People app requires country and area codes for local numbers??

[rainking430]

Hello, longtime WPCentral lurker here. We got our family a Lumia 521, our first Windows phone, and we love it. It's actually the first time I have gotten to really play with WP8, and it's a very refreshing departure from other OSes. I am a diehard Microsoft fan but currently use Android for smartphones. However, this 521 has me seriously thinking about getting a WP myself. Just holding off to see what WP8.1 brings to the table.

Anyway, there is one really annoying thing that I can't figure out. We live in the US and most of my family member's contacts are local numbers and stored as 7 digits. However, WP8 won't display any calls or texts as coming to/from that contact unless it's stored with the full country code +1 and area code. That's pretty dumb and is something Android handles seamlessly. Am I missing a setting somewhere?

Thanks!

 

[Mr Lebowski]

Re: People app requires country and area codes??

You don't need country code if (language)+region* is set to USA*, in settings. I don't know about area code because mine is Hawaii but I live in Maine so I have to
add an area code to any local number I add to the phonebook or calls will go to a Hawaii number when they need to be "local" -Maine.
And I do get those on my list displayed in texts and calls and I haven't entered a country code for USA numbers.

 

[tk-093]

Re: People app requires country and area codes??

I don't have any country codes in for any of my phone numbers and don't have any issues. However they are all United States numbers and that's where I am.

You do need the area code stored in the people hub, but that makes sense because if you didn't have the area code in there you couldn't call anybody if you were dialing outside your current area code anyway, could you?

 

[rainking430]

Re: People app requires country and area codes??

You don't need country code if (language)+region* is set to USA*, in settings. I don't know about area code because mine is Hawaii but I live in Maine so I have to
add an area code to any local number I add to the phonebook or calls will go to a Hawaii number when they need to be "local" -Maine.
And I do get those on my list displayed in texts and calls and I haven't entered a country code for USA numbers.

Thanks for that tip. I checked and the phone is set to USA.

I don't have any country codes in for any of my phone numbers and don't have any issues. However they are all United States numbers and that's where I am.

You do need the area code stored in the people hub, but that makes sense because if you didn't have the area code in there you couldn't call anybody if you were dialing outside your current area code anyway, could you?

Interesting. Maybe it just requires area codes, will have to test that. At least on Tmo, we haven't needed to include area codes for calling numbers with the same area code as our own, no matter where we are in the US.

 

[rainking430]

Update: Yep, you're right, tk-093. Looks like it only requires the area code. It just kept showing incoming calls and texts from contacts as +1 then number, so assumed it needed region code too... I guess we can live with that. Maybe Android's ability to not rely on area codes for numbers in the same area is part of smart dialing, which I thought I read somewhere is coming to WP8 in a future update?

 

[tk-093]

Re: People app requires country and area codes??

Interesting. Maybe it just requires area codes, will have to test that. At least on Tmo, we haven't needed to include area codes for calling numbers with the same area code as our own, no matter where we are in the US.

I guess I should say I'm on Verizon so maybe their network handles it different? It's possible Android appends your own area code onto outbound calls that have only 7 digits? Don't you have contacts that are in different area codes though? You'd need all 10 for those wouldn't you?

 

[rainking430]

Re: People app requires country and area codes??

Yeah, for numbers outside our "local" area code, it's required. Oh and 7 digit calling worked on our old Nokia dumbphone, so that's why I think it was a Tmo thing and not necessarily an Android thing.

 

[Mr Lebowski]

Re: People app requires country and area codes??

Thanks for that tip. I checked and the phone is set to USA.



Interesting. Maybe it just requires area codes, will have to test that. At least on Tmo, we haven't needed to include area codes for calling numbers with the same area code as our own, no matter where we are in the US.

Correct if you add a number to phone book it will default to your phone's area code.