Apple / social networking / TEXTNOW: CALL + TEXT UNLIMITED
REVIEW
TextNow gives you a free US number, then sells the silence around it.
A real phone line over Wi-Fi or data with no monthly bill, paid for with full-screen ads between calls and a paywall around features that feel like they should be free.
BY THE APP COMRADE DESK · MAY 10, 2026 · 5 MIN READ
TextNow: Call + Text Unlimited
TEXTNOW, INC.
OUR SCORE
6.8
APPLE
★ 4.8
PRICE
Free
TextNow has been giving away phone numbers for over a decade, and the trick still lands the same way it did in 2010 — install the app, pick an area code, and a minute later you’re texting from a real US number that shows up as ordinary SMS on the other end. Over 100 million accounts have come through that funnel. The App Store rating sits near the top of the communication category. By the numbers, this is one of the most successful free apps in the iOS catalogue.
The numbers don’t quite tell you what using it feels like. The free tier is paid for in attention — full-screen ads after calls, banners stacked into the message list, marketing placements that recent App Store reviewers say have caused them to miss real incoming texts. The whole interface is engineered to make you notice the $9.99 Ad-Free+ subscription, and the features gated behind it are exactly the ones that make a second number useful: cleaner SMS verification-code delivery, call forwarding, no interstitials between you and your inbox.
What saves TextNow from being a bait-and-switch is that the free product genuinely works for the narrow job most people install it for. As a disposable number for a Craigslist listing, a side hustle, a dating profile, or a kid’s starter phone, it does the thing it promises and asks nothing back except your patience for ads. As a primary line, it falls apart fast — and TextNow’s own subscription page is honest enough to admit that’s the deal.
TextNow is one of the few apps where the business model is visible in every tap, and that's both its honesty and its problem.
FEATURES
TextNow assigns a real US or Canadian phone number tied to your account, not a relay alias. Calls and texts to other US and Canadian numbers are free over Wi-Fi or cellular data, and the number works in standard SMS threads on the other end. Voicemail with transcription, group messaging, caller ID, and password-locked threads are all in the free tier. International calls run on per-minute credits.
The app syncs across iOS, Android, and the desktop client, so the same number rings everywhere you're signed in. On top of the free Wi-Fi service, TextNow runs a full MVNO on T-Mobile's network — drop in their SIM or eSIM and the same number works as your primary cellular line, with a Free Flex plan that includes basic data for maps, email, and rideshare apps without Wi-Fi, and paid day or month passes for unlimited data.
The paid Ad-Free+ tier, around $9.99 a month, removes the in-app advertising and unlocks call forwarding plus better handling of SMS verification codes from banks and 2FA services — a quietly important detail for anyone trying to use the number as a real second line.
MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
The core trick still works. You install the app, pick a number in a US area code, and within a minute you're sending texts that arrive as ordinary SMS on the other side. For a side gig, a Craigslist listing, a dating profile, or a kid's first phone, that's a genuinely useful free product, and it has been since long before "second number" apps were a category.
The MVNO bridge is the more interesting bet. You can start on free Wi-Fi calling, decide the number is worth keeping, and graduate to a SIM that uses the same number on T-Mobile's network without a port-out — most competitors force you to choose between a virtual number and a real cellular plan. TextNow lets the number grow with you.
ROOM TO IMPROVE
The free experience is loud in a way that crosses from inconvenience into interference. Full-screen interstitials run after calls, banner ads sit inside the message list, and recent App Store reviews describe missing real incoming texts because marketing placements crowded them out. A 2025 Forbes write-up called the interface too cluttered to serve as a primary phone, and that read still tracks. The pressure to upgrade isn't subtle — it's the product.
The paywall placement is the bigger irritation. SMS verification codes for banks and 2FA — the exact use case that makes a second number worth having — work more reliably on the paid tier, and call forwarding is gated too. Numbers also expire if the app sits unused, which has cost long-term users their identity on the platform with little warning. There's no built-in spam-call screening to speak of, which is surprising given how much of TextNow's traffic is exactly the kind of unknown-caller volume a screener would help with.
CONCLUSION
TextNow is the right tool for a narrow job — a free, real US number you can hand out without exposing your primary line. Treat it as a disposable or secondary number and it earns its place. Try to make it your main phone and the ads, the verification-code friction, and the missing spam tools will wear you down within a week. If the number matters, pay the $9.99; if it doesn't, you already have what you need.