Report updated May 19, 2026
Second Texting Number
For users seeking to maintain anonymity during online transactions, dating, or account verification processes.
Second Texting Number is a challenged social networking app that is available. With a 4.6/5 rating from 63.5K reviews, it faces significant user friction. Users particularly appreciate reliable messaging functionality provides a functional alternative for users requiring a secondary contact number, though deceptive free trial practices lead to immediate unauthorized charges for users expecting a trial period remains a common concern.
What is Second Texting Number?
Second Texting Number is a utility app for iOS that provides virtual phone numbers for private SMS and photo messaging.
Users hire this app to maintain anonymity during online transactions or account registrations without exposing their primary phone number, serving a critical privacy need.
Current Momentum
v4.2 · 2w ago
Maintenance- Ships general bug fixes only.
- Last major update May 2026.
Active Nemesis
Text Me - Phone Call + Texting
By TextMe
Other Rivals
7-Day Rank Pulse 🇺🇸
Social NetworkingNo ranking data
Rating Pulse 🇺🇸
Recent User Mood
What makes this app unique?
What Does It Look Like?
What Are The Key Features?
Provisioning of a virtual phone number with user-selected area code for SMS and photo messaging.
Capability to receive SMS-based authentication codes for third-party account registrations.
Masking of primary personal phone number for online transactions, dating, or marketplace interactions.
How much does it cost?
- Free tier with limited functionality
- Optional subscription for custom numbers, unlimited text, and photo messaging
Subscription model gates core utility features like custom numbers and unlimited messaging to drive recurring revenue.
Who Built It?
Torqued Studios
Providing mobile users with high-utility tools for content creation, privacy-focused communication, and AI-driven productivity.
Portfolio
3
Apps
What other apps does Torqued Studios make?
Explore the full Torqued Studios report
Portfolio breakdown, audience, momentum, and every app published by Torqued Studios.
What do users think recently?
Low confidence · Latest 68 of 73 total reviews analyzed · Based on 73 reviews. Signal may be noisy.
How did the latest release land?
What is the recent mood?
Recent user voice shows a frustrated sentiment. Users appreciate reliable messaging functionality provides a functional alternative for users requiring a secondary contact number, but report deceptive free trial practices lead to immediate unauthorized charges for users expecting a trial period and technical failures including message delivery errors and app instability disrupt the core communication experience.
What Users Love
What Frustrates Users
What Users Want
How have ratings & review volume moved?
Rating, review sentiment, and total reviews over time, with release markers showing the post-launch impact.
Vertical markers = app releases. Hover any release for the post-release impact delta.
View the full user-sentiment analysis
Mood gauge, ratings & review-volume history, every praise / complaint / request, and sentiment over time.
What is the competitive landscape for Second Texting Number?
Where is it available?
Localized markets (3)
How's The Social Networking Market?
How does it evolve in the Social Networking market?
The app holds a #87 Grossing position in its category, but the high volume of billing complaints suggests that monetization friction is outpacing user acquisition.
Rank progression
12 active rankings tracked — 30-day window
Which niche is Second Texting Number in?
to protect personal privacy with secondary numbers
Explore the full Privacy Tools Chats niche
Every app in this space — 1 tracked, the niche's live rankings, and Marlvel's editorial take on the job-to-be-done.
The rivals identified
Nemeses(1)
With over 638,000 ratings and a high release velocity, this app dominates the exact same social networking niche for secondary numbers.
Differentiators
- Offers integrated cross-platform calling and texting that extends beyond simple SMS verification codes.
- Maintains a high-frequency release cadence of 9 updates in six months to ensure platform stability.
- Monetizes through a mature ad-supported model that provides free access to core communication features.
Head to head
The target app should double down on its 'privacy-first' niche to avoid a direct feature war with this incumbent's broad social utility.
Contenders(4)
Strong competitor in the international calling and top-up space, often used for secondary communication needs.
