Programmatically get own phone number in iOS

Question

Is there any way to get own phone number by standard APIs from iPhone SDK?

Generate

may be useful for others searching for a solution that does not use private api's how-does-squares-cardcase-app-do-this - use device name to capture users name just amend to capture phone number or other details as appropriate – Aryn

davidgyoung has provided a working solution. It is buried (needs some upvotes). – Braces

Answer 1

At the risk of getting negative marks, I want to suggest that the highest ranking solution (currently the first response) violates the latest SDK Agreement as of Nov 5, 2009. Our application was just rejected for using it. Here's the response from Apple:

"For security reasons, iPhone OS restricts an application (including its preferences and data) to a unique location in the file system. This restriction is part of the security feature known as the application's "sandbox." The sandbox is a set of fine-grained controls limiting an application's access to files, preferences, network resources, hardware, and so on."

The device's phone number is not available within your application's container. You will need to revise your application to read only within your directory container and resubmit your binary to iTunes Connect in order for your application to be reconsidered for the App Store.

This was a real disappointment since we wanted to spare the user having to enter their own phone number.

Fascinate

@Fascinate : When was your app rejected.Perhaps the guidelines are revised? Please provide useful links to documentation. However, I appreciate your answer. – Entebbe

Can I get apple.developer documentation link where this mentioned ? – Nies

Can any one provide me a link of apple.developer documentation link? where this mentioned ? – Admission

@Fascinate Any documentation Link. – Ichthyology

I have never found any documentation on this, but would love to see it. It's one of those areas where Apple has remained opaque for me. I have not tried to submit an application since this. – Fascinate

@rgbrgb I don't use Snapchat, can you please explain their experience that is so mystifying? – Aerophone

@rgbrgb Same here, could really use that knowledge – Ritter

@rgbrgb Snap asks the user for their number upon signup. – Fifth

If you are interested in capturing the phone number by sending an SMS message (similar to Snapchat but simpler IMO), see my answer below and described in detail in the blog post here – Epenthesis

How the f&@k does WhatsApp do it then? You don’t have to physically enter a number, it just knows. – Pyrethrin

@Pyrethrin i too got that message .... there might be some change in documentation..will have to see – Serene

Answer 2

No, there's no legal and reliable way to do this.

If you find a way, it will be disabled in the future, as it has happened with every method before.

Ample

See Nik Burn's answer: https://mcmap.net/q/98115/-programmatically-get-own-phone-number-in-ios - there is (sort of) a way to do this! – Lidialidice

What's the best reason you have seen for Apple disallowing permission-based access to the user's phone number? Apple already allows permission-based access to contacts, photos, location, and the user's camera and microphone. Why not the phone number? There must be a good reason, but it's not immediately clear. It's unfortunate because prohibiting access causes devs to spend a lot of time and money on other ways to verify a user's phone number. – Lugar

Answer 3

Update: capability appears to have been removed by Apple on or around iOS 4

---

Just to expand on an earlier answer, something like this does it for me:

NSString *num = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:@"SBFormattedPhoneNumber"];

Note: This retrieves the "Phone number" that was entered during the iPhone's iTunes activation and can be null or an incorrect value. It's NOT read from the SIM card.

At least that does in 2.1. There are a couple of other interesting keys in NSUserDefaults that may also not last. (This is in my app which uses a UIWebView)

WebKitJavaScriptCanOpenWindowsAutomatically
NSInterfaceStyle
TVOutStatus
WebKitDeveloperExtrasEnabledPreferenceKey

and so on.

Not sure what, if anything, the others do.

Kizzykjersti

There's been some recent press about the security concerns behind this ability: theregister.co.uk/2009/09/30/iphone_security – Folderol

Don't do it. Ask the user for the number via keypad or contact chooser. You should make any information gathering as explicit as possible to the user. It may not be the most convenient, but it's very easy to save the number, so you only have to ask for it once. – Herder

A solution that gets apps rejected is not a solution. – Superincumbent

Answer 4

Using Private API you can get user phone number on the following way:

extern NSString* CTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber();


+(NSString *) phoneNumber {
NSString *phone = CTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber();

return phone;
}

Also include CoreTelephony.framework to your project.

Barmecide

After reading other answers in this forum, i was thinking it is not possible but you have done perfect job – Turnip

On iOS 7 it's protected by the entitlement #19504978 – Alphosis

phone is nil when I try this – Enzootic

Answer 5

You cannot use iOS APIs alone to capture the phone number (even in a private app with private APIs), as all known methods of doing this have been patched and blocked as of iOS 11. Even if a new exploit is found, Apple has made clear that they will reject any apps from the app store for using private APIs to do this. See @Dylan's answer for details.

