Welcome to Burner, your phone within your phone.
We’ve rebranded & updated everything from the logo to the app interface, but we’re still the market-leading second phone number app that allows you to have multiple numbers for multiple reasons.
We arm you with the texting, calling, and organizational tools you need to manage the various aspects of your busy life. We’re a second phone number app, sure, but at our core we’re just trying to help you navigate this wild, weird world in the easiest, safest way possible.
HOW BURNER WORKS
Burner is the only app that provides you with total control over your communications boundaries by providing multiple phone numbers with settings for work, life, play, and more. However, it’s so much more than just a second phone number app for calling & texting. You’re able to do so much more than text now…
Burner allows you to use your phone with unlimited anonymous numbers. This means that you can enjoy multiple phone numbers with unlimited calling, texting, and possibilities while keeping your personal number private.
Use Burner to:
• Maintain your privacy & keep your number safe
• Organize your social circles
• Protect your anonymity
• Communicate freely with spam blocking & muting
• Set boundaries with do-not-disturb settings
• Attain inbox bliss with enhanced organizational features
• Call and text now with immediate, unlimited calling & texting
Privacy features abound, but we’ve also enhanced our organizational features so that you’re able to incorporate Burner into your everyday life, whether you’re a solopreneur, love online dating, or simply just need multiple numbers for multiple life passions. With Burner, you can set boundaries with spam call blocking, do-not-disturb settings, and more to ensure that you’re always in control of your communications.
Burner is free to download and free to try. Get a free 7-day trial and a real second line to try with our enhanced privacy, spam-blocking, and communication features. Additional numbers are available through subscription, making it easy to add more lines whenever you need them.
BEST IN CLASS
We’re not here to brag (okay, maybe a little), but we’ve been featured as a TIME Magazine Top 50 App and we’ve appeared in The New York Times, WIRED, TechCrunch, Engadget, and more.
Why do they all love us so much? You can download the app to see for yourself, but we’ve been recognized for excellence and innovation (and the fact that we offer real numbers, not fake phone numbers or second lines that only work for a week).
Burner is the most reliable and fully featured virtual phone number app available, boasting premium calling & texting features that include blocking, muting, and do-not-disturb settings plus the ability to easily switch lines when needed. After all, life is complicated enough. Your phone doesn’t have to be.
THE FINE PRINT
Privacy Policy: https://burnerapp.com/privacy
Terms of Use: https://burnerapp.com/terms-of-service
IMPORTANT: Phone calls use cell phone minutes. Burners are free for a trial period only — please review our pricing before purchasing. Area code availability varies. May not work with SMS shortcode services. Not for 911 emergency services. Works in the US and Canada only. Not available in Puerto Rico.
I have been very happy with this app until a year ago. I have had a few issues here and there with delays in messages and never understood the small images when clicking one that was received. I have not had any issues with call quality. The biggest issue I have is the loss of the ability to sync messages and images received to Google drive for easier searching later. This was a feature that really sold me when I got the app but now an alternative will be found and this service dropped.
I’ve been using this app for a while now, it’s good! Not that many issues, aside from a few that I think could be easily fixed via patch. For example, I have to exit texting back into the main ‘menu’ in order to see a new text message. It’s doesn’t always show up while in the texting portion. Another issue is, the picture preview is really tiny and if someone sends you a video? It won’t actually play it in app, if you download a video sent to you, it’ll only save a frame from that video.
I like the emphasis on privacy, but I have 4 major issues: 1- I can’t search my text messages (I have the memory of a gnat, never mind goldfish); 2- I can’t schedule text messages; 3- the text messages sometimes don’t come in until I open the app; 4- the call quality is bad. I’m not sure how much of this can be addressed by the developer, but I wish I hadn’t signed up for multiple lines and paid the annual fee. The price is reasonable, though.
This app works ok for texting, less so for calls. There’s a pretty obvious delay when a call is connecting and it sounds like a disconnect. What I hate is that they set up an auto renew I 100% did not want and am unable to stop inside the app. It tells you to cancel through Google Play and it’s really unclear how to do it. I feel like that’s shifty and untrustworthy.
This app has had no significant updates and essentially riding the wave from its name. Calls go to voicemail, no notification for texts, no call forwarding, UI looks very dated, app itself is quite laggy to start, receiving photos fails consistently (always shows a gray ‘unable to load’ symbol until you actually download the photo), no option to search messages. You’d think with such little features/advancement, their core app would be very stable, but it’s not. Quite disappointing.
