By Komando Staff│ komando.com│4 min

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The current tech plague of annoying robocalls, telemarketing and spam calls is bigger than ever, and it seems like it’s getting worse each day. This is why it’s so important to protect your personal phone number.

Treat it like it’s as confidential as your other sensitive information — your name, address, Social Security number. And don’t give it away willy-nilly as you probably did before.

It’s not just robocalls. Remember your personal phone number is also tied to various account security options such as two-factor authentication and sign-ins. Plenty of apps and services even require a valid phone number for account creation.

This is why it’s almost a necessity to have multiple numbers for ultimate security. If you have at least one secondary number, you won’t have to give out your main number to strangers, when signing up for things or when you submit information to websites.

Reserve your personal number for your family, friends and other important communications.

For other public activities like online dating, buying and selling on Craigslist or when you’re traveling, it’s better to have a secondary “burner” number to give out. Burner numbers are temporary numbers you can use as you please.

Fortunately, with today’s modern smartphone apps, you can have multiple lines and phone numbers on a single phone. No need to sign up for multiple phone lines and handsets from your carrier, these apps can give you a secondary number for as long as you need it.

Here are best apps around that can give you a second or multiple phone numbers:

Burner

Burner is the most popular secondary-number service app for iOS and Android. With Burner, you can protect your real personal number by using temporary disposable numbers at any time.

By intercepting all calls on your Burner app and routing them to your phone, you can effectively hide your real number while calling or texting.

Burner has a free seven day trial. After that, you can buy Burner packages or customize a personal plan. The app offers subscriptions for one or three auto-renewing lines with unlimited calls, texts and pictures, or you can use a prepaid plan.

An unlimited 1 line monthly plan is available for $4.99/month while the three line monthly plan costs $14.99/month. How you customize your plan can vary in price, so visit the Burner website for more information.

Do you want to try Burner now? Download the app from the Apple App Store and Google Play app stores.

Hushed

Similar to Burner, Hushed also provides temporary disposable numbers at various price plans. The cheapest is a $1.99 seven-day plan that’s good for 60 texts and 20 call minutes. A monthly unlimited plan is available for $4.99/month.

As a bonus, Hushed also provides free calls, chat and messaging to other Hushed users. To start you off, Hushed will give you your own disposable number you can use free for three days.

The Hushed app is available in both Apple and Google Play app stores.

Google Voice

Did you know Google also has a free phone service? It’s called Google Voice and you can choose your own free phone number for voice calls, texts and voicemail. All you need is an active Google account.

Install the Google Voice app and you can place outgoing calls, send and receive text messages and voicemail (with transcription) with your secondary number. You can even forward all your Google Voice calls, text messages and voicemails to your personal or office phone.

Keep in mind that although Google Voice is free, all calls made through the app still use minutes on your cell phone plan.

The Google Voice app is available for both iOS and Android. You can also access Google Voice on your computer via web browser.

Text Free

Text Free is a free service that gives you a single U.S. phone number. Text messages and calls to this number are free but the app is supported by ads. For an ad-free experience, Text Free offers a $2.99/month plan to completely remove ads from the app.

Your Text Free number also expires after 30 days of inactivity. To keep that number indefinitely, you’ll have to reserve it for $4.99/month. Text Free also offers voicemail transcriptions for $4.99/month.

Text Free is available for both iOS and Android gadgets. Text Free is also accessible via web browser.

Flyp

Instead of a single disposable line, the Flyp service encourages you to assign a unique number to the various facets of your life by giving you up to five lines.

Use a different number for home, work, school, friends, dating, strangers, etc. – the idea behind Flyp is to separate all the identities you use on a daily basis with unique phone numbers. For versatility, you can choose a different area code for each of your Flyp numbers, which great for travelers who local numbers.

Each line also comes with unlimited calls and texts. Flyp’s subscription rates are a bit pricier at $7.99/monthly or $79.99/yearly per line. You can have up to five lines on a single phone.

You can try Flyp for free for seven days and see if it’s something you would like to keep. The app is available for both iOS and Android.

How to stop annoying robocalls on your iPhone and Android

Are you sick and tired of robocall and telemarketing scams? Thankfully, to fight back against all kinds of nuisance calls, you have several smartphone tools at your disposal. Click here to read more about all your robocall-busting options.

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