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The Freedom of Anonymity: Signing Up for Instant Messengers with Temporary Phone Numbers

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Instant messengers are highly popular these days. We use them to read the news, watch movies, communicate with friends and family, and even promote goods and services. However, there is one major disadvantage of such apps. This disadvantage is the requirement to verify a personal mobile phone number at the registration stage. Going that way is not really safe in terms of privacy, especially when it comes to using instant messengers, which often show your phone number to other users. Temporary phone numbers completely solve this issue.

What is a temporary number?

Currently, such numbers are provided by many online services. They offer their solutions both as websites and mobile apps to every person around the world. But even though they are used by millions of internet users, there is still a lot of misleading information about them and temporary phone numbers in particular.

In fact, temporary numbers are a very simple feature. They are just regular mobile numbers that, in contrast to the latter, are meant to be usable over the internet for a certain period of time or only one time, which occurs more frequently.

These numbers are designed specifically for the purpose of registering on various services on the web, including instant messengers like WhatsApp, Telegram, Viber, and others. This is literally the only thing they can be used for. Because of this, temporary phone numbers are cheaply priced and simple to use in large quantities to create multiple accounts on the same platform.

How much does a temporary phone number cost?

The cost of temporary phone numbers can vary greatly depending on the situation. There are three things that affect this. Those are:

  • Country of issue. This is the primary factor affecting the cost. Even though all temporary numbers serve the same purpose, numbers issued by cellular providers from high-GDP countries reasonably cost more than numbers from low-GDP countries. For example, China SMS receive is one of the cheapest options on the market. 
  • Use duration. Temporary phone numbers for one-time use are cheaper than numbers for unrestricted use during a certain period of time. Moreover, the longer the time of use, the higher the cost.
  • Service for registration. The website or app with which a temporary number is supposed to work is another factor. The more in demand the service is, the higher the price for a number to register with it.

So, the cost could vary significantly. However, to register for instant messenger, it is enough to use numbers for one-time use, which typically costs around $0.50 or even less, depending on the required app and chosen provider of temporary phone numbers.

Signing up for instant messengers

Internet users can take advantage of temporary numbers with many appropriate platforms. One of the best among them is SMS-Man. This service provides numbers via the website, mobile app, and PC software, giving everyone the opportunity to choose a convenient way to use their offers.

Usually, it is used via a website as it is the simplest and most straightforward option. So, below is a step-by-step guide on how to get temp phone number with it:

  1. Sign up for an account on sms-man.com and verify it with the link sent to your email.
  2. Use any payment option from the relevant page to top up your balance.
  3. Open the main page and select the country of the cellular provider for the temporary number.
  4. Scroll down the page to a section with supported-for-use services, where it is necessary to find the instant messenger for which you are going to register. You can use the search feature to simplify the process and make it quicker.
  5. Click on “Buy SMS” to get the number.

There is not much to do left after completing steps from above. You will get the number ready for use with the selected instant messenger automatically in a few seconds after requesting it. Everything there to do at this point is to copy the received temporary phone number and use it for registration on the appropriate website or app. It works in the same way as a regular mobile number.