---
title: "Shared phone number for teams — a company number, not a personal one"
description: "Give your company a phone number for receiving texts that several colleagues can use and that does not leave when an employee does. What it can do, and what it cannot."
canonical: "https://sharedsmsinbox.com/shared-phone-number-for-teams"
---

# A phone number that belongs to your company, not to an employee

> Give your company a phone number for receiving texts that several colleagues can use and that does not leave when an employee does. What it can do, and what it cannot.

Company accounts need a phone number. When that number is a personal mobile, the company is depending on one person’s handset — and losing the number the day they leave.

- [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._

## Whose number is it?

### Can a team share a phone number?

Yes. A phone number can belong to a company account rather than a handset, and several approved employees can then receive the texts sent to it.

### What happens to the number when an employee leaves?

Nothing — the number belongs to the company account, so it stays exactly where it is.

### Does everyone with the number see every message?

No. Being on the team and being able to read a number’s messages are two separate things, and you control the second one.

Sharing a physical phone means passing it around, and only one person can hold it. Sharing a company number means the messages arrive somewhere everyone approved can look, at the same time, from wherever they are.

The number does not need to be handed over, unlocked or carried. Nobody is “the person with the phone”.

This is the difference that costs companies the most when they get it wrong. A personal mobile number leaves with the person: their contract, their SIM, their phone. Any company account still texting that number becomes a problem the day they hand in their laptop.

With a company number, the leaver simply loses their access to the inbox. The number keeps receiving, the accounts attached to it keep working, and nobody has to start an account-recovery process with a supplier.

An administrator decides who has access to each number. Someone who has not been given access to a number does not see its messages, and access can be removed at any time.

Teams with two groups that should not read each other’s messages usually take a second number — $49/month each — so finance and marketing stay separate by design rather than by discipline.

## Do you want a shared line, or a shared number?

People search for “a shared phone number for the team” meaning two very different things. It is worth knowing which one you are after before you buy anything.

**If you want to make and take calls** — a number that rings several people, a menu, voicemail, an app that dials out, texting customers back — you want a business phone system. That is a real and well-served category, and this is not it. Buying this instead would leave you without the thing you actually needed.

**If you want a number that stops living on one employee’s handset** — somewhere a company account can send its texts, that several colleagues can read, and that does not walk out of the building when somebody resigns — that is this page.

You do not need to buy a second phone, a spare SIM or a handset for the drawer. The number is not attached to a device at all.

## A personal mobile versus a company number

Both receive text messages. Only one of them is still yours next year.

| An employee’s personal mobile | A company number |
| --- | --- |
| Belongs to the employee’s own phone contract. | Belongs to the company account. |
| Leaves the company when the employee does. | Stays when people come and go. |
| One person can read what arrives. | Everyone you approve can read what arrives. |
| Access means having their phone, or asking them. | Access means signing in with your own account. |
| Mixes company messages with private ones. | Only carries the company’s messages. |
| No record of who saw what. | Activity is recorded against named people. |

## What a company number can and cannot do

Before you move anything important onto one, know where the edges are.

**It can:**

- Receive text messages, including login and verification codes.
- Be given to as many approved colleagues as you like, at no extra cost.
- Be taken away from one person without affecting anyone else.
- Stay with the company when staff change.

**It cannot:**

- **Send text messages.** This is a receive-only number. There is no outbound texting of any kind.
- **Guarantee that every service will accept it.** Some services only accept certain kinds of number, and many only accept numbers from their own country. That decision belongs to them, not to us, and it can change without warning.
- **Make text-message security stronger.** It makes shared access manageable. Where a service can give each employee their own login, that is a better answer than sharing anything.

> **Always test before you rely on it.** Add the number to the account, ask that account to send you a text, and check that it arrives. Ten minutes now is much cheaper than discovering the problem during a month-end close.

## How to pick which accounts get the company number

You do not have to move everything. The accounts worth moving have a particular shape:

1. **More than one person genuinely needs to sign in.** If only one person ever uses it, a personal number is not causing you a problem.
2. **The service cannot give each person their own login.** Where individual accounts exist, use them — that is better than sharing anything, including a number.
3. **The service insists on a phone number for verification.** If it supports an authenticator app instead, that is usually the better choice.
4. **Being locked out would actually hurt.** Payroll, banking-adjacent services, advertising accounts and supplier portals tend to qualify. A newsletter tool probably does not.

Move one account first, live with it for a week, then move the next. You will learn quickly which of your services accept the number, and you are never locked out of everything at once.

## Questions about the number

### 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.

### Can I send SMS from the number?

No. This is a receive-only service: the number takes text messages in and does not send any out. It is built for teams who need to receive codes and notices for shared company accounts, not for messaging customers, running campaigns or replying to people.

### Is this an inbound-only number?

Yes. Receiving text messages is all the number does, there is nothing to configure to keep it that way, and no teammate can text somebody by accident. If your team also needs to send messages — to customers, candidates or suppliers — this is not the right tool for that job.

### Can I cancel anytime?

Yes. There is no contract and no minimum term — you cancel from your account settings and the monthly charge stops. Before you do, move any company account that still uses the number across to a different one: a phone number you have given up should not be relied on to come back.

### What happens if an employee leaves?

Nothing breaks. The number belongs to the company account rather than to the person, so it does not leave with them. An administrator removes their access, and everyone else keeps receiving messages exactly as before. There is no shared password to change and no account to reconfigure in a hurry.

## Where to go next

- [What a shared SMS inbox is](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/shared-sms-inbox) — The plain definition, and what the category does and does not include.
- [Login codes for teams](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/login-codes-for-teams) — The problem most teams buy a company number to solve.
- [Personal phone or company number?](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/blog/shared-company-phone-number-vs-personal-phone) — A longer look at the decision, including when a personal number is fine.
- [How it works](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/how-it-works) — Getting a number and putting it to work, step by step.
- [Security and access](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/security) — Who can read a number’s messages, and how you change that.
- [Pricing](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/pricing) — $49/month per number. Team size does not change it.

## Give the number to the company

Get a number your company keeps, and give access to the people who need it — no handset, no forwarding, no handover when somebody leaves.

- [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/shared-phone-number-for-teams

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