# Contact Information

How to add and manage phone, email, SMS, WhatsApp, Slack, and mobile app contact methods so you receive timely incident notifications.

In the **Contact Information** tab of the user profile (**User Icon**  →  **My Profile**  →  **Contact Information**), you can add and edit contact information.

## Add a Contact Method

Add contact methods where you want to receive notifications when you are assigned an incident. The following contact methods are available:

- [Mobile App](/get-started/mobile-app)
- [Phone and Email](#add-a-phone-or-email-contact-method)
- [Slack](#add-a-slack-contact-method)
- [SMS](#add-an-sms-contact-method)
- [WhatsApp](#add-a-whatsapp-contact-method)

> **Recommended:** PagerDuty highly recommends that you:
>
>   - Set up **multiple contact methods**.
>   - Ensure that your [notification sound settings are enabled](/get-started/mobile-app-settings).
>
>   This reduces the chance that you miss an incident notification.

> **Send a Test Notification:** To test that the connection between PagerDuty and your contact method is functioning, follow the instructions in [Test a Contact Method](#test-a-contact-method).

Once you have added contact method(s), you must configure your [Notification Rules](#notification-rules), which determine how and when you are notified about incidents.

> **Notification Rules After Adding a Contact Method:** After adding a contact method, High-Urgency notification rules are automatically configured. To make additional changes, refer to [Edit a Notification Rule](#edit-a-notification-rule) or [Delete a Notification Rule](#delete-a-notification-rule).

> **Maximum Number of Contact Methods:** Each user can have up to 10 different contact methods. However, users are limited to three phone numbers for phone notifications and three phone numbers for SMS.

### Add a Phone or Email Contact Method

> **Toll-Free Numbers:** Toll-free numbers are not supported as a contact method. Toll-free numbers are subject to additional regulations and restrictions that differ by region/country, and reliable delivery cannot be guaranteed.

To add phone or email contact methods:

1. Navigate to **User Icon**  →  **My Profile**  →  **Contact Information** tab.
2. Follow the instructions for your preferred notification method:
   - Voice:
     1. Go to **Voice**.
     2. Click **Add Phone Number**.
     3. Enter the **phone number**.
     4. Select the **phone number type** (for example, Work or Mobile) from the dropdown. If needed, you can configure a [phone number with an extension](#phone-contact-methods-with-an-extension-or-delay).
     5. Click **Save**.
   - Email:
     1. Go to **Email**.
     2. Select **Add Email Address**.
     3. Enter the **email address**.
     4. Select the **email type** (for example, Work or Home) from the dropdown.
        - (_Optional_) Select the **Send Short Email** checkbox to receive short email notifications designed for smaller devices like pagers or mobile phones.
        - (_Optional_) Select the **Send HTML Email** checkbox if you want to receive HTML emails.
          If you leave both checkboxes unchecked, you receive plain-text emails. Refer to [Notification Content and Behavior](/incident-management/notifications/notification-content-and-behavior/email-notifications) article for examples of HTML vs plain text emails.
     5. Click **Save**.

#### Phone Contact Methods with an Extension or Delay

When configuring your phone notification methods, you may need to account for pauses, direct extensions, or key presses. You can achieve this by entering one or more commas (`,`), which each represent a one-second delay.

> **Tip:** Depending on your phone system, you may need to add commas for pauses before **AND** after your direct extension.

1. In the web app, go to **User Icon**  →  **My Profile**  →  **Contact Information** tab.
2. In the **Voice** section, click  to the right of the phone number you want to edit, _or_ click **Add Phone Number**.
3. Enter your phone number, followed by a comma (`,`), then your extension.
4. Click **Save**.

![Contact method with an extension](/images/kb/89a2f660098fd3119cecc04053b55df4cea0f96a639445b6f0d38ddb2127e430-voice.png)
*Contact method with an extension*

#### Examples

| Scenario                                                      | Contact method entry      | Result                                                                                                                                |
| :------------------------------------------------------------ | :------------------------ | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
| Phone notification method with a direct extension             | `415-555-5555,1234`       | PagerDuty dials 415-555-5555, waits **one** second, then dials 1234.                                                                  |
| Phone notification method with a direct extension (alternate) | `415-555-5555,,,1234`     | PagerDuty dials 415-555-5555, waits **three** seconds, then dials 1234.                                                               |
| Traverse a phone tree                                         | `415-555-5555,,1,,,2,987` | PagerDuty dials 415-555-5555, waits **two** seconds, dials 1, waits **three** seconds, dials 2, waits **one** second, then dials 987. |
| Leave a delay for "Please leave a message after the tone..."  | `415-555-5555,,,,,,`      | PagerDuty dials 415-555-5555, waits **six** seconds, then leaves a message.                                                           |

#### Phone Number Formatting

PagerDuty uses a third-party provider to validate phone numbers. Phone numbers may not exceed 40 characters, and may only include digits from 0–9 and the following symbols: comma (`,`), asterisk (`*`), and pound (`#`).

