How do I format a phone number in Sales?

Question

What are the acceptable phone number formats to use with Sales Voice? How do I add a phone number to a lead or contact?

Answer

The formatting rules described in this article apply when you add a phone number to a record in Sales or add your own number to your Voice and Text settings.

Follow the standard writing format of a plus sign +, country code, area code when applicable, and phone number for all numbers you add to your account

US phone numbers include a +1 country code and a three-digit area code, such as 222, in front of the other seven digits, such as 3333333. For example, +12223333333.

Format non-US numbers with a plus sign +, the country code, and the rest of the digits in the phone number. For more information, follow the internationally standardized E.164 format.

Don't include parentheses or other characters such as brackets, hyphens, or spaces in the phone number field, except the plus sign +

Don't add a zero in front of the country code or the number itself because Sales doesn't accept "0" as the first digit of a number, and any call made with such a number fails

Add extensions to a phone number in a separate custom field to reference when you dial the phone number

When you activate Voice in your account, select a Default country code that Sales tries to use when you place outbound calls without a specified country code.

Tip: Sales Voice runs through Twilio, and the system uses Twilio's guidelines to format numbers. Twilio's documentation states that phone numbers format with the internationally standardized E.164 format. E.164 numbers have a maximum of 15 digits and usually follow the + country code subscriber number and area code format.