You can get started with verification by going to youtube.com/verify. You’ll be asked to provide a phone number for account verification, so we can send you a verification code via voice call or SMS.
Once you’ve verified your account, you will be able to:
- Upload videos longer than 15 minutes
- Add custom thumbnails
- Live stream
- Appeal content ID claims
You may also be asked to verify your account when signing up.
Why you need your phone number for verification
Youtube take spam and abuse very seriously. Using phones to verify identity is one way to protect our community and combat abuse.
YouTube will use the phone number you enter to send you a verification code and to check that the phone number is not being used on a large number of accounts.
If you did not receive the verification code on your phone
Usually you’ll receive the code immediately. If you haven’t, you can request a new code. Check to see that you’re not running into one of these common problems:
- Some countries and carriers do not support text messages from Google. Most mobile carriers support text messages from Google. If your carrier does not support text messages from Google, you can try the voice call option, or use a different phone number.
- There are too many accounts with the same phone number. If you see the error message, “This phone number has already created the maximum number of accounts,” you’ll have to use a different number. To help prevent abuse, we limit the number of accounts that can be associated with each phone number.
- Text message delivery can be delayed if you live in a densely populated area or if your carrier’s infrastructure isn’t well maintained. If you’ve waited more than a few minutes and still haven’t received our text message, try the voice call option.