How to get phone numbers from around the world for testing mobile app behavior?

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Hi all, Iā€™m pretty new to mobile app testing and there are some expected behaviors, of the app under test, that depend on the users phone number and country. Iā€™m in the USA and am wondering if anyone has ideas on how to get phone numbers to test? I canā€™t outsource this or use a cloud test solution. Only thing that comes to mind is maybe I can get numbers from google voice if I use a vpn to set different locations. Iā€™m not super familiar with this so wondered if anyone has opinions on this as an approach or experience with ways to deal this kind of testing? Thanks so much for reading this.

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There are some services (some of them free ones but with some limitations and issues), I suggest you do your own research because I donā€™t remember which ones I used and I canā€™t recommend anything in particular but I assume something like that https://onlinesim.io/ :wink:

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Maybe something from this thread can help you. Especial to last 2 comments

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You can use any temporary online SMS numbers platforms online. There are many different ones which provide a number from different countries.

They are often used for creating sock puppets in OSINT Recon.

Not sure you always want to test with external parties, but you could purchase a license with paid phone number companies which allows you to create phone numbers from across the globe.

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Iā€™m also now, wondering why a tester would want to test in this way, this is exactly what component tests are for. A properly architected product will expose a way to internally test the behaviour without having a real phone, and thatā€™s the correct road to go down and then feed the component with the use cases you have see other folk share above. End-2-end tests are very expensive, avoid where possible.

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Hi Conrad, Thanks for your input. There is some component testing being done by the developer. As I mentioned Iā€™m new w/mobile so I am primarily black box testing while learning enough to test at that level. Also in the middle of the process is a liveliness check and document scan intake. That part is connected to a live database that I have no access to. Our current testing has decent coverage. I was just hoping to expand a little and I donā€™t think a few end to end tests, to get a full user experience, are out of line. I do agree with you that the closer to the code the better.

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Itā€™s super hard to work out as a tester where to invest your automation and manual testing energy, and with any embedded platform that is very much harder than with browsers and desktops. So yeah, I fully understand the pain.

I am lately suspecting that a lot of mobile testers also test on other platforms, so we never really have mobile specific hangouts where we trade tips; and I think thatā€™s helpful in a way, that we are multi-skill and not focusing on just one platform. Iā€™m also of the opinion, that desktop automation will get harder and harder as desktop security starts to tighten on us, another topic altogether.

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Finding Test Phone Numbers for Mobile App Testing

Testing mobile apps across different countries means dealing with phone numbers from around the globe. The Ministry of Testing community got together to tackle this head-on, sharing some useful approaches for testing features like SMS verification and location-based services.

What Are Test Phone Numbers?

Test phone numbers are specialized phone numbers used to verify application behavior without engaging real phone services. While most phone-related testing should happen at the component level, test numbers become valuable for end-to-end verification and edge cases that canā€™t be fully mocked.

Types of Test Phone Numbers

There are a few different types of test phone numbers that can be important for software testing:

  • Mock numbers for unit testing basic validation and formatting rules
  • Temporary numbers for testing SMS and verification flows without real costs
  • International numbers for testing country-specific formatting and behavior
  • Invalid numbers for testing error handling

Why Is Testing Phone Numbers Important?

Phone number validation is crucial for many modern applicationsā€”from user registration and authentication to payment processing and communication features. Proper testing ensures your app can handle different phone formats, verify user identity safely, and maintain security standards.

For example, consider a mobile banking app with two-factor authentication. A common issue might arise where an SMS gateway accepts a phone format during testing but rejects it in production. The best way to catch this issue before it impacts users is by testing with mobile numbers.

Where To Find Test Phone Numbers

When component testing isnā€™t enough, several services provide test phone numbers:

Should You Use Test Phone Numbers?

This depends on (you guessed it) your testing needs and app architecture.

As one experienced QA engineer noted in our community: ā€œA properly architected product will expose a way to internally test the behaviour without having a real phone.ā€ This approach is faster, more reliable, and less expensive than end-to-end testing with real numbers.

However, that doesnā€™t mean you should completely avoid test phone numbers. They serve an important role in final integration testing and validating production-like scenarios. The key is balanceā€”component tests for the bulk of your testing, test phone numbers for critical end-to-end verification needs.

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Temporary phone numbers work great for that exact purpose so itā€™s one of the best solutions you can get actually, there are services like https://anonymsms.com/ which provide those numbers for free or to rent one

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These days thereā€™s nothing easier than getting temporary phone numbers worldwide for whatever purpose you need to use them. Here is my favorite provider https://temporarynumber.com check it out

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