Yes, App Review phone numbers must be international

Do App Review contact phone numbers now have to be in international format

Yes. For App Review contact details in App Store Connect, Apple says to enter the phone number in international format, with a plus sign and country code. The field does not accept numbers-only entry, so a local-format phone number is not enough.

The part people get wrong is simple: they assume a domestic number is fine if the account country already matches the reviewer or the app market. Apple’s instruction is about the field itself, not your storefront region. If the number is not written with the country code, App Store Connect can reject it before review starts.

Use a real reachable number for the contact person in your organization. Apple says App Review uses this contact only if the review team needs additional information, and the contact details are not visible to customers. That makes the field operational, not marketing copy, so formatting and reachability both matter.

The correct shape is the same one Apple gives in its help page, such as +852 for Hong Kong. For a United States number, that means a leading plus sign plus country code, then the rest of the number in the format your phone system accepts. Apple does not describe a special exception for U.S. numbers.

The inconvenient part is that this is separate from the rest of your app metadata. App Store Connect also expects other review details, such as notes and, when needed, demo account credentials. A clean phone field does not compensate for missing review access, and App Review can still stall if the team cannot test the app.

If you are updating an older submission, check the App Review Information section in App Store Connect before you resubmit. Apple says these details can be edited at any time, which makes it easy to fix the phone number without changing the binary. That is the fastest path when a submission is blocked on metadata rather than code.

A practical example: if your contact number is in the United States, enter it in international form with +1 at the front. If your team is in another country, use that country’s calling code instead. The goal is not local readability, it is a globally parseable number that App Store Connect accepts.

If you are collecting review details for multiple apps or versions, keep the phone number consistent with the person who can answer review questions quickly. Apple’s documentation frames this as contact information for the organization, not a generic support line, so a number that reaches the right person is safer than a shared line that nobody owns.

When the field is formatted correctly, the next failure usually comes from missing review context, not the phone number itself. That is why the notes field exists: Apple explicitly says to include test registration details, app-specific settings, and any information needed to test the app. If review needs to call, it must also be able to understand what to ask about.

For teams that manage submissions in a workflow, the safest check is to validate the contact phone in App Store Connect before the build is uploaded. That removes one easy-to-miss blocker from the release path. The rule is straightforward: international format, plus sign, country code, no numbers-only entry.

If you are building distribution workflows around App Store Connect, keep the review contact details separate from public support pages and store listing metadata. Apple treats App Review information as submission metadata, and it is handled differently from the app’s customer-facing contact pages. The same person can own both, but the fields serve different purposes.

For a broader testing and submission workflow, DevConnect is a separate place to coordinate testers for your own app, and its public pages live at https://devconnectplatform.com. That does not change Apple’s requirement here, which is specific to the App Review contact phone field in App Store Connect.

What should I enter if my number is already displayed internationally on my website

Use the same international format in App Store Connect, but enter it as plain contact data, not as a website-style link or extension block. Apple’s requirement is about the phone field itself. A number that looks correct on a webpage can still fail if it is pasted into App Store Connect without the plus sign and country code.

Does Apple accept numbers-only entry if the country is obvious

No. Apple says the field does not accept numbers-only entry. The country code is part of the required format, so the number has to be written with the international prefix, even when the rest of the submission is clearly tied to one country.

What else should I check if App Review still cannot reach me

Check the email address, the notes field, and any demo account details. Apple says review may need more information, and it expects the notes field to include the setup needed to test the app. A correct phone number is necessary, but it is not the whole review package.