We are pleased to announce a new Content API interface developers can use to verify phone numbers for Merchant Center accounts. Phone verification is an important step in providing contact information for an account and can also help address account status issues such as PENDING_PHONE_VERIFICATION, which in some cases can enable the option for an account re-review. Prior to this release, this was only possible in the Merchant Center user interface.

Two new methods are provided in the 2-step verification process:

• accounts.requestphonenumberverification - Initializes the verification of a provided phone number via phone call or SMS through issuing a verification code.
• accounts.verifyphonenumber - Allows the phone number to be verified with the sent verification code.

Once verified, the phone number will appear in the Accounts.AccountBusinessInformation. The new methods replace the prior approach of setting a phone number directly. We strongly recommend you use these new methods to verify the phone numbers for all Merchant Center accounts to avoid future issues. See the Phone Verification guide for examples and more detail.

If you require further support implementing this change, please visit the Content API for Shopping forum.
Ian Ballantyne, Content API for Shopping Team