User verification and identity

Protect your platform from fraud and keep customer accounts secure with mobile identity signals and multi factor user authentication across sign-up, login and account management.

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Protect users with multi factor user authentication

Use cases for OTP verifications and mobile intelligence signals

Implement a complete user verification solution to protect customers across the entire journey.

Signup verification

Prevent fake account creation and establish phone number or email ownership when a user signs up.
Login protection

Protect against account takeover and password theft by requesting user verification at login.
Secure transactions

Validate users in real time so you can confidently authorize high-value online transactions.

Account management

Update personal information with confidence and protect PII.
Fraud prevention

Stop SMS Pumping Fraud, SIM Swap fraud and man-in-the-middle attacks.

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How to build secure user authentication

Implement a user authentication solution in days. No need to multisource vendors.

Step 1
Create verification service
Create a verification service with Twilio. This is the set of common configurations used to create and check verifications.

Step 2
Send a verification token
Send a token to your end user through their preferred communication channel, like SMS, voice call, email, or WhatsApp.

Step 3
Check the verification token
See if the token the user provided is correct. If it’s correct, the request is approved and if it’s incorrect, it stays pending.

Send and check a verification token using Twilio Verify

View demo

Secure sign ups
Prevent fake account creation by checking phone number or email address ownership with Twilio Lookup and use mobile-based signals to flag suspicious activity.

Multichannel OTP delivery
Deliver verification messages quickly and reliably on the channels customers prefer to improve conversion rates.

Seamless platform protection
Keep your platform secure with a comprehensive verification and identity solution without adding friction to the user experience.

Confirm user identity and send an OTP code to enable successful logins

What you need to build intelligent user verification with Twilio

Easy-to-deploy APIs for user verification to prevent fraud, improve user conversion, and lower operational costs.

	Verify	Lookup
What it does	Turnkey API to verify users over any channel	Query real-time phone intelligence data to verify phone number validity
Channels	SMS, voice, WhatsApp, email, TOTP, Push, Silent Network Authentication	-
Scale	4.5 billion customer verifications per year	Verify user identities across mobile, landline, fixed and non-fixed VoIP, toll free
Reliability	94%+ global delivery rate* Route optimization on Twilio Super Network for high deliverability	Use mobile signals to confirm user identities reliably
Conversion	65%+ global conversion rate*	Filter out unwanted or unreachable phone numbers with Line Type Intelligence and Reassigned Number
Fraud prevention	100% Protection from SMS pumping fraud with Verify Fraud Guard** Geo-permissions, rate limiting	Identify potentially fraudulent numbers, SIM swapped numbers, numbers associated with SMS pumping
Templates	Carrier-approved templates that are automatically translated across 42 languages	-
Reporting	Conversion and success rates per region, and channel	-
Learn more	Explore Verify	Explore Lookup

Build and launch a verification use case in days

Sign up for a free Twilio account to start verifying user identities today. Use quickstarts, up-to-date docs, the Twilio CLI, and CodeExchange to build a prototype quickly.

// Send a SMS verification using Twilio with Python
import os 
from twilio.rest import Client

account_sid = os.environ['TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID'] 
auth_token = os.environ['TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN']
client = Client(account_sid, auth_token)
verification = client.verify \
             .v2 \
             .services('VAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX')
             .verifications \
             .create(to='+15017122661', channel='sms')
    )
print(verification.sid)

// Install the C# / .NET helper library from twilio.com/docs/csharp/install

using System;
using Twilio;
using Twilio.Rest.Verify.V2.Service;

class Program
{
    static void Main(string[] args)
    {
        // Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
        // and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
        string accountSid = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID");
        string authToken = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN");

        TwilioClient.Init(accountSid, authToken);

        var verification = VerificationResource.Create(
            to: "+15017122661",
            channel: "sms",
            pathServiceSid: "VAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX"
        );

        Console.WriteLine(verification.Sid);
    }
}

<?php
// Update the path below to your autoload.php,
// see https://getcomposer.org/doc/01-basic-usage.md
require_once '/path/to/vendor/autoload.php';

use Twilio\Rest\Client;

// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
$sid = getenv("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID");
$token = getenv("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN");
$twilio = new Client($sid, $token);

$verification = $twilio->verify->v2->services("VAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX")
                                   ->verifications
                                   ->create("+15017122661", "sms");

print($verification->sid);

# Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/ruby/install
require 'rubygems'
require 'twilio-ruby'

# Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
# and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
account_sid = ENV['TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID']
auth_token = ENV['TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN']
@client = Twilio::REST::Client.new(account_sid, auth_token)

verification = @client.verify
                      .v2
                      .services('VAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX')
                      .verifications
                      .create(to: '+15017122661', channel: 'sms')

puts verification.sid

// Download the helper library from https://www.twilio.com/docs/node/install
// Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
// and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
const accountSid = process.env.TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID;
const authToken = process.env.TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN;
const client = require('twilio')(accountSid, authToken);

client.verify.v2.services('VAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX')
                .verifications
                .create({to: '+15017122661', channel: 'sms'})
                .then(verification => console.log(verification.sid));

// Install the Java helper library from twilio.com/docs/java/install

import com.twilio.Twilio;
import com.twilio.rest.verify.v2.service.Verification;

public class Example {
    // Find your Account SID and Auth Token at twilio.com/console
    // and set the environment variables. See http://twil.io/secure
    public static final String ACCOUNT_SID = System.getenv("TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID");
    public static final String AUTH_TOKEN = System.getenv("TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN");

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Twilio.init(ACCOUNT_SID, AUTH_TOKEN);
        Verification verification = Verification.creator(
                "VAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX",
                "+15017122661",
                "sms")
            .create();

        System.out.println(verification.getSid());
    }
}

curl -X POST "https://verify.twilio.com/v2/Services/VAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX/Verifications" \
--data-urlencode "To=+15017122661" \
--data-urlencode "Channel=sms" \
-u $TWILIO_ACCOUNT_SID:$TWILIO_AUTH_TOKEN

Verify quickstart documentation

Get set up with a Twilio account, set up your development environment, validate phone numbers with Lookup, send your first phone verification token with Verify, and validate the token.

Lookup quickstart documentation

Get set up with a Twilio account, set up your development environment, validate and format phone numbers with a Basic Lookup request then use Line Type Intelligence Lookup to see the phone number type.

Why Verify over Programmable Messaging

Verify is a purpose-built user verification solution for reliably sending one-time passwords over SMS and voice, WhatsApp, email, push and Silent Network Authentication, and TOTP.

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