Hello KoBoToolbox Development Team,
We are currently conducting phone surveys using KoBoToolbox in a Computer-Assisted Telephone Interview (CATI) setup. For these surveys, we rely on the preload function to pull phone numbers into KoBoCollect. Our goal is to make phone calls directly from the KoBoCollect app.
Previously, we used the following approach:
ex:android.intent.action.DIAL(uri_data=${dial_number})
This setup successfully transferred the preloaded phone number to the dial pad, but the enumerator was required to manually press the call button to initiate the call.
To streamline the process, we customized the KoBoCollect app as follows:
- Added the
<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.CALL_PHONE"/>permission in the app manifest. - Replaced
ex:android.intent.action.DIALwithex:android.intent.action.CALL(uri_data=${dial_number})in the XML file.
With these changes, we achieved direct calling functionality from within KoBoCollect, allowing calls to be made without additional user interaction.
Feature Suggestion: We believe this direct call feature could be beneficial for others in the community using KoBoCollect for phone surveys. We suggest that the development team consider including the CALL_PHONE permission in future builds of KoBoCollect, enabling the ability to initiate calls directly within the app.
Thank you for considering this feature request, and I hope this knowledge-sharing contribution can benefit other users as well.
