Whether it’s for business or pleasure, adding a second phone line to your cell phone is a cheap and easy option to keep different parts of your life separate. Here’s how you can add yours in under five minutes.
Believe it or not, the demand for using multiple phone numbers on a single device is on the rise. Many people, whether they work for a large corporation or themselves, require a line for business and as well as their personal line. And really, the reasons don’t stop there. Do you freelance in multiple fields? Would you like the security of a temporary number for online dating? Do you want to practice security through obfuscation? Honestly, there are countless reasons to have a second, third, or fourth number on your phone. There are plenty of ways to go about doing so, some cost a little and some cost a lot. We’ve broken down all of your options below. Be sure to head down to the comments after you’re done reading and let us know which option you prefer.
This might be the most obvious choice, but there are plenty of phones out there with dual SIM capabilities. In fact, most Android devices sold worldwide can be found in dual SIM variants. They aren’t very popular in the United States because carriers sell most of the phones in the States and they’re not keen on dual SIM devices, but a quick search for the device of your choice will more than likely turn up many results.
After you’ve purchased your dual SIM device, you’ll need is two appropriate SIM cards. You can go down to your local carrier or store order a SIM online and have it shipped to you in many cases. The best part is that you don’t have to use two SIM cards from the same carrier. If you’d like to have both AT&T and T-Mobile service in your device, you can do that! If you’re traveling around the world, order a SIM card for the country of your destination and pop it in your phone alongside your main SIM card. Most phones will allow you to set a default line for calls and texts and/or data. This is an important step to remember because you don’t want to pick up a new SIM for your overseas trip but accidentally use your main SIM for data. Using roaming data can be an extremely costly mistake.
Now, once you’ve acquired both your cards, be sure to sign up for service. This can be pretty easy in most cases. Many carriers will allow you to sign up through their website by entering your credit card information and your SIM card number. After a short activation period, you should be good to go.
Another dual SIM option is a phone that uses one physical SIM and one eSIM slot. Currently, the Apple iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR are the only phones that can accomplish this so if you want to use Android, you’re out of luck. While the Pixel 2 and Pixel 3 lineups do have eSIM capabilities, they do not allow you to use both a physical and eSIM at the same time since they only have one IMEI number. Hopefully we’ll see Google and other Android manufacturers offer this functionality in the future.
If a dual SIM device isn’t an option, you’re not out of luck! Look, we get it, purchasing another device is expensive and why spend all that money if you don’t have to, right?
A far cheaper is to go through your carrier who probably already offers a solution to your problem.
