Ask HN: Can I receive phone calls and messages online?

6 points·desertraven··9 comments

My mobile phone is broken. And it occurred to me, I don't really need a phone. If I could keep my number, but do calls/texts/voicemail from the computer/browser, that'd be great.

I know Twilio exists, and I've used it before, but their numbers cannot receive many 2FA messages (which is important, since SMS 2FA is often forced by companies/banks).

Any tips for achieving this? In Australia.

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Yup. I use a VoIP through <https://www.voip.ms>. SMS and voicemail forwards to email, and I use Signal, WhatsApp, or FaceTime for calls. I haven’t had a real number in over a year now.

If you only need it for 2FA, you can get feature phone. There are some solutions like https://hushed.com/ that allow 2fa, but only the paid version.

Hmm looks interesting, thanks. The only issue is they don't support AUS numbers

with a typical iPhone + macOS combo, you can enable SMS via Messages app by enabling a setting in the System Preferences. I use this and frequently receive all SMS messages via this route.

Just so I'm clear, this isn't just using iMessage, but it will actually bill my provider when messaging in the mac app?

yes indeed, not just iMessage. It works even for when I message for example, my father, who only has a basic SMS plan with an Android phone

Thanks for the info. Does the phone need to be plugged in? Turned on? Or enabling the setting is sufficient?

The phone does not have to be plugged into the computer if that's what you mean. I haven't tried it with the phone turned off, but I would suspect it could be handing it off to the phone somehow, that might be what is happening. But once I enabled the setting it worked as described.

Phonecalls can be solved by sip, sms is harder.

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