Recovery phone number

Having a mobile phone number on your account is one of the easiest and most reliable ways to help keep your account safe and ensure that you can get back into your account if your account is hijacked or you forget your password. Your mobile phone is a more secure identification method than your recovery email address or a security question because, unlike the other two, you have physical possession of your mobile phone.

Hackers target accounts without phones because they're easier targets. Add a phone and join hundreds of millions of other Google users who have helped stop hackers in their tracks.

To add a recovery phone number to your account:

Sign in to your account at accounts.google.com.
At the top, click Security.
In the Recovery & alerts box, click Add a phone number next to Recovery phone.

Ways we will use your mobile phone number

We'll only use your mobile phone number to ensure the security of your account. Here are some ways we'll use it:

To challenge people when they try to hijack your account
To send you a verification code so you can get into your account if you ever lose access
To provide an alternate way for you to verify that you own an account
To help prevent people from getting into your account by guessing the answer to your security question
Optional: To alert you to possible threats to your account's security (for example, when your password is changed)

Ways we won't use your mobile phone number

Unless you make a specific request, we won’t use your mobile phone number for anything other than protecting your account. For example, unless you tell us to, we’ll never:

Sell your phone number to other companies or organizations
Call you for marketing purposes
Publish your phone number online

What type of phone you should use

You should use a mobile phone number so that you always have access to it. It's important that you can receive security alerts as soon as possible so that you can help keep your account safe.