller to use pound '#' when dialing, and tone dialing is too slow for some calling card systems. Many cards use '#' at the end of the number, but will work without it if you wait a few seconds after Smart Caller dials the tones. There are plenty of good calling cards that do work, and even more calling options are coming in the future.