Is it Time to Get an International Virtual SMS Number?

Virtual Mobile SMS UserBuy a Virtual SMS Number? Once the preferred communications method among teens, text messaging has moved into the mainstream. People of all ages have embraced SMS messaging. It’s fast, convenient, and immediate.

Text messaging also leaves a text-based trail for future reference, and it can be used to communicate with others in noisy environments.

International Virtual Mobile SMS Numbers Currently Available for these Countries:

We add new SMS countries as they become available.

United States
United Kingdom
Austria
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Denmark
France
Israel
Poland
Romania
Spain
Sweden

In fact, statistics show that:

  • 64 percent of customers prefer text over phone calls as a customer service communications channel
  • 90 percent of texts are read within just three minutes
  • In 2020, half of the US workforce will be made up of millennials

Your customers love texting, and many probably even prefer it to speaking with a live person. Changing tastes and a never-ending barrage of robocalls often results in phone calls going unanswered, especially if the caller ID is from an unfamiliar number. Text messaging, on the other hand, is quickly becoming the go-to choice for personal and business communications alike.

Until recently, business professionals who wanted to send texts to clients, customers, leads, prospects, suppliers, and co-workers faced a dilemma: texting meant either giving up their personal cell phone numbers (and potentially introducing intrusions during family time) or obtaining a second mobile phone and number to use for business texting. No one wants to carry two phones around. A better option is to get a virtual SMS number.

How a Mobile SMS Number Works

With a virtual SMS number, it’s no longer necessary to reveal your personal mobile number to business contacts. Instead, you’ll give them a special SMS-enabled virtual phone number to use. This virtual SMS number can receive both voice calls and text messages. When an SMS text message arrives, the text message along with the sender’s caller ID number is sent to the email address you’ve designated to receive text messages.

Note: Because the SMS phone number is virtual and not an actual mobile phone number, it can’t be used for 2-step authentication/verification purposes by banks and other institutions.

Virtual SMS Number

Your virtual SMS number also doubles as a virtual phone number. Thus, if someone uses it to place a voice call, you can receive those calls on the phone of your choice. For example, you could set up the number to ring to your mobile phone, an office phone, your home phone, or even a call center. You could also set it up to ring straight into voicemail and have that voicemail forwarded to your email account.

Like our other virtual phone numbers, a robust feature set is included, so you could set up desirable calling features such as simultaneous ringing, time-of-day call forwarding, and more. You may even be able to receive text messages from other countries, assuming the international mobile networks update their databases promptly with your new SMS-enabled phone number.

Tip: If you’d rather receive your incoming texts on your phone’s text messaging client instead of your email inbox, most cellular providers offer a means of forwarding emails to your mobile phone number. It’s usually a special email address containing your mobile phone number and the provider’s specific forwarding domain such as “phonenumber@txt.att.net.” These forwarding email addresses can be used in conjunction with your SMS virtual number to forward your incoming SMS messages to your mobile phone.

Once set up, share your virtual SMS number with clients, suppliers, prospects, co-workers and other business contacts without worrying about being interrupted at inconvenient times.

Let’s take a look at a couple of potential ways you can use your virtual SMS number.

  • Business Consulting — Let’s say you’re a business consultant who wants to be accessible to clients via text messaging. At the same time, you’d prefer to keep your personal mobile phone number private as well as have the ability to control when and where you receive phone calls and text messages from clients. Thus, you decide to order a virtual SMS number local to your community. Not only does the virtual SMS number look as if it were a standard mobile phone number, you can receive both voice and text messages from your clients but on your own terms.

For example, during a business conference, you’ll likely want to be as accessible as possible. In this case, you’d set up your mobile phone as the designated ring-to number for voice calls and make sure your email client on your smartphone is set to receive email messages containing SMS texts. When you return to the office, you could change your ring-to number to your office phone and change the email address back to your main work email address. Now, you don’t even need your phone to receive texts.

  • Marketing a Business — Since many people prefer to communicate via text messaging, it makes sense to provide them with a means to do just that. Use SMS virtual numbers on your website, social media profiles, business cards, catalogs, and other sales collateral.
  • Personal Communications — Virtual SMS numbers are also a great way to bridge the generation gap. For example, if you have teenage or young adult family members who prefer texting to email or voice calls and elderly parents who would love to hear from them but don’t have smartphones or know how to text, you could set up a virtual SMS number for the grandkids to send texts to the grandparents. Their texts would actually be forwarded to the grandparents’ email account. 

Turning a Virtual SMS Number into a Competitive Advantage

Your customers like to text, yet few businesses are set up to interact with customers in this manner. By getting your own SMS virtual number, you could have a competitive advantage over your competitors so make sure to take advantage of it. When advertising, make sure to let people know they can text you and publish the virtual number. Your virtual SMS number could sway millennials and potential customers who dislike calling businesses to get in touch with you.

Virtual SMS numbers also provide:

  • A sense of immediacy and availability
  • Localization
  • A written record of messages

How to Get a Virtual SMS Number

We make it easy to get a virtual SMS number. Sign up takes mere minutes, and you can try our service for free. There are no contracts and no cancellation fees, so you can use your virtual number for both long-term and short-term text messaging needs. Get started now.

Learn more about SMS International Virtual Numbers here