Choose this if you’re signing up for a marketplace app, or just testing out a new service to see what it does, and it requests a phone number before it’ll send you a verification code. Giving every random app you test your real number is bad for your inbox, your privacy, and the random spam calls six months down the line asking if you’re still interested in a car warranty. This one’s for anyone who’d like a more permanent number than a disposable email address, from the one-off registration users who never revisit the platform to those who want to use the number long-term as a fail-safe.
The one I recommend to most people is MoreMins: it manages through an app not a second SIM, there’s billing options for calls and texts you make, and it balances privacy with ownership more than most of the other options here. Otherwise, this is where the others fit in: from people who want a stopgap for that one service that asks for a number once and then you never think of it again, to people who’d like a number that they can actually keep and reuse indefinitely.
| Option | Best for | Worth checking |
| MoreMins | Private renewable number for ongoing use | Platform acceptance, renewal dates |
| Hushed | Professional second line with voicemail | Cost over months if you keep it long-term |
| Burner | Quick disposable number you control | Losing everything once you delete it |
| One-time activation rentals | A single verification code, once | No way back in once it’s done |
| Free public SMS inboxes | Low-stakes, throwaway signups | Public inbox, no privacy at all |
1. MoreMins: a private number you can actually keep
MoreMins sells a real number, broadcast from one of more than 50 countries, through the platform’s web-based shop. You buy it there and it shows up inside the app, where Android users can also buy new numbers through in-app purchase. Incoming texts and calls are free to receive, while outgoing texts and phone calls can be billed separately.
UK and US numbers are often shown to start at $0.99 a month, the monthly price if you pay for an entire year in advance.
It’s worth noting that not every platform accepts virtual numbers for verification, but MoreMins numbers are meant to be used repeatedly over time.
The key thing is that the number is managed privately through the app. That means it can be reused later for a password reset rather than that number being forever tied to one platform or waiting for confirmation that you’re not a spammer before you can use WhatsApp, not that you need to pay for that second number directly. It also supports multiple active numbers at the same time, if you want to keep one for work and one for a dating profile and one for that marketplace listing.
2. Hushed: a fuller second-line app
The absolute negative is that it doesn’t work like a single temporary number that expires when you choose to let it go. It also might still get a little cluttered if the number sits unused for a while. It’s also worth checking with that platform before you sign up, since it’s ultimately up to them whether they will accept a virtual number.
3. Burner: fast to spin up, fast to kill
Second, you might just want to rent a number for a one-time thing: one fleeting account, one moment in time, just a temporary phone number for verification. For those, go with something like MoreMins, which can cost less than $3 for a month’s rental, and don’t be afraid to keep the number on hand for the next time you want to text this person or use this app again in a couple of months.
(Just don’t keep that backup code on a physically accessible device if it really, really matters to you.)
[See also: How to make your phone safe from stalkers] Burner. Burner is a service that’s based around disposable numbers that are easily “on-demand” – the bigselling point here is that you can just mute or block anyone you want, set up an auto-reply, delete or switch to a new number, and the service will comply. This seems ideal for something like a classifieds listing or a dating app, where you might want a number that genuinely seems “temporary.” But that’s not all that you’re getting here: once you delete the number, you can’t get that number back, and anything else associated with it, like any accounts that you logged into with that number, are deleted too.
That makes it not ideal if you think you might need to log back into that account in a couple of months.
4. One-time activation rental services
Temporary codes. There is a category of services designed precisely around renting a number just long enough to receive one SMS code, and that gets that code to you cheaply and from just about anywhere, complete with hundreds of potential countries to choose from. These services work well for those one-off account signups where you never plan to use the number again (who plans to go back to check on a new online service?)
and will send you the signup code, usually via email, then delete that number. The bad news is that this works less well in practice, as the number is usually shared or recycled afterward, which can make it a little tricky to get that reset code six months later if you need it. Public inboxes.
5. Free public SMS inbox websites
Then there are services that publish the number on the public internet for anyone to read the incoming texts, no account or purchase required.
How to actually pick one
These services are fine for those, say, “figure this out once and never think about it again” tests, but that postulate has consequences: your inbox is going to be open to anyone who wanders over that page, and some platforms will block these numbers entirely. Just don’t think about putting anything in this kind of inbox that involves money, private details, or something you wouldn’t want your bank to be able to verify before the bank would allow you to log in. [See also: Let’s move on from a broken password Reset] A quick glance at the wild world of SMS: Whether it’s malicious to you or not, you should now know to ask before you commit whether an app is going to accept a virtual number (things like WhatsApp, Telegram, and any messaging apps can go either way) and what the platform’s rules are for any account you plan to log into later on. And if it’s really important, make sure you have something like an email account, backup codes, or a legitimately stable way to get into your accounts that doesn’t go through the SMS inbox.
If it’s something you’ll need to log back into later, a renewable number is the safer choice.
MoreMins is the simplest way to get a virtual number and use it just for the period of time you need it. It takes less than a couple of minutes to get your number with nothing more than your name and email address, and the number will keep working as long as you renew it, expiring only if you let it lapse.
