Ever wanted to prank a friend or scare someone by sending them an anonymous text? That's great prank idea that is likely to leave your friends guessing the person for days. But what is the best way to send and receive anonymous text on mobile phones?

The best way to send and receive anonymous text on mobile phones

To look for a way to send and receive anonymous text, you may have tried to perform a Google search today using terms like "anonymous text services" or "send and receive anonymous text". When you do that, you may be likely to find a few hundred different websites that provide free SMS messaging services.

However, free SMS services do not usually send and receive text messages anonymously. Even for the ones who claim that they do, may not be able to guarantee complete anonymity. Lastly, finding one that supports texting from a mobile app for convenience, gets even harder.

3 reasons why we would avoid using free SMS websites

There may be tons of free SMS websites on the Internet, but we would not use those for sending anonymous texts. Free SMS websites work if you can tolerate the registration process and the spam emails you are likely to receive after you have used the site.

Furthermore, there are several downsides to using free SMS websites which we will explain below.

Downside 1: Website will add watermark

Most, if not every free SMS website, will include their watermark at the end of the message. The text message "This is an anonymous text message", is likely to appear as "This is an anonymous text message [FreeSMS.com]" with a watermark added to the back of the message.

This is a huge downside and an instant give away that someone is sending sending it as a prank, or from a free SMS website. Not a good way to send and receive anonymous text.

Downside 2: Website may add your number to robocalling/spam call list

Performing a harmless prank using free SMS websites may end up causing more unnecessary harm than intended. Why do we say that? That is because free SMS websites may seem fun and games on the outside, but actually engage in unethical activity on the inside such as taking your phone numbers and selling them to calling lists for spam calls and robocalls.

Once your phone number ends up on a calling list for the first time, it may be shared between multiple robocalling and spam calling lists. This is why some people experience such a high spam call volume of about 3-4 calls per day on average.

Downside 3: Cannot receive text back

Possibly the most important reason why free SMS website does not work for most people, is because while they let user send messages, they do not support receiving of messages.  In other words,  if the person does reply back, you are also not able to see anything. In that case the prank is only going to be like a one-way street with no possible way of finding out how the person had reacted and replied to the number (which is basically the fun part of it).

A better way to send and receive anonymous texts

What you may need– is a second phone number app or an anonymous texting or calling app. With a second phone number app, you will be able to both send and receive messages at your anonymous phone number, and also select or burn a number at any point of time that you want.

For a second phone number that supports truly anonymous and untraceable numbers, you may want to check out Phoner 2nd Phone Number App.

Phoner 2nd Phone Number App is the top rated anonymous texting and calling app on the iOS and Google Play Store. Use Phoner from Appsverse to send and receive anonymous texts. See it here.

Use Phoner app to send text and picture messages anonymously  

Send text and picture messages from Phoner that are completely anonymous, private and untraceable. Once you download the app, you are using the default "Phoner number", which is not really a real number but a randomly generated number that will appear for every person that you call or text.

Whenever you text or send a pictures from the"Phoner number", the receiving party is likely to see a randomized number (usually from another state!), and simply have no way to track or trace the number back to someone they know.

Send and receive anonymous text on iPhone or Android

If you need to send and receive anonymous text on the go, Phoner by Appsverse would be again far superior than free SMS websites.

Phoner supports receiving of messages back at your anonymous phone number, and even allows you to get your very own private number to use as a second phone number.

Phoner by Appsverse for iOS is available on iPhone and iPad, and also as Phoner for Android.

Send and receive anonymous text from web browser

If you want to send and receive anonymous text directly on your computer in a web browser, Phoner 2nd phone number is also available on web.