Using <input type="tel">

by Jennifer Kyrnin
A published author with extensive website creation and management skills.
Updated May 25, 2019

INPUT Telephone Description:

The telephone INPUT tag allows you to request telephone numbers in your HTML forms.

DTD: HTML5:

INPUT Telephone Web Browser Support:

At this time, there are no browsers that really support the input type telephone tag. However, they display a text box. You can still use this input type to collect phone numbers and just use a script to validate the phone number.

HTML Versions

INPUT Telephone Attributes:

Global attributes, event attributes, and the input tag attributes. Plus:

  • autocomplete
  • list
  • maxlength
  • pattern
  • placeholder
  • readonly
  • required
  • size
  • selectedOption
  • select()
  • selectionStart
  • selectionEnd
  • setSelectionRange()

INPUT Telephone Usage:

Standard telephone input tag

 

See an example of a standard telephone input tag.

INPUT Telephone Special Notes:

In one sense all browsers support the input type telephone tag because they all display it as a text field. The HTML 5 specification does not require that browsers enforce any specific telephone number syntax or display the field in any particular way. Plus, mobile browsers like the iPhone and iPad will display the number keypad to enter this form data rather than the alphabet keyboard.

More INPUT Telephone Information: