GoKawiilGoogle defaults Android phone-number verification to on across all signed-in accounts
Google has quietly changed Android behavior so a device's phone number is automatically verified and linked to every Google account signed in on it, including secondary, work, and throwaway accounts. Users discovered this after receiving unsolicited emails from a Google phone-verification address, and the change appears to have been made to Google's support documentation between August and October 2025. The setting can be disabled via Settings > Google > All Services > Privacy & Security > Phone number verification.
GoKawiil's interpretation of the reporting above, not reported fact.
Making a privacy-sensitive linkage opt-out rather than opt-in means many users may not realize their phone number has been attached to accounts they intended to keep separate, such as work or throwaway profiles. Because disabling the toggle only stops future linking, people must manually remove numbers already attached to each account, which could undermine efforts to compartmentalize identities across multiple Google accounts.
- Android now auto-verifies and links phone numbers across all signed-in Google accounts by default.
- The change to opt-out behavior was made to Google's support docs between August and October 2025.
- Users must manually remove numbers from each affected account since turning off the toggle only prevents future linking.
Source: tech.slashdot.org, 2026-10-14
Published there as: “Google Is Silently Linking Your Phone Number Across All Signed-In Accounts”
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