---
title: "How it works — set up a shared SMS inbox in four steps"
description: "Sign up, get a number, invite your team, receive SMS. A plain walkthrough of setting up a shared inbox for your company’s text messages, with no technical steps."
canonical: "https://sharedsmsinbox.com/how-it-works"
---

# Sign up, get a number, invite your team, receive SMS

> Sign up, get a number, invite your team, receive SMS. A plain walkthrough of setting up a shared inbox for your company’s text messages, with no technical steps.

That is the whole product. There is nothing to install, no phone to buy, and no technical setup — if you can add a phone number to an online account, you can do this.

- [Get your number](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com)
- [Create free account](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com)

_No credit card required. Pay only when you choose your number._

## What you will actually do

Most teams are finished in under ten minutes, and the longest part is deciding which account to move over first.

1. **Create your account** — Sign up with your work email address. Nothing is charged and no card is asked for. _(A minute.)_
2. **Get your number** — Pick an available phone number for your company and activate it. _($49/month starts here.)_
3. **Invite your team** — Add the colleagues who need the messages. Each one signs in as themselves. _(No shared password.)_
4. **Receive your SMS** — Put the number on the company account. Its texts arrive in the shared inbox. _(Everyone approved can read them.)_

## The same four steps, in more detail

If you want to know exactly what each step involves before you start, this is it.

### Step 1 — What happens when I create my account?

You enter your work email, confirm it, and you are in — with no payment details and nothing activated yet.

### Step 2 — How do I get a phone number?

You choose one from the numbers available to your account and activate it, which is the point at which billing starts.

### Step 3 — How do I invite my team?

You send each colleague an invitation by email, and they create their own login rather than sharing yours.

### Step 4 — How do the messages arrive?

You enter your company number on the account that sends the texts, and its messages appear in your shared inbox.

At this point you have an empty account. You can look around, read everything, and invite colleagues, but no phone number exists yet and nothing is being charged.

This is deliberate. You should be able to see the product properly, and show it to whoever approves the spend, before anyone asks you for a card.

The number then belongs to your company account rather than to you personally. Colleagues can be given access to it, and access can be taken away again, without the number itself changing.

Which numbers are available depends on the country, and not every country can be offered. If the country you need matters to your decision, check it before you commit — see [what a shared phone number can and cannot do](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/shared-phone-number-for-teams).

Being a member of your team and being able to read a number’s messages are two different things. You invite someone first, then give them access to the number they need. That way a large team can share one account without everybody seeing everything.

An administrator can remove either at any time. Because nobody is sharing a password, removing one person changes nothing for anyone else.

From then on, when that service sends a text — a login code, a confirmation, an alert — it goes to the number, and the number puts it in the inbox. Everyone you approved sees it at the same time. Nobody forwards anything.

> Before you rely on it, send yourself a test. Add the number to the account, ask that account to text you, and check that it arrives. Some services do not accept every kind of phone number, and it is much better to find that out now than during a month-end close.

## What it looks like once it is running

A message arrives, the people who need it can see it, and nobody has to be asked for anything.

The shared inbox lists the messages that arrived at your number, newest first, with who sent them and when. Anyone you have approved can open it in a browser — on a laptop at a desk or a phone on the way to a meeting.

Because everyone signs in as themselves, the inbox can record who opened what. If somebody later asks who saw a particular message, that question has an answer.

Older messages stay available so your team can look back at what arrived and when. Codes are not kept forever — see [security and access](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/security) for what is stored.

## Which account should you move over first?

Start with the account that causes the most interruptions — the one where somebody is regularly asked to read out a code. That is where the change is felt immediately, and it is a small, reversible test.

1. Pick one shared company account that currently texts a personal phone.
2. Sign in to that account and change the phone number on it to your new company number.
3. Ask it to send a verification text, and check that the message lands in your shared inbox.
4. Give access to the colleagues who need that account, and tell them where to look.
5. Once it has worked for a week, move the next account across.

Doing them one at a time means you are never locked out of anything, and you learn quickly which of your services accept the number.

## What this does not do

So that nothing here is a surprise later:

- **It does not send text messages.** The number receives only. There is no way to text a customer, a candidate or a colleague from it.
- **It is not a customer messaging tool.** No campaigns, no bulk sending, no replies.
- **It does not guarantee that every service will accept the number.** That decision belongs to the service sending the message, and it can change.
- **It does not make SMS itself more secure.** It makes shared access to the messages manageable. Where a service offers each employee their own login, or supports an authenticator app, that is usually the better choice.

## Setting-up questions

### How can multiple people receive SMS sent to one number?

The number belongs to your company account rather than to a handset, so messages sent to it arrive in an inbox instead of on a phone. Everyone you invite and approve can open that inbox in a browser and read the same message. Nobody has to forward anything, and nobody needs to be holding a particular phone.

### Do my teammates need to share a password?

No. Each teammate signs in with their own account, so there is no shared password to pass around or change when somebody leaves. It also means you can see exactly who has access, and remove one person without disturbing anyone else on the team.

### Will the number work with every website?

No. Some services accept only certain kinds of phone number, and many accept only numbers from their own country. That decision belongs to the service sending the message, not to us, and it can change without notice. Before you depend on the number for an important account, add it there and send yourself a test message.

### How long does it take to set up?

Minutes, and no technical work. You create an account, choose a number, invite the colleagues who need access, and then enter the number on the company account that sends the texts. There is nothing to install, no phone to buy and nobody from our side to talk to.

## Four steps, and about ten minutes

Create your account first and look around. You only choose a number when you are ready.

- [Get your number](https://app.sharedsmsinbox.com)

_$49/month per phone number. No credit card required. Pay only when you choose your number._

---

Canonical: https://sharedsmsinbox.com/how-it-works

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