Genesys Cloud - Main

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

Hi Richard,

As far as I can tell, SMS should have only been available to input in E164 format and it may have been unintended that your users were able to input in another format.

Maybe someone in the community has a workaround, but if you want to be able to input non E164 numbers for SMS, you may need to raise an idea in the Genesys Cloud Product Ideas Lab

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

I agree.  The API only supported e.164 from what I experienced.  Agents could just type 10 or 11 digits to initiate an SMS and on the back end, it converts it to e.164.

Hi Richard,

As far as I can tell, SMS should have only been available to input in E164 format and it may have been unintended that your users were able to input in another format.

Maybe someone in the community has a workaround, but if you want to be able to input non E164 numbers for SMS, you may need to raise an idea in the Genesys Cloud Product Ideas Lab

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

Obviously a loophole has been closed, but users have not been informed of the change. With a large number of organisations supporting a single country having a model similar to phone calls that adds the relevant prefix made life easier for users. Whilst the techies amongst us understand E.164, the average agent does not and countries with added complexities such as the UK removing the leading 0 and adding +44 adds a little more challenge.

We found an issue with WhatsApp and raised an idea, and testing outbound WhatsApp the prefix is still being added at the back end it just causes an issue with responses. Interestingly this is under PM review and I don't know now whether that will be to block the ability to not use E.164 or not.

https://genesyscloud.ideas.aha.io/ideas/CETPDC-I-30

I agree.  The API only supported e.164 from what I experienced.  Agents could just type 10 or 11 digits to initiate an SMS and on the back end, it converts it to e.164.

Hi Richard,

As far as I can tell, SMS should have only been available to input in E164 format and it may have been unintended that your users were able to input in another format.

Maybe someone in the community has a workaround, but if you want to be able to input non E164 numbers for SMS, you may need to raise an idea in the Genesys Cloud Product Ideas Lab

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

I agree.  The API only supported e.164 from what I experienced.  Agents could just type 10 or 11 digits to initiate an SMS and on the back end, it converts it to e.164.

Hi Richard,

As far as I can tell, SMS should have only been available to input in E164 format and it may have been unintended that your users were able to input in another format.

Maybe someone in the community has a workaround, but if you want to be able to input non E164 numbers for SMS, you may need to raise an idea in the Genesys Cloud Product Ideas Lab

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

We experienced the very same on Monday 13th. Deeply frustrating for our internal Service Desk to light up with literally dozens of calls with people thinking there is a system outage. Sorry to say, but its another fine mess Genesys have created.

In the same way I don't have to enter an E164 prefix to dial a number or send a message on my mobile phone, or use an E164 number to make a call in Genesys, I am struggling to understand why Genesys have changed this to now enforce an E164 number through the front end for end users?

I can completely understand wanting to ensure numbers submitted through the API are in this format - thats something we can control and adhere to, but to enforce this on users make literally no sense.

What causes me more concern is that despite many clients across the world (I am UK based) facing this issue at the same time, there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement from Genesys or even understanding that they have changed something to cause this. Where is the change control? Very worrying.

To now be asked to submit an idea, is frankly dreadful. Seems to be the response to any bug or issue reported. The ideas portal should be about new functionality, or changes in functionality. It shouldnt a response to a fault where established behaviour has changed without any notice or intention from Genesys to change behaviour.

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

I have checked this internally and it is being looked into.  I will try and gather some more information and update here

------------------------------
Sam Jillard
Online Community Manager/Moderator
Genesys - Employees

Original Message:
Sent: 10-17-2025 04:10
From: David Halliday
Subject: SMS no longer accepts numbers without leading country code

We experienced the very same on Monday 13th. Deeply frustrating for our internal Service Desk to light up with literally dozens of calls with people thinking there is a system outage. Sorry to say, but its another fine mess Genesys have created.

In the same way I don't have to enter an E164 prefix to dial a number or send a message on my mobile phone, or use an E164 number to make a call in Genesys, I am struggling to understand why Genesys have changed this to now enforce an E164 number through the front end for end users?

I can completely understand wanting to ensure numbers submitted through the API are in this format - thats something we can control and adhere to, but to enforce this on users make literally no sense.

What causes me more concern is that despite many clients across the world (I am UK based) facing this issue at the same time, there doesn't seem to be any acknowledgement from Genesys or even understanding that they have changed something to cause this. Where is the change control? Very worrying.

To now be asked to submit an idea, is frankly dreadful. Seems to be the response to any bug or issue reported. The ideas portal should be about new functionality, or changes in functionality. It shouldnt a response to a fault where established behaviour has changed without any notice or intention from Genesys to change behaviour.

------------------------------
David Halliday
Applications Team Leader

Original Message:
Sent: 10-15-2025 18:25
From: Richard Presling
Subject: SMS no longer accepts numbers without leading country code

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

#DigitalChannels
#Implementation

------------------------------
Richard Presling
CX Implementation Engineer
New Zealand / Australia
------------------------------

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

Hi all

The issue has been identified and a fix to return it to previous behavior is being worked on

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

Hi all

The issue has been identified and a fix to return it to previous behavior is being worked on

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

Hi Sam. 

Is there an update on when this will be resolved at all please? 

Thanks 

Matt 

Hi all

The issue has been identified and a fix to return it to previous behavior is being worked on

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,

Hi Matt,

I just checked in on this and the fix is expected to roll out this weekend (15th-16th Nov)

Hi Sam. 

Is there an update on when this will be resolved at all please? 

Thanks 

Matt 

Hi all

The issue has been identified and a fix to return it to previous behavior is being worked on

Hi,

On 13 October the user experience when sending SMS messages was changed.

Users have been sending Australian SMS numbers in the format 02 12345678 and GC was normalising the number and sending the SMS.

They are now forced to enter E164 +61212345678 number format.

What changed and is there a way to get back to the old behaviour via configuration?

There are no mentions of the change in release notes and I have seen no advance warning.

Thanks,