Goal

Want a button that opens the phone dialer instead of a screen inside your app? That’s the Make Phone Call content type. Tap it, and instead of showing a new screen in the app, it hands off to the phone’s native dialer — pre-filled with a number you specify, the same handoff you’d get tapping a phone number on a web page.

Before you start

• Where you work. You’ll do all of this in the WordPress admin, under Mobile App Manager → App Navigation — no code, no app rebuild. The button ships as app content, so it reaches your app the moment you publish.
• Two placements. A Make Phone Call button can live in two places: the Main Navigation tab (the main grid of home-screen buttons) or the Left Menu tab (the slide-out drawer). Which tab you’re on in App Navigation decides where it lands.
• What “tap to call” does. Here’s what actually happens when someone taps it: the button builds a tel: link and hands it off to the operating system. On a phone, that opens the dialer with the number already filled in — the user still has to tap the call button themselves to place the call. On a device with no dialer (some tablets, some Android variants), the OS shows a “no app to handle this” prompt instead. The button still renders fine; it just can’t complete the action on that kind of device.
• A note on naming. One more thing before you dive in: the UI labels here — tab names, field labels — are described as they appear in a standard install. Your theme or version might word them slightly differently, but the flow stays the same.

Steps

1. Open App Setup and choose a placement

1. In the WordPress admin, go to Mobile App Manager → App Navigation.
2. Choose where the button should live:
   • For the home screen, stay on the Main Navigation tab.
   • For the slide-out drawer, switch to the Left Menu tab.

If your app uses managed user roles, start by picking the role you’re editing from the Content for Role dropdown at the top of the panel. Buttons are stored per role, so a Call Us button you add for “Any User Not Logged In” lives separately from one you add for a logged-in role.

2. Add the button

1. Scroll to the add-new section at the bottom of the button list (the red + with the prompt to add a button).
2. Click the +. This creates a new button with a default name and content type already in place, so you’re never starting from a blank form.

3. Set the content type to Make Phone Call

1. Expand the new button if it isn’t already open.
2. In the Content Type dropdown, choose Make Phone Call.

Pick this type, and the usual content-source picker disappears — in its place you’ll see a single text box for the number, with the placeholder xxx-xxx-xxxx.

4. Enter the phone number

1. In the phone-number text box, type the number to dial.
2. Save the button.

A few things worth knowing about that number:

• The number is stored exactly as you type it and passed straight through to the dialer — there’s no automatic formatting or validation, so type it the way you want it dialed.
• For international or mixed-locale apps, store the number in full E.164 form (country code and +, e.g. +15551234567) — that’s the format that dials correctly no matter where the user is.
• Extensions and pauses aren’t handled. The button dials the bare number — it has no way to auto-enter an extension once the call connects.

5. Name the button and set its icon

1. In the button’s header row, type the button name users will see (for example, “Call Us” or “Reservations”).
2. Click the icon area to pick an image — a phone icon from the bundled sets is the natural choice here. The Text and Image checkboxes let you control whether the label, the icon, or both show up.

6. Reorder, preview, and publish

1. Drag the button by its move handle to set where it appears in the list.
2. Use the App Navigation → Previewer App tab to scan the QR code and open your change in the WPMAM Previewer app. Don’t worry if tapping the button in the Previewer (or on a device without a dialer) doesn’t actually start a call — that’s expected. You’re just confirming the button shows up with the right label and icon.
3. When it looks right, publish to push the button live. Since a tap-to-call button is app content, there’s no App Store / Play Store rebuild to wait on.

Notes and gotchas

• It’s an action, not a screen. Make Phone Call doesn’t open anything inside the app. If you’d rather show a tappable phone number alongside other contact details — address, hours, email — reach for a Contact Us form or a Web URL / page screen instead of a standalone dial button.
• No call tracking. MAM Suite doesn’t proxy the call or report back on whether it connected — the button’s only job is opening the dialer.
• Buttons are per-role and per-placement. A Call button added on the Home Page for one role is completely separate from one in the Left Menu, or one set up for a different role. If a button ever seems to vanish, check that you’re viewing the same role and placement you created it under.
• Test on a real phone before launch. The Previewer and tablets may not place the call, so confirm on an actual phone that the dialer opens with the right number.

Related

• Content classes overview — the full catalog of button/content types.
• Add a new screen (button) to your app — the general flow for adding and placing buttons.
• Building Your App: set up the bottom tab bar — if you want the call action on the tab bar instead of the grid.

What’s next

Want a richer contact experience — a phone number plus an email form, a map to your location, business hours? Pair this button with a Contact Us form (the mam-contact-form plugin) or a Map screen, so people can reach you more than one way.