Laughable at best. Especially for a paid service. Number selection is extremely limited, on top of that you’re only allowed to look at a handful of numbers before being blocked from searching the system for a number. Considering this is a paid service, and you have limited options at your disposal. I cannot recommend the service at all. You’re better off buying an actual phone service that uses eSIM card technology, VOIP, or even many of the MVNOs that are available. (Not to name any names.)
Had been using this app for a few years and it was great. The recent change to the interface is confusing and harder to navigate. Just to get to one number if you have multiple numbers working requires too many clicks. I haven’t had the connection issues others have had but I definitely am not fond of the new GUI. Why the change in the first place?
I have been trying to cancel this subscription for months. Under subscriptions in the Play Store it does not show this app, yet my credit card is being charged. I have emailed multiple times and they will not help. They tell me they can ONLY cancel the subscription through the play store. DO NOT download this app unless you want to be stuck paying for it. I will have to cancel my credit card just to get the payments to stop. Ridiculous.
The app has been a life saver while on deployment but it’s too buggy. The messaging feature should be redone to be smoother, faster, and look better. Scrolling through messages is a nightmare, it’s choppy and jumps all over the screen. It does what I need it to but I’d enjoy a better interface. For 4.99 a month I’d like to enjoy using the app instead of merely using it for necessity. And, yes I’ve uninstalled and reinstalled to ensure I’m on the latest version.
Had a bit of a bug, took money and didnt start the account. Ok, weird. Messaged team. Got a direct email back within 12 hours, got it fixed within 30 minutes of that. How someone handles problems matters a lot to me and this is a perfect example of what to do when an app glitches. Beyond that, I’ve used the service before. Its fantastic. Privacy and easy controls, app is stable and works really well.
Overall, setup was easy enough. The biggest problem was it took 10 rings before the voicemail picked up. I had customers tell me they tried to call and since they couldn’t leave a voicemail they moved on. I lost business because of this app. I contacted customer service 4 different times. That too, is lacking. They said it would take longer for my call to go out and I had to explain over and over again I was talking about calls coming in. If they can’t figure that out, I lost hope. Uninstalled.
Great App, with great features. I only have one problem, on the home screen there is a row of buttons: phone, messages, burn number, settings. I really wish that there wasn’t a button to burn the number right on the home screen, I have almost burnt my number more than once and it would have been tragic if I did as it is my work number. This option should be kept in settings, to avoid accidentally burns, nobody needs to have burn number as a shortcut. I hope they change this in an update.
Great for text, except pictures take forever to come through. Voice calls are f’ing AWFUL. Frequently, one or both on the call can’t hear each other and when they can hear each other, the sound is terrible. The response from the developer doesn’t address that the Hushed app works great on the same phone – that app always has excellent call quality.
Mandatory monthly billing, no way to cancel. You used to be able to buy a monthly subscription or a pack of X minutes/texts for a flat fee with no subscription. I need the app to make one call every 3-4 months, so the monthly subscription would make no sense for me. I went to reinstall this app, and they’ve done away with all flat fee options and ONLY have a monthly subscription. And according to these reviews, it’s impossible to cancel. Absolutely not worth it anymore
Great concept – Lousy execution App does not play nice with other apps. Rarely will you get notified of an incoming call if you are using another app. Also, calls get dropped if you need to switch screens/apps during a conversion. Cannot sent group text messages. Any photos received by text message get cropped so they are useless. VMs keep playing even if you back out of app. So much room for improvement. If you claim to be a “second line”, then act more like my primary one.
I would give it one star, but occasionally it does actually connect with whom I’m trying to communicate. Once there is any load on the software, it all falls apart. I attempted to use this software to recruit people for three separate volunteer projects. As soon as a half of a dozen texts or calls came in, the app stopped updating in real time, and notifications ceased all together. It would have been more cost-effective for me to pay an employee to handle the calls.
Works ok. They need to do a better job with pics. The viewing window on a phone is the size of a postage stamp and it does not hold the position of the pic in the message window. Also, scrolling up to look at previous messages is not smooth at all and if it does scroll easy and gets to the first message, it kicks you back to the last message! VERY FRUSTRATING!!
Used this app for work calls so I didn’t have to give out my personal number. Most of the time it worked pretty well. Texting through the app is easy, but I wish there was the ability to send group texts. Sometimes the app freezes things up or shuts down randomly, but it works once you reopen it. I like that you have the ability to forward calls and turn notifications on and off.
Its ok but has a very annoying bug. Once i go into the app i can no longer hear any volume on any other app. Watching a video is very quiet and i cant hear regular phone calls. The volume is VERY low. I use to be able to force stop the app and it would resolve the issue but now i have to turn.my phone off and back on repeatedly to get the volume back. But once i go back into the app it starts all over again.
