Understanding Native Phone Number One‑Click Login and Verification Across Chinese Carriers

Many apps now support “one‑click login with the device’s phone number”, a service built on carrier gateway authentication that lets users register or log in by authorizing their SIM‑linked number, offering a smoother experience than SMS codes.

The three major Chinese carriers—China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom—provide APIs for one‑click login and phone‑number verification, each with its own SDK and documentation.

China Mobile

China Mobile’s authentication service supports numbers from all three operators. Key features include:

One‑click login: Uses the carrier’s communication network and gateway number‑retrieval technology to accurately identify the SIM’s phone number. After user authorization, the app (iOS/Android) can log in without a password.

Phone‑number verification: The SDK/JSSDK provides a verification function that calls the gateway to confirm whether a user‑entered or backend‑bound number matches the device’s SIM number, supporting iOS, Android, H5, mini‑programs, and quick‑apps.

Retrieving the number involves calling getPhoneInfo (Android) or getPhoneNumberCompletion (iOS), which may trigger network checks, cellular data switching, and gateway queries; the process consumes time and requires data traffic to be enabled.

Network environment: Number retrieval works only when cellular data is on; weak signal or interference increases latency and reduces success rate.

Timeout: The SDK defaults to 8000 ms; Android can adjust via setOverTime , iOS via setTimeoutInterval .

Carrier detection: Use getNetworkType (Android) or networkInfo (iOS) to determine the current network and carrier for optimal handling.

Caching: After a successful retrieval, a temporary credential is cached locally to improve success rate and reduce latency, even when cellular data is off. The cache can be cleared with delScrip (Android) or delectScrip (iOS) for higher security scenarios.

For verification without a UI, call mobileAuth (Android) or mobileAuthCompletion (iOS) to obtain a token that confirms the device number matches the target number; the token cannot be used to retrieve the full phone number.

China Telecom

China Telecom’s Tianyi Open Platform offers password‑free login, phone‑number authentication, and secondary‑card verification, currently limited to China Telecom users.

Password‑free authentication: Relies on carrier data network and SIM identification to log in without passwords, mitigating SMS‑code leakage risks.

Phone‑number verification: Confirms that the device’s number matches the user‑provided number using the same gateway technology.

Secondary‑card verification: Detects whether a number has been recycled (second‑hand) after cancellation, helping prevent security risks from unbound old numbers.

China Unicom

China Unicom’s Innovation Platform provides a suite of services, including one‑click number authentication, anonymous device/user identifiers, empty‑number detection, secondary‑number verification, and three‑element verification.

Number authentication: Offers one‑click registration/login and verification across APP and H5 scenarios, supporting all three carriers with a patented, low‑latency solution.

Anonymous device identifier: Generates a unique ID for each device (iOS/Android) without relying on manufacturers, enabling precise user profiling and fraud detection.

Anonymous user identifier: Returns a pseudocode derived from the user’s public/private IP, protecting the actual phone number while providing a unique user tag (available for Unicom users only).

Empty‑number detection: Identifies inactive or unreachable numbers within one second, supporting large‑scale concurrent queries for marketing and user‑maintenance tasks.

Secondary‑number verification: Checks whether a number has been re‑issued after a certain period, useful for registration, login, and password‑recovery scenarios.

Three‑element verification: Validates the consistency of name, ID card number, and phone number for real‑name authentication in finance, matchmaking, and other high‑risk applications.

All three carriers provide SDKs that abstract the underlying gateway calls, allowing developers to integrate one‑click login and verification into Android, iOS, H5, mini‑programs, and quick‑apps with minimal user friction.