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How to Use SMS & Phone Number Validation
Stop wasting sends on landlines and invalid numbers. Validate at send time, then automate follow-ups with workflow triggers.
Avoiding Failed SMS Sends Before They Cost Time and Money
Sending messages to invalid numbers or landlines wastes SMS credits and can lower overall deliverability performance.
SMS and phone number validation checks numbers before sending to determine whether the number can actually receive text messages.
Without validation, businesses may continue sending to bad numbers, generate avoidable delivery failures, or create unnecessary workflow issues.
This guide will walk you through how SMS and phone number validation works so you can improve list quality and automate how failed numbers are handled.
To begin, review what SMS validation does and how validation checks run when messages are first sent to new contacts.
What SMS Validation Does
- Checks numbers via Phone Number Lookup when the first SMS is sent to a new contact.
- Detects landlines and invalid/badly formatted numbers and prevents sending to them.
- Helps reduce failed sends and improves overall deliverability by avoiding undeliverable traffic.
Key point: Validation runs at send time, not when you create a contact or import a CSV.
Turn On SMS Validation
- Go to Settings → Business Profile.
- Enable Validate phone numbers when the first SMS is sent to a new contact.
- Click Save.
Reminder: Validation does not run on contact creation or CSV import. It runs when the first SMS is attempted for a new contact.
Costs & Billing
SMS validation typically has a nominal per-lookup fee. While there is a cost to validate, it can help reduce wasted spend by preventing delivery attempts to invalid numbers or landlines.
Best practice: If you send high volumes, validation can quickly pay for itself by cutting failed sends.
Automate Handling with Workflow Triggers
You can automatically respond to validation failures by using a workflow trigger specifically for number validation results.
- Open Workflows and create (or edit) a workflow.
- Add a trigger: Trigger → Number Validation.
- Set filters for the scenarios you want to catch, such as:
- Error 21211 — invalid/non-existent number (often a formatting or bad number issue).
- Error 30006 — incapable/SMS failure (often indicates SMS can’t be delivered, such as landline behavior).
Add actions like Notify user/team, Send email, Apply tag, or Create task so someone can update the record or switch the contact to email/voice follow-up.
Tip: Create separate workflows (or branches) for different error codes so your follow-up is specific and fast.
Best Practices
- Collect phone numbers in E.164 format where possible (example:
+15551234567). - Capture SMS consent during opt-in and keep opt-out simple and visible.
- Tag or flag contacts as validated vs invalid to segment future campaigns.
- Alert your team automatically so they can switch to email or voice when SMS isn’t possible.
Example: Apply a tag like sms-invalid when a number fails validation, then route the contact into an email-first workflow automatically.
Save budget and improve send rates
Turn on validation once, then automate how you handle landlines and invalid numbers using workflow triggers and error codes.
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Frequently Asked Questions
What is SMS validation and how does it work?
SMS validation checks numbers at the time of first send to a new contact using Phone Number Lookup. It identifies landlines and invalid/badly-formatted numbers so messages aren’t sent to them.
How do I activate SMS validation?
Go to Settings → Business Profile and enable “Validate phone numbers when the first SMS is sent to a new contact,” then save.
Are there costs for validation?
Yes, a nominal fee per validation lookup applies. It helps avoid costs from attempting delivery to invalid numbers.
When does validation run—on import or send?
Validation occurs on the first SMS send to a new contact—not during contact creation or CSV import.
Can I automate handling invalid numbers?
Yes. Add a Workflow Trigger of type “Number Validation” and filter on errors like 21211 (invalid number) or 30006 (incapable/SMS failure) to send alerts, emails, or other actions.
Cleaner lists, better deliverability
Validate once, automate the rest—and keep your SMS campaigns moving even when numbers can’t receive texts.
Fewer failures. Stronger results.
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