Can't create user with `phoneNumber: null`

Describe your environment

• Operating System version: macOS Monterey 12.0.1
• Firebase SDK version: 9.10.0
• Firebase Product: auth
• Node.js version: 12.22.3
• NPM version: 6.14.13

Describe the problem

I receive the following error when creating a user with phoneNumber: null:

FirebaseAuthError: The phone number must be a non-empty E.164 standard compliant identifier string.

But the function params say it should be allowed:

https://github.com/firebase/firebase-admin-node/blob/aea280d325c202fedc3890850d8c04f2f7e9cd54/src/auth/auth-config.ts#L160

Steps to reproduce:

Run the code below.

Relevant Code:

import firebase from 'firebase-admin'

await firebase.auth().createUser({
  displayName: 'John',
  email: '[e-mail]',
  phoneNumber: null,
})

[hiranya911]

I don’t think it makes any sense to “create” a user with a null phone number. It’s same as creating one with no phone number specified. In case of update it specifically means to remove the phone number from the account.

[gustavopch]

@hiranya911 For example, there’s nothing wrong with:

await firebase
  .firestore()
  .collection('users')
  .add({
    displayName: 'John',
    email: '[e-mail]',
    phoneNumber: null,
  })

In fact, that’s sometimes even necessary if you need to filter on phoneNumber — if the property is just omitted, it won’t be indexed.

If null makes sense when adding a user to Firestore, intuitively, it also makes sense for Firebase Auth. I understand those are two different services with different implementations, but I’m talking from the perspective of someone who’s looking from the outside, consuming them.