An unintentional dialing event is detected by characterizing some action of a portable phone, e.g., its movement or its surroundings. The action can be characterized by a sensor, and that sensor can be for example an accelerometer, a camera in the phone, or a microphone in the phone, or some other way. The movement can be characterized to see if it is synchronous with entries on the keyboard, which would likely represent the unintentional dialing event or “but dialing”. The environment can also be characterized other ways, for example by using a microphone in the phone to text sound profiles or to detect sounds in sync with the entries, or can be characterized using a camera in the phone to detect a light profile.