
Zoom has invaded the web page too
March 7th, 2021
- Link to Zoom has invaded the web page too podcast on anchorfm
So I am finishing a responsive semantic html5 resume
for the Web Design 1
class I am teaching, and I wanted to add my cell phone number in the resume
footer. This is not so much for me as for the students, so that potential
employers could call them on their cell phones.
I am on a Mac
, and I have an iPhone
, so the ideal situation for me would be
for the other person to also be on a Mac
and have an iPhone
so they could
call from either the iPhone
or the Mac
.
But when I set up the telephone call link using the anchor
(a
) element
,
and I did it in the following way:
<a href="“tel:+1-xxx-xxx-xxxx”" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"
>1-xxx-xxx-xxxx</a
>
I was not directed to Face Time
, but asked whether I wanted to use zoom
for
the call. What??? Enough already with zoom
.
Everyone is zoom crazy
. How did that happen? I guess I wouldn’t say that if I
didn’t have Blackboard
for teaching. I guess I would use zoom
for work
outside of that. But I just didn’t like the idea that from nowhere, I didn’t
even have zoom
open, I was being directed by default to zoom and not to my
native Face Time
.
I finally figured out, however, how to avoid this. I changed the anchor element markup to the following:
<a href="“tel:+1-xxx-xxx-xxxx”" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"
>Click to call</a
>
Instead of the text content of the anchor element containing a phone number, I changed it to “Click to call”. The rest I kept the same. I also did not use Chrome. Chrome makes you sign in in order to make the call. Enough already!
When I use the native Safari browser, however, it just opens the Face Time
app
and gives you the option to call the number that you have supplied. Naturally,
it detects that the device you are calling is an Apple device.
Then I tried yet something else because I wanted to provide the same experience
across browsers. I replaced my iPhone number
with my
Google Voice number
. Then I added the Google Voice number
as the
text content
for the anchor element
. No more zoom
invasions. It
must be that I probably provided my cell phone number to zoom when I signed up,
and it then detects your number and automatically links to your number being
called from your device to zoom
. I am guessing, but I am sure that is the
case. Honestly, I don’t even remember, but I am sure I did provide my cell phone
number.
So much technology on the web has changed in so little time. And so many
applications, like zoom
for example, are so invasive. And not even necessary
for Apple devices, for instance! Does everything HAVE to be recorded and saved
afterwards? Is anything private anymore? The line between private life and work
has disappeared with the advent of COVID 19
.
Everyone, get the damn vaccination and get back at least part of your life. Protect yourself in the process as much as you can. I have already gotten the first shot and will soon be getting the second. The minute I was invited to take it, I ran for it. I personally am fed up with the current state of affairs, and nothing is working properly. Nothing.
I will be embedding this episode of Plugging in The Holes along with a transcript in the form of a post on interglobalmedianetwork.com for your hearing and reading pleasure. Bye for now!
Related Resources

Created by Maria D. Campbell who lives and works in New York City building and teaching useful things. You should follow her on Twitter.