Country configuration
When you verify a phone number, the destination country decides how the code travels: which channels are available there, which one is tried first, and whether verification is allowed at all. The Countries page is where you manage that, one row per country. Email-only recipients aren't affected by any of this: an email address has no country, so country configuration applies to verifications whose recipient includes a phone number.
By default every country is enabled with Bird's platform routing, so a new workspace can verify phone numbers worldwide without touching this page. You come here to narrow that: turn off countries you never serve (a cheap defense against SMS pumping), reorder channels where you have a preference, or pin a per-country sender.
The Countries page
Each row shows the country, its effective channel order, whether it delivers under a shared or branded sender, and an on/off toggle. Filter by status or channel, or search by country name. A disabled country still shows its channel order grayed out, so you can see what re-enabling restores.
The toggle enables or disables the whole country. Disabling stops delivery for phone numbers there: a verification whose recipient includes a phone number in a disabled country resolves no channels and the create call fails with 422, even when the recipient also carries an email address. Re-enabling clears the off pin rather than pinning "on", so a country you've only ever toggled follows Bird's platform routing as it evolves. Channel-order and sender pins survive the toggle.
Per-country routing
Click a row to open the country's routing sheet:
- Channel order: drag channels to set the order Bird tries them for this country, for example WhatsApp before SMS. A verification works through the list until a send succeeds.
- Per-channel enable: switch an individual channel off without disabling the country. Channels Bird hasn't made available in a country can't be enabled; the platform sets that ceiling per country.
- Per-channel sender: pin the sender for this country: inherit your configuration default, pin the Bird shared sender, or set a custom one (email only today; see Senders & branding). A per-country choice wins over the configuration default for recipients in that country.
Why disable a country
The most common reason isn't preference; it's fraud. SMS pumping schemes trigger OTP sends to premium-rate numbers in countries the business has no users in, and every delivered code costs you money. If your product serves a known set of markets, disabling the rest closes that surface entirely. Verify's platform caps limit the blast radius either way, but a country you've turned off costs you nothing.
Next steps
| Page | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Senders & branding | Shared and branded senders, and what the code messages look like |
| Sending verifications | The send and check calls, per-request channel overrides, and limits |
| Verify overview | The section map and how a verification works |