LAST UPDATED: 5/6/22
Click-to-Call
Insureio supports click-to-call dialing on web/VoIP-based phone systems. This article will explain how to use any web/VoIP-based phone software to make calls within Insureio.
In our office, we use the 3CX phone system. Click here to learn more about the Insureio/3CX integration.
Jump to a section:
- What is click-to-call?
- My computer already knows which program to use. How do I make calls in Insureio?
- What if my computer doesn't know which program to use? Or what if I have multiple web/VoIP-based programs?
- I clicked "Launch Application" in the browser pop-up, but nothing happened. What's wrong?
- I got a pop-up in Google Chrome asking if I want to make this call with my phone. What's the problem?
What is click-to-call?
Click-to-call dialing uses the "tel" protocol, which essentially turns phone numbers into hyperlinks. When you click a "tel" link, Insureio will pass that number to an application on your computer that can make the call. "Tel" links are blue, just like hyperlinks. They'll look like this: 555-111-2222. The first time you click a tel link, you'll need to tell your computer which program it should default to in order to place the call, and you may also need to tell your browser that it's okay to launch that program.
My computer already knows which program to use. How do I make calls in Insureio?
- Click any "tel" link in Insureio. HINT: If you don't want to place an actual client call for this test, go to your profile and click the phone icon next to your contact phone number.
- A pop-up will appear in your browser with the title "External Protocol Request." It's asking if you want to launch your web/VoIP-based software. You may also have the option to tell your browser not to ask for permission every time you click a telephone link. If you plan on using click-to-call frequently, check this box.
- Click "Launch Application."
- Your web/VoIP-based software will launch and place the call to the number in the tel link.
What if my computer doesn't know which program to use? Or what if I have multiple web/VoIP-based programs?
Some VoIP programs will automatically register as the handler for the tel protocol when you install them. If that didn't happen - or if you use multiple programs and want to set one as your default - here's how:
- Decide which program you want to set as a default.
- Open Windows Control Panel and click "Default Programs."
- Select "Associate a file type or protocol with a program."
- Scroll within the protocols section, find TEL, select it, and click "Change program."
- Select your web/VoIP-based program from the list provided. We use 3CX in our office, so that's what you see in the example below:
- Close the "Set Associations" window.
I clicked "Launch Application" in the browser pop-up, but nothing happened. What's wrong?
If this happens, your "tel" extension might be blocked in your browser. You'll need to close all your browser windows, then unblock the tel extension. We recommend using Insureio in Google Chrome, so that's the browser we'll use in our explanation below.
- Close all Chrome windows.
- Open Windows Explorer. Click "OS(C:)," "Users," and select the folder with your personal ID (your first name followed by the first letter of your last name).
- Click "AppData," "Local," "Google," "Chrome," then "User Data".
- Find the section named excluded_schemes.
- Within this section, if you can find a line named "tel" and its value is true, your browser was blocking you.
- Change "true" to "false."
- Save the "Local State" file.
- Start Chrome.
- Test by clicking a phone hyperlink in Insureio.
I got a pop-up in Google Chrome asking if I want to make this call with my phone. What's the problem?
- If you're using Google Chrome on a desktop, you may see a pop-up asking if you want to call this number from your phone.
- Open a new browser tab and go to chrome://flags. Do a ctrl+f search for "click-to-call." The option you're looking for is about 60% of the way down the page.
- Change the dropdown menu selection to "Disabled" instead of "Default."
- Click the blue button to relaunch Chrome with your new setting applied.
- The next time you click a tel link in Insureio, you'll be prompted to allow 3CX. Check the box to "always allow" and you shouldn't see any more pop-ups.