In this article, you will learn how to troubleshoot any potential issues with your Alternative Number.
To proceed, you will need an active Surfshark VPN subscription and an in-app Alternative Number subscription. Visit our pricing page to purchase a Surfshark subscription.
We will cover the following questions:
- Why am I not receiving text messages?
- Why can't I reply to text messages?
- How long does it take for a text message to arrive?
- Alternative Number inactive after purchasing it
Why am I not receiving text messages?
There might be cases where you don’t receive messages using the Alternative Number feature. This might happen due to several reasons:
- Some operators may not work in specific countries.
- Some websites and platforms do not support virtual numbers.
- Verification code messages are not supported.
- Spam filtering processes.
- Service outages.
Why can't I reply to text messages?
In some cases, you may not be able to reply to text messages for the following reasons:
- You cannot reply to shortcodes, premium numbers, international numbers, and numbers without digits.
- Surfshark limits the number of SMS messages sent through Alternative Number to prevent abuse.
- Surfshark supports the ability to reply to US phone numbers only.
How long does it take for a text message to arrive?
A text message arrives in mere seconds, and, in rare cases, may take up to a few minutes. Please make sure that you are not offline and have a stable connection.
Alternative Number inactive after purchasing it
This issue can occur when the app is not synchronized with your recent purchase. To resolve this, reboot the Surfshark app.
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