Differentiators
- Integrates financial services like mobile top-ups, creating a broader ecosystem than simple texting apps.
- Aggressive update schedule of 11 releases in six months keeps the platform competitive and secure.
A specialized contender focusing on WiFi-based communication, overlapping significantly with the target's utility.
Differentiators
- Optimized specifically for WiFi-only calling, reducing dependency on cellular data plans for the user.
- Long-standing market presence since 2010 provides a stable, trusted reputation for secondary number services.
Directly competes on the 'privacy' and 'disposable number' value proposition rather than general social networking.
Differentiators
- Prioritizes privacy-centric workflows like temporary number burning which appeals to the target's core audience.
- High innovation velocity with 16 releases in six months indicates aggressive feature iteration and bug fixing.
The largest player in the space by review volume, serving as the primary benchmark for free, ad-supported communication.
Differentiators
- Operates as a full-scale mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) with its own SIM card distribution.
- Provides a robust, long-standing infrastructure for free unlimited calling and texting across North America.
Same space(3)
A utility-focused app that emphasizes privacy and temporary numbers, similar to the target's value proposition.
Differentiators
- Offers a unique 'pay-as-you-go' or subscription model that avoids the ad-heavy experience of competitors.
- Provides international number support for a wider range of countries than most US-centric competitors.
A dedicated secondary number utility that shares the same developer as TextNow but targets a more focused user segment.
Differentiators
- Provides a distinct, separate interface for business-oriented secondary numbers compared to the main TextNow app.
- Offers specialized features like custom voicemail greetings and call forwarding for professional users.
A legacy player in the social networking category that provides a similar free-to-use secondary number service.
Differentiators
- Established brand identity in the free texting space with a very large, loyal user base.
- Focuses on a simple, ad-supported interface that mirrors the target app's core functionality.
Compare Second Texting Number against every rival
All rivals in one side-by-side table — identity, store metrics, ratings & sentiment, and strategic intel — plus a head-to-head page for each.
The outtake for Second Texting Number
Strengths to defend, gaps to attack
Core Strengths
- Privacy-first value proposition attracts users wary of primary number exposure
Critical Frictions
- High-frequency billing complaints indicate deceptive trial practices
- Technical instability disrupts core messaging reliability
Growth Levers
- Expansion into voice calling features would increase service utility and retention
Market Threats
- Incumbents with higher release velocity and stable infrastructure siphon users
What are the next best moves?
Audit trial-to-subscription billing flow because billing complaints are the top user frustration → reduce refund surge
High-frequency complaints regarding unauthorized charges indicate a broken conversion funnel.
Trade-off: Pause the planned UI refresh for the messaging screen — billing stability is the immediate retention priority.
Ship stability patch for message delivery because delivery failures are the primary technical complaint → improve rating baseline
Users report messages failing to send or receive, which directly undermines the core value proposition.
Trade-off: Same-quarter capacity available — no major lever displaced.
A counter-intuitive read
The app's primary risk is not feature parity with incumbents, but the reputational damage from billing friction, which creates a permanent barrier to long-term user loyalty.
Feature Gaps vs Competitors
- Integrated cross-platform calling (available in Text Me)
- Full-scale MVNO infrastructure (available in TextNow)
- Voice calling (available in TextNow)
Key Takeaways
The app provides a necessary privacy utility, but deceptive billing and technical instability erode user trust, so the PM must prioritize billing transparency to stabilize retention.
Where Is It Heading?
Declining
The secondary number market is consolidating around stable, feature-rich incumbents, leaving this app exposed due to its maintenance-mode update cadence. Unless the team addresses the billing and stability issues, the app will continue to lose market share to competitors with higher reliability.
Persistent billing complaints following the latest release suggest that monetization friction is actively driving user churn and negative sentiment.
Technical instability in the latest version disrupts core messaging, which compounds the rating drag and limits new user conversion.