2nd Phone Number - Call & Text

Review by eFreeware

2nd Phone Number - Call & Text is a communication app from TalkU International Inc. It hands you an extra phone number so you can make calls and send texts without giving out the number tied to your SIM. The pitch is simple: one line for the people you trust, another for everything else.

That second line is the reason to consider it. If you have ever hesitated before typing your real number into a job listing, a dating profile or a signup form, the appeal is obvious. The developer lists work, dating and social media signups as the main situations, and those are the cases where a disposable or semi-permanent number earns its keep.

It has been on Google Play for a long time, arriving in November 2014 and last updated in September 2026, with more than 10 million installs and a 4.0 average across 353,694 ratings. That history suggests a settled product rather than an experiment, though the rating also tells you plenty of users have found something to complain about.

A separate line for work, dating and signups

The clearest fit is anyone who wants to keep their personal number out of circulation. Freelancers who put a contact number on quotes, sellers meeting strangers from a marketplace listing, and people dating through apps all have the same problem: once your real number is out there, you cannot take it back. A second line gives you something you can hand out, and if it gets abused, you stop using it.

The app also lets you hold two or more numbers at once, which widens the audience. Someone running a small side business could keep one number for customers and another for personal calls, all inside the same app. It is a lighter arrangement than carrying a second handset or paying for a second SIM plan.

Tablet owners get a slightly different benefit. The developer says the app can turn a tablet into a phone, so a device that normally only handles messaging and video can place and receive calls. That is a niche use, but a real one for anyone who works from a tablet at a desk.

What ties these cases together is that the app is built around a number you use instead of your own, not a full replacement for your carrier. I would treat it as a layer on top of the phone you already have.

Calling and texting over a data connection

The core of the app is straightforward: you call and text using an internet connection rather than your carrier's voice minutes. The developer describes it as VoIP, which means Wi-Fi or cellular data, and that requirement shapes everything else. On a solid connection it should behave like any other call; on a weak one, the quality is only as good as the network underneath.

Texting reaches any phone number worldwide, and calls run over a dedicated VoIP network with HD voice technology. I would take the clarity claim as marketing and judge it on your own connection, since voice over data is sensitive to latency and congestion in ways a normal call is not.

International calling is where the savings argument sits. Calls and texts abroad cost less, and the app avoids roaming charges when you are traveling, because everything travels over data instead of a foreign carrier's network. For someone who calls family overseas regularly or works across borders, that is the feature most likely to justify the install.

The practical catch is that every one of these functions depends on a data connection. Calls and texts are not going through a cellular voice channel, so a dead zone with no Wi-Fi is a dead zone for the app too.

Credits, multiple numbers and premium tools

Getting a number is tied to credits. You earn credits and spend them on calls and texts. How quickly you accumulate them, and what a given call costs, is the kind of thing worth checking against your own usage before you commit to a number you rely on.

The free feature set covers the basics: a second number, calling and texting, and the ability to hold more than one number at a time. Beyond that, the developer groups a set of premium tools together. Visual voicemail lets you listen to messages without dialing in, call blocking keeps spammers off your line, call screening lets you decide what gets through, and call forwarding pushes calls to another number.

Those four tools are the ones that make a second number feel like a managed line rather than a throwaway. Blocking and screening matter most for a number you publish publicly, because a public number attracts junk. Forwarding is useful if you want calls to land on the phone you actually carry.

The app is free to download but carries ads and offers in-app purchases. Subscriptions are part of that picture: payment is charged to your Google account at purchase, subscriptions renew automatically, and you need to cancel at least 24 hours before a term ends to avoid the next charge. If you do subscribe, that timing is worth putting in your calendar.

How it compares with the alternatives

The obvious alternative is a second SIM or an extra line from your carrier. That route gives you a conventional number with conventional call quality and no dependency on an app, but it means another monthly bill and, on many phones, another physical slot or an eSIM arrangement. A VoIP-based second number sidesteps both of those costs.

Another option is a messaging service built around an account rather than a phone number. Those work well for chatting with people who also use them, but they do not give you a number that can receive calls and texts from ordinary phones. Since this app is built to reach any number worldwide, it sits in a different category.

If your main need is cheap international calling rather than a second identity, a dedicated calling service may be a better fit, since that is the whole of what those tools do. This app bundles the international angle with the privacy angle, which is convenient if you want both and unnecessary if you want only one.

The trade-off with any data-based number is reliability. A carrier line works when your data does not. That is the price of the flexibility, and it is the thing I would weigh most heavily before making this my main contact number for anything important.

A second line for people who need one

A second line, worldwide texting, international savings and premium call-management tools cover the common reasons people look for this kind of app, and the credit system is the main thing to understand before you start.

I would recommend it to freelancers, sellers, people dating through apps, frequent international callers and tablet users who want calling on a device that normally cannot make calls. If you simply want a second line that behaves exactly like a carrier line, with no dependence on data and no credits to manage, the app's model will feel like extra work.

The ads and in-app purchases are part of the deal, so go in with your eyes open on both. For the specific job of keeping your real number private while still being reachable, it does what it sets out to do.

What's new in version 6.3.2

1. Fixed some occasional crashes. 2. Various performance improvements.