“If you can’t stand this voicemail system, press or say one.” When calls to customer-service numbers get lost in a maze of touchtome prompts and greetings from recorded robots, Dial Zero helps you find a human voice. The app lists the toll-free numbers of hundreds of companies – that alone is useful – but also offers the precise steps for reaching a human operator.

Live and in Person: Tap the name of a company to get its customer-service number along with instructions for sidestepping hte answering system. Tap the number to dial. The app also includes “tips” from other callers, a good idea that unfortunately disintegrates under the pressure of human nature, while the comments are occasionally useful, most are rants about the specific company or adolescent pull-my-finger graffiti.