--- title: "What is a shared SMS inbox? How several people read one number" description: "A shared SMS inbox lets several approved people read the texts sent to one company number. How it works, and the two very different products sold under the name." canonical: "https://sharedsmsinbox.com/shared-sms-inbox" --- # A shared SMS inbox: how several people read texts sent to one number > A shared SMS inbox lets several approved people read the texts sent to one company number. How it works, and the two very different products sold under the name. Most products called a shared SMS inbox are built for **texting customers**. This one is built for the texts your company **receives** — several approved teammates read the messages sent to one company number, in a browser, instead of on one person’s phone. - [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._ ## The questions people ask first ### What is a shared SMS inbox? A shared SMS inbox lets several approved team members receive and view the text messages sent to one company phone number. ### How is it different from a normal phone? A phone belongs to a person and shows its messages to whoever is holding it; a shared inbox belongs to the company and shows its messages to a named list of people. ### Why can’t two phones just receive the same text? Because a phone number is tied to one active SIM, and the network delivers each message to that one place. The company has a phone number of its own. Text messages sent to that number do not go to a handset — they go into an inbox on the web, and everyone the company has invited and approved can open it. It is the same idea as a shared email address like accounts@yourcompany.com, but for text messages. One address, several people who can read what arrives, and a list of who those people are. That difference matters most when the person is unavailable — on leave, asleep in another time zone, or no longer at the company. The phone leaves with them. The inbox does not. It also matters for accountability: because everyone signs in as themselves, the inbox can record who read what, which a phone passed around an office never can. Handing the phone round, buying a second SIM or forwarding messages by hand are all attempts to get past that. They work badly: only one person holds the phone, forwarding is manual, and nothing is written down. A hosted inbox goes around the constraint instead of fighting it. The number delivers to a service rather than a handset, and the service shows the message to a list of people you control. ## The parts of a shared SMS inbox Different products draw the lines differently, but a shared SMS inbox generally has these five parts. - **A dedicated phone number** — A number that belongs to the company account rather than to a person or a handset. - **An inbox on the web** — Somewhere the messages sent to that number are collected and can be read. - **More than one person with access** — The point of the whole thing: several people can see the same message at the same time. - **Individual logins** — Each person signs in as themselves, so access can be given and taken away one person at a time. - **A record of what happened** — Which messages arrived, when, and who opened them. > **If your texts are login codes, start here instead** The most common reason a company needs several people to read one number is that a shared account texts a login code to it. That has its own page, with the specific fix: [login codes for teams](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/login-codes-for-teams). ## Three things a shared SMS inbox is not The phrase gets used loosely, so it is worth being clear about what this kind of product is not. - **It is not a customer messaging tool.** Products for texting customers — support desks, campaign tools, sales messaging — are a different category with a different price and a different shape. Our inbox does not send messages at all. - **It is not a way to make SMS more secure.** Sharing a text message with a team does not change how secure text messages are. It changes who can act on the message, and how quickly. - **It is not a public or disposable number service.** Numbers on those sites are shared with strangers and their messages are visible to anyone. A shared SMS inbox is the opposite: one number, one company, a named list of people. ## Four signs your team would use this If more than one of these is familiar, a shared inbox is probably worth the ten minutes. - **Somebody is regularly asked to forward a message** — The same colleague reads things out several times a week, and is interrupted every time. - **A company account is tied to one person’s phone** — If that person is away, nobody can get in. If they leave, the account has to be recovered. - **Screenshots end up in group chats** — Photographs of company text messages sit in a channel where far more people can see them than should. - **Your team spans time zones or shifts** — The one phone that receives the message is not awake when the work needs doing. ## How you set one up For our product, this is the whole process. Most shared SMS inboxes work in broadly the same way. 1. **Create your account** — Sign up with a work email. Free, and no card. 2. **Get your number** — Choose an available number for the company. _($49/month starts here.)_ 3. **Invite your team** — Add the colleagues who need the messages, each with their own login. 4. **Receive your SMS** — Put the number on the shared company account and watch the messages arrive. ## Shared SMS inbox questions ### What is a shared SMS inbox? A shared SMS inbox lets several approved team members read the text messages sent to one company phone number. Instead of arriving on one employee’s personal phone, the messages appear in a web inbox that your colleagues open with their own logins. Teams most often use it for the login and verification codes that shared company accounts send. ### 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. ### Can my whole team see the same SMS? Yes. Every teammate you invite and give access to sees the messages that arrive at your company number, at the same time, in the same inbox. You decide who that is. Anyone who has not been given access to the number cannot see its messages at all. ### 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 a customer support or marketing tool? No. It receives text messages for accounts your company shares — it does not send anything, so it cannot be used to reply to customers, run campaigns or send bulk messages. If you are looking for a way to talk to customers by text, you want a different kind of product. ## Where to go next - [Shared phone number for teams](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/shared-phone-number-for-teams) — What it means for the company, rather than a person, to own the number. - [Login codes for teams](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/login-codes-for-teams) — The specific problem of a verification text going to one employee’s phone. - [Compare the options](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/blog/best-shared-sms-inbox-services) — What else is on the market, checked against published information. - [How it works](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/how-it-works) — The four steps, in detail. - [Pricing](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/pricing) — $49/month per number, with unlimited teammates. - [Security and access](https://sharedsmsinbox.com/security) — Who can read the messages, and how you change that. ## Try it on one account first Move a single shared company account across, see how it feels for a week, and go from there. - [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-sms-inbox Every page of this site is also available as Markdown. Site map: https://sharedsmsinbox.com/llms.txt