Google is quietly linking your phone number to other Android accounts

Adding a new SIM to your phone links it to all Google accounts, and any new Google accounts you add all inherit your phone number. Google is quietly linking your phone number to other Android accounts. Big Tech Google Google is quietly linking your phone number to other Android accounts This setting has been in place by default since September 2025.

Google’s support documentation says that it verifies the number automatically during setup and adds it to every account on the phone, including work and secondary accounts. According to Google, verification enables features like account recovery and RCS messaging, but the company doesn’t explain why the number needs to be added to every account. Found that the Google documentation in question was amended sometime between August and October 2025 to say that verification is on by default, while a Google Play services changelog dated September 8, 2025 lists number verification as running automatically on setup.

Plenty of folks are only now finding out, after unprompted emails from noreply-phone-verification began arriving to tell them their number had been verified. What Google does with linked numbers According to Google’s support page, the link covers existing and future accounts and numbers alike. In other words, a Google account that’s added later will pick up every number on the phone, while switching SIM cards also puts the new number on every account.

Google and your carrier also re-verify those numbers periodically, which can incur carrier charges, and the setting can only be managed from the phone itself.