diff --git a/td/telegram/CountryInfoManager.cpp b/td/telegram/CountryInfoManager.cpp
index 09423ca5f..36ebe8ded 100644
--- a/td/telegram/CountryInfoManager.cpp
+++ b/td/telegram/CountryInfoManager.cpp
@@ -8,6 +8,7 @@
 
 #include "td/telegram/Global.h"
 #include "td/telegram/LanguagePackManager.h"
+#include "td/telegram/misc.h"
 #include "td/telegram/Td.h"
 #include "td/telegram/telegram_api.h"
 
@@ -179,7 +180,7 @@ void CountryInfoManager::do_get_countries(string language_code, bool is_recursiv
 
 void CountryInfoManager::get_phone_number_info(string phone_number_prefix,
                                                Promise<td_api::object_ptr<td_api::phoneNumberInfo>> &&promise) {
-  td::remove_if(phone_number_prefix, [](char c) { return c < '0' || c > '9'; });
+  clean_phone_number(phone_number_prefix);
   if (phone_number_prefix.empty()) {
     return promise.set_value(td_api::make_object<td_api::phoneNumberInfo>(nullptr, string(), string()));
   }
@@ -222,7 +223,7 @@ void CountryInfoManager::do_get_phone_number_info(string phone_number_prefix, st
 
 td_api::object_ptr<td_api::phoneNumberInfo> CountryInfoManager::get_phone_number_info_sync(const string &language_code,
                                                                                            string phone_number_prefix) {
-  td::remove_if(phone_number_prefix, [](char c) { return !is_digit(c); });
+  clean_phone_number(phone_number_prefix);
   if (phone_number_prefix.empty()) {
     return td_api::make_object<td_api::phoneNumberInfo>(nullptr, string(), string());
   }
diff --git a/td/telegram/misc.cpp b/td/telegram/misc.cpp
index 685bafdd3..b817a93b6 100644
--- a/td/telegram/misc.cpp
+++ b/td/telegram/misc.cpp
@@ -51,6 +51,10 @@ string clean_username(string str) {
   return trim(str);
 }
 
+void clean_phone_number(string &phone_number) {
+  td::remove_if(phone_number, [](char c) { return !is_digit(c); });
+}
+
 void replace_offending_characters(string &str) {
   // "(\xe2\x80\x8f|\xe2\x80\x8e){N}(\xe2\x80\x8f|\xe2\x80\x8e)" -> "(\xe2\x80\x8c){N}$2"
   auto s = MutableSlice(str).ubegin();
diff --git a/td/telegram/misc.h b/td/telegram/misc.h
index bce97b00d..f9b6de664 100644
--- a/td/telegram/misc.h
+++ b/td/telegram/misc.h
@@ -16,6 +16,9 @@ string clean_name(string str, size_t max_length) TD_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT;
 // prepares username/stickername for search
 string clean_username(string str) TD_WARN_UNUSED_RESULT;
 
+// prepares phone number for search
+void clean_phone_number(string &phone_number);
+
 // replaces some offending characters without changing string length
 void replace_offending_characters(string &str);