Privacy
A second phone number for online dating: stay reachable, stay safe
Moving off the dating app to texts and calls is the normal next step. A second number lets you do it without giving a stranger the number tied to your bank, your work and your home.
Every dating app eventually pushes you off the app. Someone suggests texting, or a call before you meet, and you are asked for the one piece of information you cannot take back. Most people hand it over because the alternative feels rude. A second number removes the dilemma: you give a real, working number, it is just not the one that opens your bank app.
What can go wrong with your real number
Nothing, usually. The point of a second number is the exception: the person who will not stop messaging after you have said no, the profile that turns out to belong to someone else, the conversation that becomes uncomfortable. With your real number, your options are to block and hope, or to change the number everyone you know uses. With a second number, you deactivate it or delete it, and the problem ends there.
There is also the quieter risk. A phone number is enough to look someone up on people-search sites and to link a dating profile to a full name, a workplace and sometimes an address. A second number breaks that link.
How to use one for dating
Pick a number in your own country. It should look and behave like a normal mobile, because it is one. A local or mobile number in the country you live in is what people expect.
Text and call from the app. Conversations with your date live under the second number on the Messages tab, with photos, voice notes and delivery ticks like any messaging app. Calls go from the second number and show that number. See Start a conversation and send a message.
Save them as a Second Phone contact. Contacts you create in the app stay in the app, separate from your phone's address book, so a first date is not sitting between your dentist and your mother. See Create a private Second Phone contact.
Lock the app. A PIN or Face ID on the app keeps that side of your life private even when someone else is holding your phone.
Set voicemail hours if you want quiet. Switch on voicemail and set business hours on the number, and calls late at night go to voicemail rather than waking you.
When to switch to your real number
When you would be happy for this person to have your number in five years. Until then, there is no cost to staying on the second number: they can reach you whenever they like, and you can reach them. It is a number, not a barrier.
If it goes badly
Swipe left on the number card and Deactivate it. Calls and texts stop reaching you, the number is still yours, and you can reactivate it later. If you would rather start fresh, delete the number and get another; Second Phone lets you hold up to ten numbers on one account, and extra numbers can be bought for as little as a week. The full options are in Rename a number, set auto-renew, switch it off or delete it.
Frequently asked questions
Will my date know it is a second number?
No. It is an ordinary local or mobile number. Calls and texts look and behave like any other; there is nothing to indicate it comes from an app.
Can I send photos and voice notes from a second number?
Yes. Second Phone supports SMS and MMS, so photos and videos go to numbers that support MMS, and voice notes can be recorded in the chat and sent.
What if I want to keep the number long-term?
Keep it. Renew it or set it to auto-renew, and it stays yours for as long as you want. Many people keep a second number for years as their "public" number and only give out the real one to close friends and family.