It worked great during the 7 day trial. After I paid, it kept saying I was out of minutes. So I kept purchasing more credits. I had 60 mins available, and after 2 or 3 short calls it ran out of minutes. I couldn’t have used more than 10 or 15 minutes tops. I got so frustrated trying to figure this thing out I quit. I’m trying Google voice it’s free.
So terrible I can’t even explain. I downloaded the app, selected area code signed up for the trial and after signing up, the screen froze and I could do nothing. Update: I talked with support and they have walked me through getting things set up. I will say their support is on the ball and top notch. I just wish there were ways to personalize ring tones and how the calls come through.
When I first got the app, you could buy “credits” and then use them for several options for creating burners of different types and lengths. Sometimes, I just need a number for a day or two just to receive a text or two (usually 3 credits). Now, however, all the options except the most expensive (8 credits) have been taken away and it seems they are hard-pushing for you to buy their long-term subscription. There are MANY other burner phone apps out there; I don’t have to use this one!
Wodetful app, highly rated, love it overall. Even works properly in the background exactly as it should. Only issue is some minor glitches with draft, it does not necessarily save a text as a draft if you exit creating a text message. Other than that it’s nearly perfect, and better-than-expected. Id love to see Drafts autosave improved, as of now if you create a draft of an email before it’s sent and have to exit back to check another text message you lose your draft. It’s a minor aggravation
Using as a separate “work number.” Despite support assuring me that call quality is not affected by the app, I sometimes have to call again due to a “bad connection.” That is never the case with my ‘actual’ phone number. In addition, like another reviewer, voicemail playback works correctly the first time, but unless i restart my phone, subsequent voicemails have audio problems. Overall, the app is worth the 4.99 per month as it DOES succeed in giving me a separate line for work calls.
Great app and especially great price. I am not looking to keep big secrets on my bill, I am just a teacher wanting to give students a number that isn’t my personal cell during this COVID-19 lock down. This app is perfect. I had a little bit of trouble getting set up but the customer service is outstanding! They were super quick, helpful and made sure to follow up with me. Definately a plus. Thank you!
My original desire to use Burnerapp was to use it as a VoIP phone and save money by avoiding a traditional phone service plan. I would get a data-only SIM, and make calls and texts via Burnerapp. It turns out that Burnerapp won’t work as my first number. This is due to how Burnerapp requires that I log in. My username in Burnerapp isn’t a name at all, it’s a phone number of the phone the app runs on. It’s a shame that I can’t log in using e-mail, because I would love to sign in on my desktop computer and make calls and read txts via my desktop’s browser! This app works, but it’s got some really frustrating user interface issues. When I open the app to check my messages, I’ll see a new message display on the screen for a split second before it disappears completely. It takes a few times of closing and re-opening the app before that new message reappears. This user interface behavior is the norm, not the exception. The other thing that is annoying about this app is how the incoming messages don’t update unless I close out of the app and re-open it. It’s like the server is receiving my messages, but the server doesn’t notify my burnerapp that a new message is received. This makes holding a conversation via SMS very difficult, because I miss a lot of what people send me. The only way to keep up with the conversation is to manually close the app and open the app repeatedly so I always get the most up-to-date messages. This second issue is likely because I don’t have GSF installed on my phone. I do this for privacy concerns. I run Burnerapp for similar reasons. Other privacy-focused messaging apps I use have an option to run in the background as a workaround for not having GSF, but Burnerapp doesn’t have anything like that, which is a shame. Instead of the app doing work to ensure I have the latest messages, I’m stuck with manually refreshing. So much for technology making life easier! Some credit where credit is due. Burnerapp’s customer service is pretty good. I was helped promptly when I was locked out of my account after I switched phones and lost access to my old phone number.
Easy to install, odd to navigate, very difficult to cancel. I have used this app for close a year. The user interface is awkward and confusing. Trying to un-subscribe takes several steps which involve sending an email to be “put in que”. You are still charged while in que. Customer service is slow to respond and does not always address the concern of you email. I.e. you send a complaint about poor call quality, they reply about something unrelated.
I got this app to use to talk to my best friend, anyway. I love this app, it’s awesome and very easy to use. only two issues for me is that it works better over data than Wi-Fi which is fine, I have unlimited data plan. But the second issue is that when I’m on a call and depending how long I go on the call with the person I’m talking to sometimes tells me that I’m breaking up on her end or the call suddenly drops for no reason even if I’m in a strong area to make a call. Other than that I ❤️ it
Perfect for my micro business needs. Prices are reasonable and I have no issues with calls or texts. I can add additional numbers to keep track of clients if I want. Burning is easy but I’ve only done it once. I’ve kept the same # for over a year now. Sometimes I don’t need the phone for months. And when I do, it works just fine. **Highly recommended, no hidden fees or BS!
