Is there a 2nd no app?

/e/OS Devices Motorola
1

Hi

Can anyone out there recommend a 2nd number app that is free and will work in UK? Tall order I know. Most are rank intrusive and carry more trackers than the US calvary!

Many thanks

2

Iā€™m not sure what you mean by second number app. Would you explain please? It sounds interesting.

3

I guess a dialer is meant.

4

Maybe. If thatā€™s the case then Iā€™m not sure whatā€™s wrong with the default one. It works well enough in my experience.

5

Thanks

An app that gives you a 2nd number that can used when one doesnā€™t want to give away the real number from ones provider. This 2nd number can be ā€˜burntā€™ when finished.

6

I see. Interesting idea but any app which exists for commercial reasons is likely to be riddled with trackers these days.

7

There are 2 better ones that come to my mind (still neither of them is free of trackers):

Whereas the latter one only gives you access to a German GSM number only.

Most of those services are building upon the SIP protocol. Therefore, it could be an option that you get a phonenumber from a provider (such as localphone) but you use an open source app (such as sipdroid) to access it.

In any way, it wonā€™t be easy to find a service that it for free (no subscription fee) and without tracking. You always need to take into account that a company providing such kind of service, needs to earn its share as well. So, it will be likely that you need to make a trade-off.

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8

Works well from my experience and trackers can be worked around to quite some extend with Advanced Privacy and blocking tools alike.

But I would not consider it a real ā€œburner numberā€ as I understand @cliffhanger ā€™ s request because thereā€™s quite some effort needed to get the number in the first place: you have to officially identify which least takes some time to do so ā€¦ needs to be repeated every time you burn the number.

I donā€™t know about other countries and other services but in Germany you wonā€™t get a ā€œrealā€ mobile number without IDā€™ing towards the provider.

Edit: maybe some day firefox relay will be available for masking phone numbersā€¦

9

Same in UK as I understand things.

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10

Thought soā€¦

For some usecases a second SIM with some other number (in some dumb phone at home, forwarding calls) may mask the private number and thus work as alias, thatā€™d work least for incoming callsā€¦

From the way these services work technically I expect aliases (or ā€œburner identitiesā€) for phone numbers to require way more effort to set up compared to email for instance.

11

Thatā€™s the way Iā€™m going

Thanks again

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12

Not free, but usually ultra cheap: get an account with a VOIP provider, then add the account to your calling accounts in the dialerā€™s settings. You might even be able to limit the account to incoming only, if you want (i.e. not have or pay for outgoing). And thus avoid tracking, probably.

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13

Thatā€™s basically what I do. Two ā€œlandlineā€ and one mobile number all over SIP. Numbers given out on a need to know basis. Outgoing calls to businesses made with inclusive airtime on an actual mobile number which is withheld. Unfortunately lots of people I know wonā€™t answer withheld number calls so the SIP numbers do get used for outbound sometimes. The nice thing about this setup is that I can hop around between cheap mobile deals without ever having to move the number to a new provider.

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14

I think a service youll want to look into is cloaked. They have alias numbers and email addresses galore.

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