Phone County Code "+" vs. "00" When I enter ...

[Fabian_Weller]

Phone County Code “+” vs. “00”

When I enter a phone number with the country code, for example 0049123456789, Appsheet will save it in Google Sheet like '0049123456789 with this little apostrophe. But when I enter it with “+”, I get problems. +49123456789 will not add an apostroph and will delete the “+” in Google Sheet +49 123 456789 will cause an ERROR in Google Sheet, because Google thinks this is a formula.

Should I avoid the “+” in phone numbers?

[Aleksi_Alkio]

If the column type in the app is text and in the gSheet it’s “Plain Text”, it should work correctly if there is no space in the number.

You could check that the user won’t add any spaces with the Valid_If. But… you need to remove either the “+” or the " ".

[John_Gardner]

If your Appsheet column type is text and you type a number into the field, Appsheet needs to add the ’ or Google Sheets can misinterpret it as a number instead of text.

[Aleksi_Alkio]

It won’t do that if your column is “Plain Text”.

[John_Gardner]

@Aleksi_Alkio Hmmm… I’ve noticed that when Appsheet adds rows to my Google Sheets, sometimes the formatting doesn’t copy correctly. It may be something I’m doing wrong/different.

[Pascal_Hiercken]

I am facing this behavior, I am utilizing the “Phone” field type in Appsheet and plain text in GSheet

[Mike_A]

I am not so clear on the conclusion on this thread. If you set an Appsheet column type as “phone”, and the google sheet column format as “plain text”, then you won’t get gSheet errors and appsheet will still dial the number correctly? Can someone confirm if this is correct?

I am chasing this problem down right now and am not clear if Inam supposed to use a phone column type or text column type in Appsheet to prevent the gSheet errors but still allow Appsheet click to dial…

[LeventK]

What my experience is;
Provided all the phone numbers are local, then there is no problem with using the Phone type column. However, if you have international numbers included, then I generally use a text field and create an inline action binded to that column with External: start a phone call action. In gSheet I always use a Plain Text format.

[Mike_A]

Thanks @LeventK. Since i am dealing with international dialing (and “+”), looks like I may have to explore the Text col type and Action approach you use.

I guess I could add a feature request for Phone col types to handle international dialing better? This workaround is fine, but would think Appsheet should handle the use case automatically for the user?

[LeventK]

You’re welcome @Mike. Depending on the app requirements, I also take additional measures like verifying the email address with MXValidator API and the phone number with Twilio API.