How One‑Click Mobile Number Login Works Across China’s Carriers

Many apps now support “one‑click login” using the device’s phone number. This feature relies on carrier‑specific gateway authentication, allowing users to register or log in with a single authorization, offering a smoother experience than traditional SMS verification.

China Mobile

China Mobile’s number authentication service supports Mobile, Unicom, and Telecom numbers, offering two main functions:

One‑click login: Uses the carrier’s communication gateway to retrieve the device’s phone number. After user consent, the iOS or Android app can log in without a password.

Number verification: Through SDK/JSSDK, the service validates whether a given phone number belongs to the device’s SIM, ensuring the SIM is not separated from the device. This works on iOS, Android, H5, mini‑programs, and quick apps.

Get phone number (one‑click login):

Number verification:

Number acquisition method

By calling Android’s getPhoneInfo or iOS’s getPhoneNumberCompletion, the SDK silently performs network checks, cellular data switching, and gateway number retrieval, returning whether the acquisition succeeded.

Network requirement: Number acquisition needs mobile data to be enabled; disabling data or weak signal reduces success rate and increases latency.

Timeout: Default SDK timeout is 8000 ms; Android can adjust via setOverTime, iOS via setTimeoutInterval.

Carrier detection: SDK can determine current network type and carrier via Android’s getNetworkType or iOS’s networkInfo, allowing selection of appropriate carrier SDK.

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

China Telecom

China Telecom’s Tianyi Account Open Platform provides password‑less login, mobile number authentication, and secondary‑card verification, currently only for Telecom users.

Password‑less authentication:

Number verification:

Secondary‑card verification:

China Unicom

China Unicom’s Communication Innovation Platform offers a suite of services: number authentication (one‑click login), anonymous device ID, anonymous user ID, empty‑number detection, secondary‑number verification, and three‑element verification.

Number authentication

Leveraging carrier gateway authentication, the service provides one‑click registration/login and number verification for apps and H5 pages across all three carriers, improving user experience and reducing fraud risk.

Anonymous device identifier

Generates a unique ID for each device without relying on manufacturer data, supporting iOS and Android. It enables precise user profiling, fraud detection, and marketing optimization across apps, H5, and mini‑programs.

Anonymous user identifier

Returns a unique pseudo‑code derived from the user’s public and private IPs, protecting the actual phone number while allowing user‑level identification. Available only for Unicom users.

Empty‑number detection

Identifies whether a phone number is active, inactive, or a “burned” number within one second, supporting large‑scale concurrent queries and helping businesses avoid contacting unreachable numbers.

Secondary‑number verification

Detects whether a phone number has been re‑issued after a certain period, preventing privacy leaks and financial loss when users change numbers without unbinding previous accounts.

Three‑element verification

Validates the consistency of a user’s name, ID number, and phone number, commonly used for real‑name authentication in finance, lending, and credit‑card applications.

Typical scenarios include real‑name registration, loan pre‑approval, and fraud prevention.