I’m the founder of Unlisted (https://www.unlistedapp.com) and this is exactly the problem I was aiming at when building our private number service.
Unfortunately today, however, many sites will detect VoIP numbers and refuse to send messages to them. There are two reasons: 1) The app detects that it is not a “real” number and blocks its entry, or 2) the number is accepted but no message is ever received. In the second case, the “call with a code” option does usually work though. The reason is that short code providers negotiate delivery outside of the normal framework that long code (“normal”) numbers use. Most apps like Unlisted are using Twilio as a provider and these agreements just aren’t in place.
I’ve been running Unlisted for over 6 years so have a bit of experience around this space. Am happy to answer any questions!
Unfortunately today, however, many sites will detect VoIP numbers and refuse to send messages to them. There are two reasons: 1) The app detects that it is not a “real” number and blocks its entry, or 2) the number is accepted but no message is ever received. In the second case, the “call with a code” option does usually work though. The reason is that short code providers negotiate delivery outside of the normal framework that long code (“normal”) numbers use. Most apps like Unlisted are using Twilio as a provider and these agreements just aren’t in place.
I’ve been running Unlisted for over 6 years so have a bit of experience around this space. Am happy to answer any questions!