Helping you receive verification codes from your favourite apps and games.
Having a specific phone number to receive verification codes is one of the many uses for having a 2ndNumber account. 'Can I use my 2ndNumber to receive verification code SMS messages?' is one of the frequently asked questions we often get and the answer, happily, is yes.
We can give you a dedicated phone number to receive verification codes for banking, apps, gaming and other online services which you can access through our webphone interface or through our app. You can be set up with a new phone number to receive verification codes by SMS within minutes, with no ID required and no permanent contract needed.
With 2ndNumber you can select a US, Canadian or UK number of your choice, to send and receive SMS messages online (this does not apply to our UK landline numbers which can only send SMS messages).
This means you can have a new, private, separate number for two factor authentication (2FA) if you wish. This phone number for receiving verification codes can be used with Google, Apple, Microsoft, Facebook, Instagram, Amazon, AirBnB or any app/service requiring 2FA, including banking, dating and gaming services, websites and apps.
So if you prefer not to give out your main phone number to businesses or other third parties, for data protection or privacy reasons, then you have a perfect solution with 2ndNumber. You can receive verification code SMS messages online with your new number and you can avoid unsolicited and bulk commercial communications.
This can also help with keeping personal and business communications separate, as you don't need to give out your personal number to anyone or for anything which you wish to keep private from your business or other businesses.
The direct answer to the question, 'Can I use my 2ndNumber to receive verification code SMS messages?' is a resounding yes.
There a few regulatory points to keep in mind and importantly our numbers are P2P, not A2P. This may sound confusing, yet it is important and ensures our customers avoid the spammers rather than join them.
A series of regulations called STIR/SHAKEN prevent robocallers, spammers and scammers from using cloud based numbers to spam or trick people with phone calls and SMS messages.
These regulations help to keep networks such as 2ndNumber's reliable, safe and stable as we are fully compliant with the regulations, whilst many companies offering cloud based SMS services are not.
STIR stands for Secure Telephony Identity Revisited, whilst SHAKEN means Signature-based Handling of Asserted information using toKENs. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has made use of these protocols mandatory, as has the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC). The UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, also applies similar rules.
What STIR/SHAKEN regulations they look for is the 'symmetry' of a phone number - ie. inbound communications vs outbound communications. It ought to be 1:1 - so should show roughly 1 call/SMS in for every 1 call/SMS out - which makes sense, just like human to human conversation. If you don't do this, you're conducting A2P traffic - which means machine to person.
At 2ndNumber we don't support machine to person, plus A2P designated numbers are not reliable for communicating with. Our numbers are P2P, which is person to person. So our network is reliable and our numbers can be trusted as secure and unrelated to spam.
When a user signs up to an online service, such as Google, a variety of signals around the user's phone number are analyzed, so that the service provider (Google in this example) doesn't get hit with a fine from the FCC, CRTC or Ofcom. Those signals include:
- Has the user signed up to several Google accounts under the same number? Yes? That's asymmetrical. That's more traffic going into a number than going out. FCC says bad.
- Does the user's number have a history of using multiple cloud services to sign up to multiple accounts under one number (ie. are they likely a spammy marketeer?). Yes? That's commercial. That's asymmetrical. Again, FCC says bad.
Hang on though, how does Google know all this? Well we're not sure, but they do and it's most likely via digital fingerprinting of devices. They know if a device or number has been used in the past to create multiple accounts and they can put them on a watch list. They even analyze geographical locations to block spamming from countries with a reputation for a lax approach to anti-spam regulation.
As a customer just using 2ndNumber in a normal way to run your business, or for personal usage, you won't need to worry about this. You'll have a reliable, low-cost and convenient phone number for receiving verification codes, or to enjoy our numerous other helpful features, from a company which is fully compliant with all relevant telecom regulations.
With 2ndNumber, in addition to having a new line to receive verification codes by SMS, you can also set up a second WhatsApp for Business, create instant customer service phone menus, have multiple numbers on one phone and make cheap international calls.
You can choose local area codes for your 2ndNumber in US states, Canadian provinces or anywhere in the UK, wherever you are in the world, even if you are not a resident of those countries.
You can even share our cloud based SMS inbox with your colleagues or set up our WhatsApp chatbot to capture customer data and answer customer service questions on your website or through WhatsApp.
