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Reach passive candidates on phone and WhatsApp, not just email

Add phone and WhatsApp to candidate outreach for niche roles where email alone stalls.

  • Free API key
  • No credit card
  • Run your sample

A selection of teams that run this job on Forager · plus other recruiting platforms

  • Clay
  • Juicebox
  • Nooks
  • Pin.com
  • skillconomy
  • HubSpot
  • Intro
  • Leelu
Tools named
WhatsApp

Uses POST /person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/ · Mobile numbers API reference

What it costs: 15 credits per mobile found · 5 credits per email found. A mobile or email lookup that returns nothing costs 0 credits. Enrichment and search are charged per request: credit pricing.

How the data flows

2 inputs → Mobile numbers + Personal emails + Person enrichment → 3 fields sample data
01 · Inputs
Your list
contacts.csv · 1,200 rows
LinkedIn URL
linkedin.com/in/alex-sample
02 · Forager
Mobile numbers + Personal emails + Person enrichment POST /person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/
Match found
03 · Outputs
Alex SampleStaff Data Engineer · Sample Labs
phone number
+1 (212) 555-0199
personal email
alex.s@example.net
name
Alex Sample
title
Staff Data Engineer
work email
alex@samplelabs.example
company
Sample Labs
3 fields in the responseexample data

Steps

  1. Fetch candidate mobiles from POST /person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/ (Silver for maximum reach)
  2. Add personal_email for a parallel channel
  3. Send WhatsApp/SMS or call from the platform with consent controls
  4. Track response by channel
import json, os, requests

BASE = "https://api-v2.forager.ai/api/{account_id}/datastorage"
HEADERS = {"X-API-KEY": os.environ["FORAGER_KEY"]}
body = json.load(open("request.json"))  # request fields: see the API reference

# 1. Fetch candidate mobiles from POST
# /person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/ (Silver for maximum reach)
r1 = requests.post(f"{BASE}/person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/", headers=HEADERS, json=body)

# 2. Add personal_email for a parallel channel

# 3. Send WhatsApp/SMS or call from the platform with consent controls

# 4. Track response by channel
Generated from the recipe stepsRequest fields: API reference

Run it yourself: Mobile numbers API reference

  • Free API key
  • No credit card
  • Run your sample

Inputs and outputs

InputsOutputs
shortlisted candidatesphone_number
LinkedIn identifierspersonal_email
channel response

Questions about this recipe

How do recruiters get candidates' mobile numbers?

Fetch candidate mobiles from POST /person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/ (Silver for maximum reach). Add personal_email for a parallel channel.

What does it cost to reach passive candidates on phone and WhatsApp, not just email?

Mobile numbers: 15 credits per mobile number found, and a mobile number lookup that finds nothing costs 0 credits. Personal emails: 5 credits per personal email found, and a personal email lookup that finds nothing costs 0 credits. Person enrichment: 1 credit per request, charged whether or not data comes back. Growth's 8,250 monthly credits cover 550 mobiles, 1,650 emails or 8,250 person enrichments, or a mix. Self-serve plans are Starter, Growth, Pro and Scale. See plans and prices

What do I need to run this recipe, and what comes back?

You send LinkedIn identifiers and shortlisted candidates. You get back channel response, personal_email and phone_number, as JSON. You also need a Forager API key, which comes with a free account.

Does WhatsApp outreach work for recruiting?

Add phone and WhatsApp to candidate outreach for niche roles where email alone stalls. Hard roles get shortlists in days instead of weeks with higher candidate response.

Can I test mobile numbers for free?

Yes. Create a free account at app.forager.ai: it comes with $5 in free credits and an API key, and there is no credit card to sign up. Run it on records you already know, or book a demo and send us a list: we run it and show you what we find.

When should I run this workflow?

When a niche role (e.g. low-latency trading engineer) has a shortlist that is not replying to email. Hard roles get shortlists in days instead of weeks with higher candidate response.

Which Forager products does this recipe use?

Mobile numbers, personal emails and person enrichment. Mobile numbers: direct mobile numbers for a person, from a LinkedIn URL or a Forager person ID, validated before they reach you. Personal emails: personal email addresses for reaching people outside their work inbox, such as passive candidates and founders.

How do you check data quality?

Forager ranked #1 of 10 in Clay's 2026 test of mobile data providers, by quality score: Clay's measure of how likely a dialled number reaches the right person. The test that counts is your own: send a list of profiles you care about. We run it and show you what we find, number by number, so you can measure hit rate and connect rate yourself.

How do I find mobile numbers of passive candidates?

Fetch candidate mobiles from POST /person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/ (Silver for maximum reach). Add personal_email for a parallel channel.

Which tools can run this workflow?

Native in Clay and Zapier, partner-built in Deepline and Cargo and called through the API from Make, n8n and your own code. Or call the endpoints in the steps above from your own code with one API key.

How many steps is this workflow?

4 steps: fetch candidate mobiles from POST /person_contacts_lookup/phone_numbers/ (Silver for maximum reach), add personal_email for a parallel channel, send WhatsApp/SMS or call from the platform with consent controls and track response by channel.

Do I need a subscription?

Not to test: a free account comes with $5 in credits. To keep using Forager, choose a monthly or yearly plan. Monthly plans cancel anytime and unused credits roll over; yearly plans grant all credits upfront and cost 10% less. Larger volumes are agreed with our team.

A selection of teams that run this job on Forager · plus other recruiting platforms

  • Clay
    • GTM workflow builders

    Selected use case: Forager mobile numbers, emails and people data inside Clay tables.

  • Juicebox
    • AI candidate sourcing

    Selected use case: Forager data behind its PeopleGPT search and sourcing agents.

  • Nooks
    • Power & parallel dialers

    Selected use case: mobile numbers inside their dialer.

  • Pin.com
    • AI candidate sourcing

    AI recruiting platform that sources candidates and runs multi-channel outreach for recruiters.

  • skillconomy
    • AI candidate sourcing

    AI active-sourcing service for professional and leadership roles.

  • HubSpot
    • CRM add-ons

    Selected use case: enriching contact and company records with people, company and job-posting data.

  • Intro
    • AI candidate sourcing

    Selected use case: phone numbers for outreach to passive candidates.

  • Leelu
    • AI candidate sourcing

    Team behind the Leelu AI recruiting copilot.

Start building

Put people, company and job data your users can act on inside your product

Send us a list. We run it, show you what we find, then talk volume and terms.

  • $5 free credits
  • No credit card
  • Run your sample
Platforms and teams that build on Forager
  • Clay
  • Juicebox
  • Nooks
  • Andela
  • HubSpot
  • SeekOut