How to Change Phone Number Format on Apple Devices

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If you want to change the format of addresses and phone numbers saved in your iCloud contacts, you can easily do it on the iCloud website. Keep in mind, these changes will only apply to your contacts stored on iCloud.com. If you want the formatting to be consistent across all your devices—like your iPhone, iPad, or Mac—you’ll need to update each device separately using their respective Contacts apps or email clients like Microsoft Outlook on Windows.

Here’s how to update your address and phone number formats on iCloud:

Open your web browser and go to iCloud.com. Sign in with your Apple ID.
Once logged in, go to the Contacts section.
On the left sidebar, click the Action pop-up menu (it looks like a small gear or settings icon). Then select Preferences.
In the Preferences window, choose the country you want for your address layout from the dropdown menu.
To make your contacts’ phone numbers automatically add hyphens, parentheses, and spaces in the correct places based on the country code, check the box that says “Automatically format phone numbers.” If you prefer to enter phone numbers in your own preferred style without automatic formatting, leave this box unchecked.
Click Save to apply the changes.

Here’s a quick visual guide to help:

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About Phone Number Formatting

Check the phone numbers stored in your contacts. Make sure there are no manually added spaces or symbols within the numbers—they should be just digits. The system will add spaces, hyphens, and parentheses automatically as you enter numbers, based on the country code you’ve set. It’s best not to manually insert these symbols to keep things clean and consistent.

Here’s a quick demonstration:

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Using Dial Assist on Your iPhone

To help make dialing easier, iPhones have a feature called Dial Assist. When enabled, it automatically adds the correct country code and formats phone numbers as you dial. To turn this on:

Go to Settings.
Tap on Phone.
Enable Dial Assist.

Here’s what it looks like:

Insert image showing Dial Assist setting.

By following these steps, your contacts will display addresses and phone numbers in the format you prefer, keeping everything tidy and easy to read across your devices.