In some countries, providers require you to format numbers in a specific way. Due to limitations with local providers, Mexico-based SMS contact methods must be free of area code prefixes. For example, the PagerDuty system automatically removes the leading `1` in the phone number `+52 15558889999` and reformats it as `+52 5558889999`. This improves SMS reply deliverability and processing.

Additionally, [trunk prefixes](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trunk_prefix) from the following countries and regions are not supported:

- France
- Romania
- UK
- Denmark
- Germany
- Australia
- Thailand
- India
- North America

You must remove trunk codes before adding a phone number as a contact method. For example, a UK-based number with local formatting `01332 412 251` must be formatted for international use without the leading `0`, i.e., `+44 1332 412251`. Trunk codes or prefixes vary by region and may be different from the example provided.

### Add a Slack Contact Method

PagerDuty relies on a variety of third parties for notifications. PagerDuty recommends configuring a secondary contact method as a backup to avoid delays caused by availability, traffic, or uptime issues. This ensures the timely delivery of notifications when seconds matter.

> **Limitation:** Slack's notification delivery is not rate-limited based on account type. However, free accounts have limited access to certain features like workflows and integrations that might affect how notifications are configured.

> **Requirement:** You must have a PagerDuty Slack integration configured with Workspace and user account mapping. View the [Slack Integration Guide](/integrations/slack-integration-guide) for more details.

To add a Slack contact method:

1. Navigate to **User Icon**  →  **My Profile**  →  **Contact Information** tab.
2. Go to **Slack Extension**, click **Slack Workspace**, and select your **Workspace** from the dropdown.
3. Click **Save**.

When you are assigned to an incident, you receive an incident notification as a direct message from the PagerDuty Slack App. Refer to the [Slack User Guide](/integrations/slack-integration-guide/slack-user-guide#incident-card-actions) for more information on responding to Slack incident notifications.

![A screenshot of the Slack UI detailing a PagerDuty incident notification](/images/kb/23e8d415be30a645dbcf527fb8020129a900ee3490c6f49c782e76cf1855831f-slack_notification.png)
*Incident notification in Slack*

### Add an SMS Contact Method

To receive PagerDuty notifications via SMS, you must first verify your phone number. Verification codes are sent directly to the new SMS number and cannot be sent to other numbers or users for the verification process. Unverified phone numbers cannot receive SMS notifications.

To add an SMS contact method:

1. Navigate to **User Icon**  →  **My Profile** and select the **Contact Information** tab.
2. Go to **Text Messaging**/**SMS** and click **Add Text Messaging**/**Add SMS Number**.
3. Enter your **phone number**, select the **phone number type** (for example, Work or Mobile) from the dropdown, and click **Send Verification**.

> **Supported Countries:** Refer to [Supported Countries](/incident-management/notifications/supported-countries#text-notifications) for the list of countries where SMS notifications are supported. If you are in a country with partial support (i.e., marked with an asterisk, `*`), you may not receive the verification message due to local regulations and circumstances beyond PagerDuty's control. You can click **Resend code** to receive another code. However, PagerDuty recommends using the [PagerDuty Mobile App](/get-started/mobile-app) as a primary notification method, as push notifications are delivered much more reliably.

4. When you receive a six-digit verification code on your device, enter it in the modal that appears and click **Verify**.

![A screenshot of the PagerDuty UI showing where to enter an SMS verification code](/images/kb/0acebc6ef2dd555d77a0d700154374ec3e004cf799d7a3eaca9a4b1afc125dcb-verify_SMS_number.webp)
*Verify SMS contact method*

> **API Users:** Users added via the REST API (for example, using Terraform) must manually verify their phone number in the PagerDuty web app. They see the following banner at the top of their view, instructing them to do so:
>
>   
![A screenshot of the PagerDuty UI detailing a banner that notifies user that they need to verify their phone number in order to receive SMS notifications](/images/kb/209213a991901b45858dd22056950fe6ae10b2689081cb89e4ebe2b038e829d4-verify_number.webp)
*Phone number verification banner*

> **Reminder:** You receive a reminder email in the event you leave a Contact Method unverified for _an hour or longer_. This reminder is sent once per Contact Method.
>
>   
![Contact Method reminder email](/images/kb/e10a8ed682321ad36e77e581ff65ba49ab7955e9eb7332a96023fcc891f977e8-SMS_Verification_Reminder.png)
*Contact Method reminder email*

### Add a WhatsApp Contact Method

For global organizations where SMS is not ideal, you can configure WhatsApp as a notification method. WhatsApp numbers must be verified prior to receiving notifications; unverified numbers cannot receive WhatsApp notifications.

