How to get a second phone number: eSIM, free apps or a number in your browser

What are the ways to get a second phone number?

There are four routes, none needing a second physical SIM: a carrier plan on an eSIM, which gives a real mobile number; a free app number from Google Voice or TextNow in the US or Canada; a rented VoIP number that rings in a browser; or a business phone app with a number included.

Checked November 1, 2026. Sonetel and Zadarma price numbers in euros.

How do I add a second line with an eSIM?

If your phone supports Dual SIM, a second plan can sit on an eSIM beside your current SIM, and both numbers make and receive calls and texts^[1]. It's the only route here that gives you an ordinary mobile number, the kind Quo demands for verification instead of a virtual one^[20].

The steps, as Apple's and Google's help pages gave them on November 1, 2026:

1. Check the phone. iPhone XS, XR or later, with two eSIMs from iPhone 13^[1]; Pixel 3a or later for a physical SIM plus an eSIM, Pixel 7 or later for two eSIMs if the carrier allows^[2].
2. Check the carrier. It must support eSIM^[11]. To mix two carriers on an iPhone, the phone must be unlocked, or both plans must come from one carrier^[1].
3. Buy the second plan and activate it the way the carrier tells you.
4. Label the lines (Apple's example: Business and Personal) and choose which number to use before each call^[1].

Can I get a second phone number for free?

Yes, if you live in the US or Canada. Google Voice gives US users a free number, and TextNow gives one to US and Canadian residents, partly funded by ads. Both can ring in a browser tab as well as in their apps, and both can take back a number or account you stop using.

• Google Voice: free^[3], US only^[4]. Sign-up texts a code to a number you already have^[5] and asks for a government-issued ID^[6]. Calls ring at voice.google.com while the tab is open^[12]; Google may reclaim a number with no calls or texts for 3 months^[21].
• TextNow: a free US or Canada number^[7], meant for residents of those two countries. The terms forbid blocking its ads and allow cancelling an account idle for over a year^[8]. An older support article says the web version makes and receives calls^[13], but the calling page starts with downloading the app^[22], and I couldn't confirm a web-only sign-up.

Voice sign-up, ID check included: my step-by-step Voice walkthrough. Outside the US and Canada: what to use if Google Voice isn't available to you.

How do I get a second number that rings in a browser?

Rent a number from a service with a web dialer. You pay a monthly fee, sign in on any computer, and incoming calls ring in the tab while it's open; outgoing calls can show the new number. The services differ in where their numbers come from, their price and their sign-up checks.

Checked November 1, 2026. Each service says calls to the number ring in its web app^{[28][10][29][30]}. Sonetel's terms limit use to your own business purposes^[31].

TwinPhone sponsors this site. Its second-number page says the number makes and receives calls in the browser or on iPhone and can be your caller ID; it receives texts from US and Canadian senders but can't send them^[9]. Against it: no free tier^[32], a $10 minimum top-up^[33], incoming calls charged by the minute^[10], numbers in three places only, no emergency calls^[32], UK mobiles at $0.12 a minute where Yolla starts at $0.10^[34][35], and pages that disagree on reach (145+ countries^[25] or 165 destinations^[34]).

Setting up a browser number

1. Pick the country where your callers are, so reaching you is a local call.
2. Sign up, pass the checks in the table and choose the number.
3. Allow the microphone when the browser asks^[36], and keep the tab open or the app signed in to receive calls^[10].
4. Set the new number as your caller ID, so people can call you back on it. TwinPhone's shared caller ID, for example, can't be called back^[37].

What can't a VoIP second number do?

Three things catch people out: some apps and banks refuse virtual numbers for sign-up codes, several of these numbers can't reach emergency services, and free numbers lapse with disuse. If your second number must handle any of those, use a carrier plan on eSIM.

• Verification codes: Quo won't accept a landline, Skype or virtual number for its own sign-up^[20], Google warns that some services refuse numbers that started on Google Voice^[38], and TwinPhone's own numbers page says Telegram, banks and payment apps often refuse virtual numbers^[15]. I explain why apps turn VoIP numbers away separately.
• Emergency calls: free Google Voice can't make them^[39]; TwinPhone^[32], Quo^[40] and Sonetel^[31] don't offer them. Keep a mobile line for 911 (what works for 911 from a computer).
• Keeping the number: free numbers lapse with disuse (above). A rented number lasts while you pay; TwinPhone's renew monthly with no minimum term^[9]. Unlocking a Google Voice number to port it to a carrier costs $3^[38].

Which way to a second number fits you?

Match the route to the job: an eSIM plan for a line that behaves like your main mobile, a free app number if you live in the US or Canada, and a rented browser number if you live elsewhere, need a number in another country, or want a second line on a laptop.

Frequently asked questions

Related reading

• Explainers

  What is a VoIP number? Fixed vs non-fixed, and why apps turn it down

  A VoIP number rings over the internet instead of a SIM. I explain fixed vs non-fixed numbers and why banks and apps refuse them, with their rules read Nov 2026.

• Guides

  Calling 911 from a computer: what works, what is blocked and what to use instead

  Can you call 911 from a computer? I checked which browser and VoIP services connect 911, 112 or 999, what the rules require, and what to use instead.