The app is alright and does as intended so far. I have a subscription with 1 line. However, currenly it is not letting me burn my current number. I am not sure if there is a cap on the amount of times you can change numbers or if there is a bug. Just in case, if you want an app that lets you burn numbers as much as you want without fail you may want to look elsewhere. I would give 5 stars if app allowed me to always be able to change the number on my 1 line without fail.
Loved this app until the latest update. Text message bubbles now have their number’s designated color as a background, making them difficult to read with the default black font. Cannot find an option to change that setting, either globally or specifically to a burner number. (Only color change I see is for the respective number.) Please fix this so it is easier to read messages. Thank you.
The app has consistently started to not show incoming calls until it’s to late and they are missed, it freezes when you try to open it when a call is incoming, there is no way to get back to the phone screen when in a call, the ring tone will occasionally freeze and keep playing requiring you to force close the app, and more. I am not sure what happened but the amount of bugs or problems has went up significantly recently for some reason. It makes the experience terrible and hard to use.
Mixed bag. MY craigslist interfaces with this. It works but There are not enough settings. No notification for texts so you have to keep checking. Hard to answer the call. You have to authorize it each time. Sometimes they hang up before I can finish authorizing it. And the phone function takes over my main phone app, even if I try to dial home after clicking on mymain phone app icon from my phone contact list. Needs more settings.
It’s ok when it works, but forwarding to another number still doesn’t work. You get an error message to check your connection and try again to enable forwarding, despite your connection being alive and well…. Months ago, enabling forwarding wouldn’t even get that far; they tried to upsell you to a more expensive plan. Also, at least as of a few months ago, support is frustratingly useless, avoiding answering questions you ask while offering unrelated information and patting themselves on the back, acknowledging bugs that break significant features while giving no ETA on the fix and failing to compensate with credits.
I used this app for years, and it was great. Completely anonymous, no account required, and you could purchase minutes or texts as needed. Hard pads! *Edit* The option to purchase minutes is back, so one more star. You still have to sign in, and you cannot just answer the call like you used to with the older version, you have answer, then select “1” to accept the call. This extra step frequently leads to missed calls. I could forgive requiring an account if it worked as well as the original.
I really wanted to like this app but after allowing me to send a text as a test it completely lost connection for some reason. I tried quitting the app and that didn’t work. I tried having them test call me which didn’t work and I tried a few more times. Then all of a sudden I got 4 calls from them pretty much at the same time. Then back to no connection. I can’t text or call. Deleting this app.
Happy for years, but it’s BAD now…outbound calls SOMETIMES work, inbound, never. Pixel 6 – I cannot answer a call! If locked, the screen is black. If unlocked, no pop,-up. I just hear ringing three times, and it goes to voicemail. What the hell is this? The app was perfect 3 years ago with a better, clear UI. It even functioned better than my regular phone app. Just roll it back or something! We are paying for a product you are not delivering. Nightmare on Android 12!
I have tried this app a few times. Same disappointing results. I have an android phone. Can’t set a ringtonw so when calls come in the tone is from the notification media file. If I do hear it & answer, I can’t hear the caller. If I return a call it either doesn’t go thru or they can’t hear me. Text messaging works great. Pictures however, do not come in full size. It is a thumb size photo. The price isn’t to terribly bad but I would rather pay a little more to have the app work for me.
Works, but I now also have the same problem where you can not renew a line which is very frustrating. No way to search in texts. If your compose a text and then switch to a different app (to, say, copy a link) and then switch back to burner then the text is GONE forever, again very frustrating. If only they could fix these relatively small issue, would really be a great service. UPDATE 10/29/21: Yep, confirmed with the developer that they changed the policy without notice and if you have a prepaid line that you want to extend and you push the “Extend” button like you always have in the past – now it just does not work, and when you contact them, they tell you that you now have to buy a subscription plan. 🙁
7/2/2020 Update. Back down to 2 stars. At some point the app became impossible to answer. I was very embarrassed that I had to call my clients back from my personal number. It never even rings properly anymore. Not dute what happened. 9/11/19 Update. From 4 stars to five. I’ve been using my Burner number for 7 months now. Its been very easy to use and I’ve had zero problems. Love this service! Thank you! 2/6/19 Setup was super easy. 4 stars until I get a chance to try it out.