What is phone validation?
Phone validation checks whether a phone number entered in a field uses an accepted set of characters and format. It helps ensure that phone numbers meet your requirements before they are submitted.
When configuring a phone field, Standard validation is selected by default. You can use the default Standard validation or select E.164 validation. You can also add one or more custom validators in addition to the selected validation option.
Standard validation
Standard validation is the default phone validation option. It allows common characters used when entering phone numbers, including:
Digits (0–9)
Periods (.)
Hyphens (-)
Parentheses (( and ))
The plus symbol (+)
Spaces
This option allows users to enter phone numbers in a variety of commonly used formats, including:
020 1234 5678
(020) 1234 5678
+44 20 1234 5678
020-1234-5678
Use Standard validation when you want to accept phone numbers in a variety of commonly used formats.
E.164 validation
E.164 validation requires phone numbers to use the strict international E.164 format.
A valid E.164 phone number:
Starts with a plus symbol (+)
Contains digits only after the plus symbol
Contains a maximum of 15 digits, excluding the plus symbol
Does not contain spaces, hyphens, parentheses, or other characters
For example:
+442012345678 ✓
+14155552671 ✓
020 1234 5678 ✗
+44 20 1234 5678 ✗
+44-20-1234-5678 ✗
Use E.164 validation when phone numbers need to be stored or passed to another system in a consistent international format.
Custom validation
If the available phone validation options do not meet your requirements, you can add a custom validator to a field using a regular expression (regex).
Custom validators are applied in addition to the selected phone validation option. For example, you can keep Standard validation as the default and add a custom validator to enforce additional rules for the characters or format accepted in the field.
Regex validators allow you to define your own rules for the characters and format accepted in a field.
For more information, see Custom Validators
Changing phone validation settings
Admins can change the phone number validation setting at any time.
Go to Setup > Settings > Fields.
Select the required phone validation option from the dropdown.
Click Update.
You can update your phone number validation settings at any time to match your preferred user experience.
Choosing a validation type
Use Standard validation if you want to provide users with flexibility when entering their phone number. This is the default option.
Use E.164 validation if your integration or downstream system requires phone numbers to be supplied in strict international format.
Add a custom validator if you need to enforce additional or specific phone number rules using your own regex pattern. Custom validators can be used alongside either Standard or E.164 validation.