WhatsApp Phone Number Formatting Update

What is it?

This change applies only to WhatsApp. We have made improvements to how HubSpot handles phone number formats in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina. In these countries international phone number formats have evolved over time. For example:

• Brazil: +55 AA XXXX XXXX → +55 AA 9 XXXX XXXX
• Mexico: +52 1 AA XXXX XXXX → +52 AA XXXX XXXX
• Argentina: +54 AA XXXX XXXX → +54 9 AA XXXX XXXX

In order to ensure these changes do not effect ongoing sending we have made enhancements.

Why does it matter?

Historically, HubSpot treated these variations as completely different phone numbers, which caused several issues:

• Incoming WhatsApp messages in an alternate format would not match the corresponding contact in the CRM.
• Subscription statuses were tracked separately for each variation, even though they represented the same end user.
• Conversations between the two formats were split into separate threads.

How does it work?

These problems have now been resolved. HubSpot will treat these phone number formats as equivalent, ensuring consistent contact matching, unified subscription statuses, and seamless conversation threads — regardless of the exact formatting used.

• HubSpot will now detect existing contacts on receiving inbound WhatsApp messages regardless of the format of the phone number from the above examples
• Messages from both formats of the above phone numbers will start routing to the same thread in the Conversations inbox / Help Desk

Who gets it?

Marketing Pro, Marketing Enterprise, Marketing+ Pro, Marketing+ Enterprise, Service Pro, Service Enterprise