Identity Insights API Now in Beta

We're excited to announce that our brand new Identity Insights API is now available in Beta! This release is a major step forward in helping developers to take advantage of exciting Mobile Network features related to phone number intelligence. 

What Is the Identity Insights API?

The Identity Insights API empowers brands to create frictionless, secure, and personalized customer journeys with real-time intelligence on the carrier, device, and subscriber behind every phone number.

Diagram showing how the Identity Insights API connects phone data from operators and regulatory authorities to customer journeys for fraud prevention and personalization

• Request any combination of available attribute sets (Insights) in a single API call.

• Designed to be non-intrusive, frictionless, and transparent for the phone number owner.

• Seamlessly scale to new features from a single endpoint.

• Instantly expand your reach across hundreds of operators and regulatory authorities worldwide — without needing to manage interconnections, integration methods, or compliance complexities. We normalize all of that for you.

Explore the full list of available Insights in the technical documentation.

What You Can Do With Identity Insights

Identity Insights can support many more depending on your needs, here are a few common use cases:

Strengthen Identity Verification & Fight Fraud

Fraudsters use SIM swaps, phishing, and fake identities to bypass security. The Identity Insights API helps detect fraud signals in real time, like recent SIM swaps or suspicious number types, so businesses can step up authentication only when needed, reducing risk without adding friction.

Validate Phone Numbers for Reliable Communication

Not all numbers are equal. Instantly check if a number has a valid format, an assigned mobile carrier, and is fit for purpose (e.g. whether to reach the customer via voice, SMS, RCS, or app notification) to avoid compliance issues, reduce messaging costs, and improve data quality at sign-up.

Optimize Engagement & Enrich Customer Data

Use real-time phone intelligence (like time zone, carrier, or line type) to tailor outreach, boost engagement, and inform smarter decisions, like user segmentation and personalization.

How Does the Identity Insights API Work?

When you make a request to the Identity Insights API, it figures out the best place to get the data, pulling from hundreds of mobile operators and regulatory authorities around the world, and returns the information to you in real time.

It abstracts the complexity of dealing with diverse standards, integrations, and regulatory requirements across different regions.

You only need to focus on what information is needed and how to interpret it to make informed decisions.

You can use any combination of insights in a single API call; for example, this request will return the Format and SIM Swap insights:

curl -X POST https://api-eu.vonage.com/v0.1/identity-insights \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $JWT" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
   "phone_number": "447009000000",
   "purpose": "FraudPreventionAndDetection",  
   "insights": {
      "format": {},
      "sim_swap": {
         "period": 240
      }
    }
  }'

The response will then contain the results of both insight requests:

{
   "request_id": "aaaaaaaa-bbbb-cccc-dddd-0123456789ab",
   "insights": {
      "format": {
         "country_code_iso2": "GB",
         "country_code_iso3": "GBR",
         "country_name": "United Kingdom",
         "country_prefix": "44",
         "offline_location": "United Kingdom",
         "time_zones": [
                "Europe/Guernsey",
                "Europe/Isle_of_Man",
                "Europe/Jersey",
                "Europe/London"
            ],
         "number_international": "447920000000",
         "number_national": "07920 000000",
         "format_valid": true,
         "status": {
            "code": "OK",
            "message": "Success"
         }
      },
      "sim_swap": {
         "latest_sim_swap_at": "2024-07-08T09:30:27.504Z",
         "swapped": true,
         "status": {
            "code": "OK",
            "message": "Success"
         }
      }
   }
}

Give It a Try

Getting started is easy:

1. Visit our Developer Portal

2. Create an account / Use your existing credentials

3. Set up the environment and create a new application

4. Make Your First API Call

   1. Using the Dashboard

   2. Using cURL

Have a look at the API specifications.

What’s Next?

Over the coming months, we’ll be:

• Expanding geographic coverage.

• Adding new Insights like Subscriber Match, Location Verification, Roaming Status and Reachability Status.

• Deprecating overlapping legacy APIs like Number Insights v2 and SIM Swap Standalone.

Excited to start using the Identity Insights API? Join the Vonage Community Slack and help us shape this brand new API! You can join the #network-apis channel and get the latest updates directly from the team. Additionally, please reach out if you have questions or concerns about moving from the Number Insights or Sim Swap APIs.