App Store review contact phone number format changed?

App Store review contact phone number format changed

Yes. Apple now expects the App Review contact phone number in international format, not digits-only. For App Store Connect submissions, enter the country code with the plus sign, then the rest of the number.

Apple’s App Store Connect release notes, updated on August 19, 2026, say the App Review contact phone number must be entered in international format, for example +852, and not as digits-only. That is the current rule to follow when you edit review contact details.

The field in App Store Connect is the App Review contact, not the public support phone number on your store listing. Apple’s reference pages separate review contact information from the support URL and other app metadata, and the App Review details API lists contact phone number as required review information.

The part people get wrong is simple: they paste a local number in a local style, then App Store Connect rejects it. The newer rule is not “use whatever works in your country”, it is “use international format”. In practice that means a leading plus sign, then the country code, then the rest of the number without extra formatting that could confuse validation.

If your submission is already open and the save button refuses the phone number, change only the review contact number field first. Keep the contact name and email intact, then re-enter the phone number in international form. Apple’s review information can be edited at any time, so you do not need to rebuild the app just to fix this metadata.

A clean example is +14155552671 for a US number, or +442071838750 for a UK number. The important part is the country code plus sign at the front. The inconvenience is that a number that looks normal to a person may still fail validation if it is missing the international prefix or is entered in a format Apple no longer accepts.

When it goes wrong, the failure is usually not subtle. The metadata save can fail, the submission can stay incomplete, or App Review can receive a contact field that does not validate cleanly. That is not a store listing problem, it is a submission problem, so the fix belongs in App Store Connect before you resubmit.

Do not confuse this with Apple’s public-facing support information. Apple separately says the support URL must lead to actual contact information such as a telephone number, and that requirement is about the page users can reach after download, not the hidden App Review contact. One submission can have both, and they solve different problems.

If you are maintaining several apps, check every version that has App Review contact data stored against it. Apple notes that submissions are reviewed together with the App Review information for the relevant version, or the latest approved version in some cases. A stale phone field on an older version can still become your blocker when you try to move a newer build forward.

The fastest way to verify your own setup is to open App Store Connect, go to the app’s App Review information, and retype the phone number in international format instead of pasting the old one back in. If you need a full checklist for app testing and launch work, DevConnect keeps one place for that kind of operational work at https://devconnectplatform.com. That is useful when you are fixing release blockers and do not want to dig through multiple tabs.

If the number still fails after you convert it, the next thing to check is whether the number itself is valid, not just formatted well. Apple’s validation can reject a number that is structurally wrong for the country code you used, so a mismatched country prefix or an incomplete number can still stop the save.

For teams that hand off App Store Connect work, the safe process is to keep a canonical international-format contact number in your release notes or internal checklist, then paste that exact value into every submission. That avoids the common situation where one person stores a local-format number and another person later copies it into App Review without noticing the validation rule changed.

The short version is that Apple changed the expectation, and the fix is to format the App Review contact phone number as an international number with a plus sign and country code. If your old local format worked before, do not rely on that behavior now, because the release notes document the newer requirement directly.

What format should I use for the App Review phone number

Use international format with a leading plus sign and country code. For example, a US number should start with +1, and a UK number should start with +44. Apple’s release notes explicitly call out international format and say digits-only is no longer the expected entry style.

Why does App Store Connect reject my phone number even though it looks correct

App Store Connect can reject numbers that are not entered in the format Apple expects, even if the number is valid in ordinary local usage. The usual fix is to convert it to international format and remove local-only formatting that does not belong in the field.

Is this the same as the public support phone number on the App Store

No. The App Review contact phone number is private review metadata, while the support contact information on your App Store listing is a separate public requirement. Apple documents them in different parts of App Store Connect.

Do I need to resubmit the whole app just to fix the phone number

Usually no. Apple says App Review information can be edited, and the field is part of submission metadata rather than the binary itself. In practice, you update the review contact details in App Store Connect and submit again.