Phone number format recognition details

By default, Internet Explorer 11 automatically detects and highlights phone numbers within a webpage. As you might expect, phone number format recognition depends on a variety of factors, including the way a number is presented and the region of the webpage.

For IE11 on Windows 8.1, phone number detection recognizes the most common phone number formats.

To be recognized (and highlighted), phone numbers must be:

• Internationally formatted numbers (numbers include a '+' and country code prefix before the area code and subscriber number)
• Locally formatted numbers (numbers contain an area code and subscriber number only)
• Numbers containing alpha-numeric digits
• Numbers written in left-to-right format

IE11 recognized phone number examples

IE11 recognizes a variety of phone number formats, based on region. Here are a few examples from selected regions:

Note  These examples reflect only a subset of the phone number formats (and regions) recognized by IE11.

Phone number patterns in IE11

IE11 recognizes the following patterns:

• +x/(y-y-y)-z-z-z
• (+x)/(y-y-y)-z-z-z
• (+)/(x-y-y)-z-z-z
• +x/y-z-z
• (+x)/y-z-z
• (+)-x-y-z
• x/(y-y-y)-z-z-z
• (y-y-y)-z-z-z
• y-z-z
• +x/(y)-z-z
• (+x)/(y-y)-z-z-z
• +1-x-N
• 1-x-N
• (x)N
• x-N

Here's how to read the previous list:

• 'x' represents a group of consecutive digits that is one to three digits in length.
• 'y' represents a group of consecutive digits that is at least 1 digit in length.
• 'z' represents a group of consecutive digits that is at least 1 digit in length.
• '+' represents any international dialing prefix. Supported international dialing prefixes are '+' and '00.'
• '+' is shown adjacent to 'x' in a format, the two parts can be separated by up to two ASCII spaces.
• '+' is shown, the next numeric group (x, y, or z) must begin with an internationally dialing prefix.
• 'N' represents at least seven characters that are either digits, capital Latin letters, or supported delimiters. The sequence cannot end with a delimiter or contain consecutive delimiters, and any characters in the 'N' part beyond the ninth may only be letters.
• '/' represents any supported delimiter, including '-', '.', '/', en-dash (0x2013), minus (0x2212), full-width hyphen minus (0xFF0D), and up to four ASCII spaces.
• '-' represents any supported delimiter except '/'.
• Any supported delimiter , with the exception of ASCII spaces, can be padded by up to two ASCII spaces on each side. Padding need not be balanced. However, a '.' cannot be padded on the right unless it's also padded on the left.
• All delimiters are optional and can be omitted.
• '(' represents any supported open bracket delimiter ('(' and '[').
• ')' represents any supported close bracket delimiter (')' and ']').
• Brackets are required.
• Brackets can have up to two spaces of padding on each side.

Note  Certain keywords in a page might lead to unpredictable results. For example, a number preceded with the word 'fax' (i.e. Fax: (425)123-4567) is not automatically highlighted because fax numbers are handled by registered apps. Related keywords include 'kg', 'km', 'ml', 'tty', and other abbreviations commonly associated with numbers.

Known limitations of IE11 phone number format recognition

There are currently a few limitations of phone number detection:

• Right-to-left numbering is not supported.

• Non-alphanumeric digits are not supported.

• Lower case letters are not supported. That is, "1-800-contoso" is not supported, but "1-800-CONTOSO" is.

• Delimiters are required. That is, "1234567890" is not supported, but "123-456-7890" is.

• If a delimiter is not clearly described as supported, assume it's not.

• Numbers must be at least seven (7) digits long.

• Support is limited for pages that don't declare lang attribute values. This primarily affects pages containing numbers outside the region of the current user.

• Full support is limited to webpages written in these languages:

  Arabic	Finnish	Norwegian
  Bulgarian	German	Polish
  Chinese (Simplified)	Greek	Portuguese (Brazil)
  Chinese (Traditional)	Hebrew	Portuguese (European)
  Czech	Hungarian	Romanian
  Danish	Italian	Russian
  Dutch	Japanese	Spanish
  English	Korean	Swedish
  Estonian	Lithuanian	Turkish
  French

   

  Support for pages written in other languages varies.

• At this time, support for phone number format recognition is limited for these regions:

  AD Andorra	NF Norfolk Island
  AE United Arab Emirates	NU Niue
  AQ Antarctica	NZ New Zealand
  BL Saint Barthelme	PF French Polynesia
  BQ Bonaire, Sint Eustatius, and Saba	PH Philippines
  CK Cook Islands	PM Saint Pierre and Miquelon
  CO Colombia	PW Palau
  CR Costa Rica	RE Reunion
  CW Curaçao	SB Solomon Islands
  FK Falkland Islands (Malvinas)	SE Sweden
  FO Faroe Islands	SH Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan Da Cunha
  GF French Guiana	SM San Marino
  GG Guernsey	SX Sint Maarten
  GL Greenland	TK Tokelau
  GP Guadeloupe	TO Tonga
  IM Isle of Man	TV Tuvalu
  IO British Indian Ocean Territory	TZ United Republic of Tanzania
  JE Jersey	UZ Uzbekistan
  KI Republic of Kiribati	VN Viet Nam
  LR Liberia	VU Vanuatu
  LT Lithuania	WF Wallis and Futuna
  MF Saint Martin	WS Samoa
  MG Madagascar	YE Yemen
  MQ Martinique	ZM Zambia
  MY Malaysia	ZW Zimbabwe
  NC New Caledonia