The Anonymous Texting App You’ve Got To Try

You can go right ahead and set up two-factor authentication and buy the RFID-blocking wallet you saw on TikTok, but unless you’re using an anonymous texting app for certain forms of communication, you might as well start using the same password for every account you own. (So cringe.)

It’s 2022, and privacy is the name of the game — even when it comes to texting.

Some of you may remember texting back in the late ’90s and early-aughts. You had to punch your plastic “5” key three times in a row to make an “L,” and typing something as simple as “LOL” required bashing the keys nine times. Nobody was thinking about privacy (possibly because we were too busy typing even the shortest messages), so practically everything was anonymous texting.

You were lucky if you recognized a number was even local, because cell phone exchanges were strange and exotic compared to our familiar landlines. Your mobile number was sacred. No one asked for it on a form — you only gave it out to friends and family, probably doodled with a gel pen on one of those pink “While You Were Out” telephone pads everyone owned.

These days, it’s very different.

If you text someone for the first time, it takes just seconds for them to copy the number and look it up.

Are they going to track you down using an old classified ad that’s somehow still floating around online? A work site or doc where you had to use your mobile for a contact? A years-old Facebook comment where a friend jokingly shared your digits? A Snapchat or WhatsApp profile linked to your number?

It just takes a quick Google search of your own phone number to realize how “public” it is, and the kind of private information that can be unlocked with it … like your full name, birthday, address (and past addresses), family members, employer, school (past or present), social media accounts, and finances.

While there are some people who should know your real phone number — your best friends, your employer, your child’s school — there are many others who actually don’t need it.

Here at Hushed, we make it easy to use secondary phone numbers for anonymous texting and calling. Instead of handing out your real phone number, you hand out your Hushed number instead. You’ll still receive calls and texts, and the people on the other end have no idea it’s a Hushed number instead of a “regular” phone number.

How does an anonymous texting app work?

Hushed is easy to use! You can choose a phone number in your own area code (we have phone numbers in 300+ different area codes), with all of the features you’d expect (voicemail, call-forwarding, etc.), and use it just like a regular phone number.

Except — and here’s the best part — it can’t be traced back to you.

Hushed numbers are perfect for anonymous texting and calling because they aren’t linked to your carrier account in any way. The calls and texts don’t appear on the call log of your monthly mobile bill because they’re exclusively stored in your Hushed app.

Your Hushed calls and texts will show up on other people’s phone bills, but just like a regular number — not linked to your name in any way.

When is anonymous texting a good idea?

Everyone’s situation is different, but many of our customers tell us they like to use a private number for anonymous texting in a few different situations …

• Dating someone new. Especially when it’s someone you meet online and you’re just getting to know each other.
• Selling something. You don’t want to any random wacko on Craigslist having access to your number, do you?
• Separating work from personal. Wouldn’t it be nice to know it’s a client reaching out, and keep those lines separate?
• Starting a side hustle. Hushed numbers are free to try, and start at just $3.99, so you can test the waters with your idea.
• A fresh start. Sometimes, you just want to disconnect from the past and be someone else. We get that. You do you, boo!

While we don’t miss the frustratingly-long texting process of the very early-aughts (B … E … T … H … E … R … E … S … O … O … N), there’s definitely something to be said for an anonymous texting app.

Luckily, you can use Hushed to reclaim your mobile privacy.