However, there is a legal way to capture the phone number without any user data entry. This is similar to what Snapchat does, but easier, as it does not require the user to type in their own phone number.

The idea is to have the app programmatically send a SMS message to a server with the app’s unique installation code. The app can then query the same server to see if it has recently received a SMS message from a device with this unique app installation code. If it has, it can read the phone number that sent it. Here’s a demo video showing the process. As you can see, it works like a charm!

This is not super easy to set up, but it be configured in a few hours at no charge on a free AWS tier with the sample code provided in the tutorial here.

Epenthesis

Sorry. Video was accidentally private. It is public now. – Epenthesis

This is a great way, but could you please enrich your answer to at least cover the basic implementation details? How do you send an SMS from an iOS device without knowing your phone number? how do you set up an SMS-receiving server that has access to the sender's phone-number? What tools are involved? compatibility? – Sellma

@MottiShneor, did you see the tutorial link in the answer? This has a full tutorial on setting up this solution as well as a working sample app code in a Github repo. – Epenthesis

Has anyone implemented this approach and deployed to App Store? Curious whether App Store Review (or newer Play Store Review) would have a problem with this. – Schoolboy

I used this for an enterprise app so I did not send it for review. But since the user is in control of sending the SMS message via the dialog they see, I doubt either Apple or Google would have a problem with it provided that you disclose that you are sending the SMS to verify their phone number. – Epenthesis

This is genius, might try this out in a app store app in 2023 and see if it flies – Peru

Answer 6

As you probably all ready know if you use the following line of code, your app will be rejected by Apple

NSString *num = [[NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults] stringForKey:@"SBFormattedPhoneNumber"];

here is a reference

http://ayeapi.blogspot.com/2009/12/sbformatphonenumber-is-lie.html

you can use the following information instead

NSString *phoneName = [[UIDevice currentDevice] name];

NSString *phoneUniqueIdentifier = [[UIDevice currentDevice] uniqueIdentifier];

and so on

@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) NSString    *name;              // e.g. "My iPhone"
@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) NSString    *model;             // e.g. @"iPhone", @"iPod Touch"
@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) NSString    *localizedModel;    // localized version of model
@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) NSString    *systemName;        // e.g. @"iPhone OS"
@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) NSString    *systemVersion;     // e.g. @"2.0"
@property(nonatomic,readonly) UIDeviceOrientation orientation;       // return current device orientation
@property(nonatomic,readonly,retain) NSString    *uniqueIdentifier;  // a string unique to each device based on various hardware info.

Hope this helps!

Quiteri

uniqueIdentifier is also deprecated in iOS5. Use MAC address instead. – Floodgate

MAC address is deprecated in iOS 7. Use [UIDevice identifierForVendor] instead. – Right

Answer 7

To get you phone number you can read a plist file. It will not work on non-jailbroken iDevices:

NSString *commcenter = @"/private/var/wireless/Library/Preferences/com.apple.commcenter.plist";
    NSDictionary *dict = [NSDictionary dictionaryWithContentsOfFile:commcenter];
    NSString *PhoneNumber = [dict valueForKey:@"PhoneNumber"];
    NSLog([NSString stringWithFormat:@"Phone number: %@",PhoneNumber]);

I don't know if Apple allow this but it works on iPhones.

Rideout

Apple voids the warranty on jailbroken phones and an app would need to have ubiquitous capability for all users. – Pythoness

Answer 8

No official API to do it. Using private API you can use following method:

-(NSString*) getMyNumber {
    NSLog(@"Open CoreTelephony");
    void *lib = dlopen("/Symbols/System/Library/Framework/CoreTelephony.framework/CoreTelephony",RTLD_LAZY);
    NSLog(@"Get CTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber from CoreTelephony");
    NSString* (*pCTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber)() = dlsym(lib, "CTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber");
    NSLog(@"Get CTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber from CoreTelephony");

    if (pCTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber == nil) {
        NSLog(@"pCTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber is nil");
        return nil;
    }
    NSString* ownPhoneNumber = pCTSettingCopyMyPhoneNumber();
    dlclose(lib);
    return ownPhoneNumber;
}

It works on iOS 6 without JB and special signing.

As mentioned creker on iOS 7 with JB you need to use entitlements to make it working.

How to do it with entitlements you can find here: iOS 7: How to get own number via private API?

Geneviegenevieve

Answer 9

AppStore will reject it, as it's reaching outside of application container.

Apps should be self-contained in their bundles, and may not read or write data outside the designated container area

Section 2.5.2 : https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#software-requirements

Asperse