Issue with submitting login info on Hybrid iOS app

Hoping someone can help me.

I am using ruby/appium to created automated tests for our iOS hybrid app. I am working on a simulator (iPhone 6 (9.2)). I am entering in phone number and password to login to our system. I see the form being populated properly and the login in button is being clicked but it will not log me in. At first I though it was an issue with the app, but when I blank out the phone number, re-enter it manually and click login again I am logged in. This makes me think that the automation is entering something into the form that I cannot see or entering the data in a way that the app sees as invalid but cannot figure out what that could be. I have the app start with the following configs:

sendKeyStrategy = “setValue”
autoWebview = “true”

I am entering the values like so:

  def set_phone(phone_number)
      $selenium_driver.find_element(:id, 'phone').click
      $selenium_driver.find_element(:id, 'phone').clear
      $selenium_driver.find_element(:id, 'phone').send_keys(phone_number)
  end

  def set_password(password)
      $selenium_driver.find_element(:id, 'password').click
      $selenium_driver.find_element(:id, 'password').clear
      $selenium_driver.find_element(:id, 'password').send_keys(password)
  end

I tried switching to Native_app view and hitting the keyboard keys but get the following error: “Not implemented in this context, try switching into or out of a web view”

At this point I’m stuck and looking for someone who might have some ideas.

One other note, I tried to see what the simulator is sending in the request when this happens but apparently you cannot access safari dev tools for the simulator why appium is running (its grayed out) so I can see the request being made.

Thanks in advance.