Telephone number parsing and linking

A computer-readable storage device having computer program logic embodied thereon for identifying one or more telephone numbers within a text string, comprising:

• receiving a text string;
• recognizing a portion of the text string less than the entire text string having a potential telephone number;
• identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number by applying a set of number parsing rules to the portion of the text string, the number parsing rules comprising a set of telephone number rules to identify a telephone number by comparing characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more formats associated with telephone numbers;
• determining whether a potential telephone number is a telephone number or a non-application telephone number, wherein the parsing rules further comprise a set of non-telephone number rules which compare characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more characteristics associated with non-telephone numbers,
• wherein the set of non-telephone number rules identify a non-telephone number comprising an electronic mail address or a Uniform Resource Locator address;
• displaying, in an SMS (Short Message Service) application, the portion of the text string not including the potential telephone number in a first format;
• displaying a pop-up box including the potential telephone number and requesting user verification of the potential telephone number as a telephone number;
• responsive to receiving user verification of the potential telephone number, identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number and creating a new telephone number rule based on the user verified telephone number from the pop-up box;
• and
• displaying, in the SMS application, the telephone number in a second format as a link, wherein the link is activatable to dial the telephone number.

A mobile device for identifying telephone numbers in text strings used by applications on the mobile device, the mobile device comprising:

• a processor;
• a memory coupled to the processor;
• a parsing engine stored in the memory and executable by the processor, the parsing engine comprising:
• a delimiter module to recognize a portion of the text string less than the entire text string having a potential telephone number;
• a telephone number module to identify the potential telephone number as a telephone number by applying a set of number parsing rules to the portion of the text string, the number parsing rules comprising a set of telephone number rules to identify a telephone number by comparing characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more formats associated with telephone numbers;
• and
• a non-telephone number module to identify the potential telephone number as a non-telephone number by applying the number parsing rules, the number parsing rules further comprising a set of non-telephone number rules to identify a non-telephone number which compare characteristics of the portion of the text string to one or more characteristics associated with non-telephone numbers, the non-telephone number comprising an electronic mail address or a Uniform Resource Locator address;
• and
• a plurality of applications stored in the memory and executable by the processor, each application configured to provide a text string to the parsing engine and in response receive an identified telephone number within the text string from the parsing engine, each application further configured to display the identified telephone number in a first format and a portion of the text string not including the identified telephone number in a second format different from the first format;
• displaying a pop-up box including the potential telephone number and requesting user verification of the potential telephone number as a telephone number;
• responsive to receiving user verification of the potential telephone number, identifying the potential telephone number as a telephone number and creating a new telephone number rule based on the user verified telephone number from the pop-up box;
• and displaying the second format as a link, wherein the link is activatable to dial the telephone number.