Android phones automatically attach SIM number to all Google accounts
Android devices have for more than a year been adding the SIM card's phone number to every Google account signed in on them. The setting has been on by default since September 2025, and many users are only now noticing it.
Android phones have for more than a year been automatically attaching the SIM card's phone number to every Google account signed in on the device, including work and secondary accounts. Google's support documentation says the number is verified automatically during device setup. Many users are only now learning of it, because they have begun receiving emails from noreply-phone-verification@google.com saying their number has been verified.
How it works
The outlet Android Authority found that Google's documentation was amended between August and October 2025 to state that verification is on by default. A Google Play services changelog dated September 8, 2025 lists number verification as running automatically during setup.
According to Google's support page, the link covers existing and future accounts and numbers. An account added later receives every number on the phone, and switching SIM cards places the new number on every account. Google and the mobile carrier periodically re-verify numbers, which can incur carrier charges, and the setting can only be managed from the phone itself.
Google says verification enables features such as account recovery and RCS messaging, but it does not explain why the number must be added to every account. Verification also switches on Better sharing for one of the signed-in accounts. Phone number sign-in, finding a lost device, emergency location services and Quick Share also depend on a verified number.
How to turn it off
To stop the linking, open Settings > Google > All services, select Phone number verification under Privacy & security, and turn off Verify phone numbers automatically. The change is not retroactive, so numbers already attached must be removed manually under Personal info > Phone in each account's settings.
Security company Kaspersky says that disabling verification means losing RCS chats in Google Messages, and that the number can no longer be used for quick account recovery. Google says it does not sell personal data, including phone numbers, to anyone. It is also testing a policy in select regions under which new accounts get only 5GB of free storage, instead of 15GB, unless a phone number is linked.
