Handheld electronic device including cross application use of phone related inputs, and associated method

A method and system are disclosed. An active application, which is an application other than a phone application and an address book application, displays information. A selection is received of an information portion from within the displayed information, the information portion being other than a telephone number. Based on determining the pressing of the call-initiation key while the information portion is selected, and based on accessing contact information stored within the address book application without opening or displaying the address book application, a detected contact entry stored by the address book application is determined where the detected contact entry includes the information portion. A target telephone number associated with the detected contact entry is determined based on determining the detected contact entry. A call to the target telephone number is placed.