It was there last night, it's not there now. There should be five stationary icons on the home screen "tray" of my brand new Galaxy S III - Phone, Contact, Messaging, Internet and Apps. Right now I can clearly see an empty space where the phone Icon sat. It is not there. So I opened up the Apps Icon to try to drag it back to that tray. No Go. I got an error message that said there is no room on the home screen. So I tried it again and I drug the little phone Icon somewhere - It didn't go into that tray and NOW it's not even in the apps. Nope - it's not there. What on earth did I do, and can I fix it. I tried shutting the phone off and back on, but that didn't help anything.

Can you swipe the tray left or right and see if you accidently moved it there? Can't remember if touchwiz does this but it must be there somewhere.

No - the lower tray is stationary. There are icons above it which can be swiped but not these. The little phone icon is nowhere.

The app you want is called 'Phone' and can be found in your app draw (where all your apps are found). Long press the Phone app icon and move it to your home screen, then from the homescreen long press it again and put it back on the bottom.

All the apps on the bottom of the screen (the dock) can be swapped for which ever app you want.

Edit: You've somehow accidentally swapped some shortcuts about, maybe when removing an app from the homescreen.

I appreciate your response - but the icon is NOT in the apps draw. I was trying to move it to the home screen - I got an error message that said there's no room. I tried again and now the phone icon is also missing from the apps draw. I've done a soft reset.

Oh apologies Cat_S you did mention that. How's the soft reset working out?

Was going to suggest either:
using the contacts app to make a call, see if that would kick start it
or
clearing any data or settings from the applications menu under settings.

Hi - the soft reset had no effect. Believe it or not - I'm online with the Samsung Live Chat to try to resolve this and we're getting nowhere. I'm afraid to just do a factory reset - not know what I will lose.

A Factory Reset will mean you lose:

Apps
Contacts
Accounts
Settings

You should keep photos taken with the camera and any media on your phone. Basically just how your phone was when you got it (except any firmware updates).

You can use Samsung Kies to backup as much of your phone's content as possible, then Factory Reset?

UPDATE - after a painfully long and convoluted chat session with a Samsung agent I finally have that icon back where it belongs. Thanks to all who attempted to help here. I still have no idea how it went missing, but I THINK I'd be able to get it back again if it happens again. Sheesh. I can't believe how awful that chat session went. Oh well. Thanks everyong.

Do you mind sharing in case it happens to anyone else?

OK - here's a new one but related. I now have in my Apps draw a folder I've managed to rename to Phone The icon actually looks like a folder though and not the little green phone picture. Anyone know how to change the icon back to the green phone picture?

How to fix it!
I don't know how it actually happened. What BUT it's an icon that is permanently set on the phone, so it can't actually accidently go in the trash. Somehow it got converted to an unnamed folder over in the apps draw. I kept looking for PHONE icon and of course the apps draw is in alphabetical order so I continually missed this unnamed folder. When I noticed it - this is what I did.
1. clear off a space on the home screen if there is no room for a new icon
2. tap and hold the unnamed folder icon and place that back on the home screen.
3. Then tap that folder to open it and
4. finally drag the icon back to the permanent TRAY that resides at the bottom of the home screen(s) - (on the Samsung Galaxy S III there are six scroll-able home screens. But ONE tray that remains at the bottom of each of those six pages.)
5. Now you can go back to the Apps draw and replace the icons you moved off to make room and you're back to normal again.

Your problems would be solved and you would have more flexibility if you installed another launcher.
I have Go launcher on my phone, and can add to the number of apps in the drawer at will.
Also easy to change the look of all icons.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gau.go.launcherex&hl=en

To change your folder icon should just be a long press to pull up a menu.

I seen this app and was wondering how I can get it back. I would like to re-install it so I can make a call on my tablet. I download a app call Tablet Calling but I'm not sure I like it. You have to enter a 1 and the area code plus the number. I'm thinking I'm make a long distant call. I'm thinking about uninstalling it.
:(

this has happened to my boyfriend too...if you can please advise the fix, it would be appreciated.