[Updated] Facing issues adding phone number to Gmail? It’s a known problem

Update (February 15):

Seems like the issue is specific to Jio users in India with new range mobile numbers (series starting from 6), as the same are complaining about not being able to register for Tez app as well. Here’s what a Google employee (at Tez User Community) said while acknowledging the issue:

The team is aware of this issue and is looking it to it. We’ll let you know once we have any updates

Original story:

Back in December last year, a user brought it to light that Gmail wasn’t letting them add their mobile number (series starting with 639460XXXX) to their email account. The service instead threw an error stating ‘Invalid number’.

I am trying to add my Jio number starting 639460XXXX to my account but it says invalid number. I have tried all possible combination a number can be used to add to recovery. None of them is working. What i feel is that my number starts with 6 and a new series, can you please update the system so that it can have the new series

Another user on micro-blogging site Twitter recently chimed the same:

Dear @reliancejio @JioCare,

When I enter my 10 digit 6 series valid Jio mobile number in freecharge, onlinesbi, WhatsApp, Gmail, facebook, Ola, uber etc.., many websites and apps It says "Invalid mobile Number  please enter a valid mobile number."

— Shameer Ahamad (@shameer_ahamad) January 27, 2018

Google broke its silence on the matter this morning, saying some new ranges of phone numbers were added to their validation libraries in January end, but it may take time for the change to come into affect.

The confirmation came from Google employee Crystal Cee (who is also the Community Manager at the official Gmail Help forum) while reverting back to the actual complainant. Here’s what they said:

It looks like our team was able to confirm these new ranges of numbers and add them to our validation libraries at the end of January. It can take up to a month for all Google products to update to the latest libraries for validation, so please reply back to let us know if you’re still experiencing these issues after that

While the company says it may take up to a month for all Google products to update to the latest libraries for validation, they have asked those still facing the issue to reach out to them. In case, you are encountering any such problem, you can let Google know here.

Stay connected with us on Twitter (@PiunikaWeb) to hear about all related developments as and when they occur