Best way to validate real (non-placeholder) phone numbers

Features
1

Hi all,

I’m looking for a solid way to check if a phone number is not just formally valid, but also a real, likely-in-use number.

We sometimes receive placeholder numbers like +31612345678, which technically pass validation in the Phone Number module (as it only checks for format), but they’re obviously fake/test numbers.

Is there a reliable way (inside Make or via an external API) to detect whether a phone number is not only valid in format but also in actual use?

I have found some items as:

  • Twilio Lookup API
  • Numverify API

But maybe someone has alternative ideas or already working solutions inside Make.

Thanks in advance!

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2

@TT92 I’d take a look at Phone Validation API by Trestle. It is available globally and returns an “Activity Score” that indicates if the number is active or disconnected based on the past 12 months of dialing activity. We’ll also return an “Is Valid” flag that checks number syntax and if the number is assigned to a carrier.

This would be an external API connection. We don’t currently have an integration with Make, though it has been discussed!

3

You can try using an external service that specialises in validation of an active phone service.

Try searching for an API that does this on RapidAPI.

How to call an API on RapidAPI

Use the HTTP “Make an API Key Auth Request” module.

Create a new keychain connection and insert your RapidAPI API Key.

Key: <YOUR_RAPIDAPI_KEY>
API Key parameter name: X-RapidAPI-Key

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You can reuse this RapidAPI keychain for all API calls to RapidAPI – you’ll just need to change the X-RapidAPI-Host value based on the API you are calling.

Hope this helps! Let me know if there are any further questions or issues.

— @samliew