> **Notes:** - You cannot use the same number for SMS and WhatsApp; select one or the other. With multiple numbers, you can use one for SMS and another for WhatsApp.
> - You can switch an existing SMS number to WhatsApp. When switching, notification rules are automatically replaced by the selected method.
> - Where messages cannot be delivered on WhatsApp, the fallback message is sent via SMS.
> - **Admins**: to block WhatsApp as a notification channel for your organization, contact [support@pagerduty.com](mailto:support@pagerduty.com).

To add a WhatsApp contact method:

1. Navigate to **User Icon** → **My Profile**, and the **Contact Information** tab.
2. Go to **Text Messaging** and click **Add Text Messaging**.
3. Enter your phone number and select the phone number type from the dropdown. If supported, the WhatsApp option appears as an applicable notification method.
4. Click **Send Verification**.
5. Once you receive a notification from PagerDuty in WhatsApp, tap **Verify** to complete the setup.

![Add WhatsApp Contact Method](/images/kb/dc4630db05f3ac1727b688681cf4ddc809bce1cf5fe7f195a894b94026b31bce-Add_WhatsApp_1_1.png)
*Add WhatsApp Contact Method*

[Find out more](/incident-management/notifications/notification-content-and-behavior/whatsapp-notifications#whatsapp-notification-content) on the types of notifications you can receive with WhatsApp.

### Test a Contact Method

You may want to send a test notification to confirm that your contact method was added correctly.

To test a contact method:

1. In the PagerDuty web app, navigate to **User Icon**  →  **My Profile**  →  **Contact Information** tab.
2. Click **Test** to the far right of the contact method you want to test.

> **Test Notifications for Phone and SMS:** Test notifications for phone and SMS contact methods are not available in all countries. Refer to [Supported Countries](/incident-management/notifications/supported-countries#test-notifications) for more information.

This method establishes a connection between PagerDuty and your contact method without creating a test incident. If you want to test a contact method using a test incident that mimics a production incident, you may also:

- [Trigger an incident](/incident-management/incidents/overview#triggerdeclare-an-incident) on a service that uses an [escalation policy](/incident-management/schedules/escalation-policies) you are currently on-call for.
- [Add an Events API V2 integration](/incident-management/services/services-and-integrations#add-integrations-to-an-existing-service) to your service that provides a `curl` command to generate a test incident. For more information, refer to [API Reference](/developer/api/reference/rest/incidents/create-incident).

## Edit a Contact Method

1. Navigate to **User Icon**  →  **My Profile**  →  **Contact Information** tab.
2. Click  to the right of the contact method you want to edit.
3. Make the required changes.
4. Click **Save**.

> **Too Many Edits:** You can edit contact methods up to 10 times within a 24-hour period. If you receive the "Contact methods cannot be modified at this time" error, wait for 24 hours and try again.

## Delete a Contact Method

1. Navigate to **User Icon**  →  **My Profile**  →  **Contact Information** tab.
2. Click  to the right of the contact method you want to delete.
3. Click **OK** to accept the confirmation.

## View Mobile App Devices

Under **Mobile App** on your user profile, you can view which devices are registered to receive push notifications. A device is registered to receive push notifications when you [log in to the mobile app](/get-started/mobile-app#log-in-to-the-mobile-app).

### Expired Mobile Devices

An **Expired** flag next to a mobile device means that you have not logged into or accessed the mobile app in some time. For security reasons, the PagerDuty system expires the token. To re-enable the device, [remove it as a contact method](#delete-a-contact-method) and then [log in to your PagerDuty account](/get-started/mobile-app#log-in-to-the-mobile-app) on your preferred device.

![Expired mobile device](/images/kb/e23513160272fa8bc459518c002100e35118765c2eb30f476029afbdd870cd16-Expired_Mobile_Device.webp)
*Expired mobile device*

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