E.164 Phone Number Format

Every phone number an SMS campaign sends to has to be in E.164 format. It is the international standard for writing a phone number so that it is unambiguous and routable from anywhere, and Outreach treats a number in any other form as invalid.

What Is E.164 Format

E.164 is a numbering standard defined by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). An E.164 phone number consists of:

1. A leading + sign
2. A country code of one to three digits
3. The national number, to a total of no more than 15 digits including the country code

There are no spaces, dashes, parentheses, or other punctuation.

Examples

Country	E.164 number	Breakdown
Australia	+61412345678	+61 (country code) + 412345678 (national number)
United States	+14155552671	+1 (country code) + 4155552671 (national number)
United Kingdom	+447911123456	+44 (country code) + 7911123456 (national number)
South Africa	+27821234567	+27 (country code) + 821234567 (national number)

Common Invalid Formats

The following formats are not valid E.164, and a contact whose number looks like one of these is flagged as invalid:

Invalid value	Problem
0412345678	Missing + prefix and country code
61412345678	Missing + prefix
+61 412 345 678	Contains spaces
+61-412-345-678	Contains dashes
(02) 1234 5678	Local format with parentheses and spaces
+1 (415) 555-2671	Contains spaces, parentheses, and dashes
(empty)	No value provided
abc123	Contains non-numeric characters

How Outreach Handles Invalid Numbers

When a file is uploaded, either into the contact store or as a campaign's File audience, the numbers in it are checked as the columns are mapped:

1. Every value in the column mapped to the phone number is validated.
2. Values that do not match E.164 format are counted as invalid contacts.
3. Invalid rows are skipped, so they produce no messages.
4. The counters in the summary panel show how many rows will be imported and how many will be excluded.

If every row is invalid, there is nothing left to send and the campaign cannot be run.

Preparing a File

Before uploading, check that the phone number column:

• Starts each number with +
• Includes the country code
• Has no spaces, dashes or formatting characters
• Has no empty cells, since an empty cell counts as invalid

Quick Conversion Tips

If the source data holds local numbers, for example 0412345678 in Australia:

1. Remove the leading 0
2. Prepend the country code with + (e.g. +61)
3. Result: +61412345678

Most spreadsheet tools can do this with a formula, for example:

=CONCATENATE("+61", MID(A1, 2, LEN(A1)-1))

Related Guidance

• Contact Files. Accepted contact file formats, what a row needs, and limits.
• Uploading Contacts. Importing a file into the contact store.
• Contact Records. Where a phone number sits on a contact.
• Creating a Campaign. The full campaign walkthrough.