Top 5 dialer code tricks

Tom Merritt highlights five ways you can use dialer codes on your phone to obtain useful and hidden information.

We often forget that smart phones are phones.

But because they are, they can take advantage of the phone infrastructure to deliver information that your device either makes hard to find or just doesn’t have at all. You can even change settings easier via that infrastructure.

Plus, entering special codes in your phone dialer is just kind of fun. It makes you feel like a spy.

TechRepublic’s Lance Whitney put together a guide, so let’s highlight 5 ways to use dialer codes on your phone.

1. Find your IMEI. This is the number that identifies your phone, and when you need it, it’s often a pain to dig through all the settings to get it. But if you know to dial *#06, you can get it in a snap.
2. Turn off caller ID if, for legitimate reasons, you don’t want your number to show up at the other end. I need this when I’m recording videos and I don’t want my phone number on the screen. To do it, dial *67 and then the number you want to call. This one takes me back to the nineties. Remember REM’s song *69? That still works too: Returns the last call you got.
3. All right, let’s get fancy: Field Test mode. Dial *3001#12345#* If you remember 3001, it’s easier to remember the rest. That will show you things like Bandwidth, Cell ID and Deployment Type. A lot of this information is only useful for troubleshooting, but it’s a lot of information you can’t get otherwise.
4. Still on a metered plan? Check your data usage with #3282. Well, at least if you’re on Verizon or AT&T. T-Mobile uses #932#.
5. Not sure your phone is working? If you’re on Verizon, you can place a test call with #832.

Like I said, some are more useful than others, but they’re all cool to try.

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