Skip to main content

Burner app for iPhone: Create disposable phone numbers for disposable relationships

Burner app for iPhone
Image used with permission by copyright holder

Phone numbers are a personal thing, a literal link between you and the rest of the world, whatever it may contain. Which is why many people don’t like to toss around their digits willy-nilly. You don’t want just anyone calling or texting you, right? Right.

But what if you could create a disposable phone number for those situations when you want someone to call, but don’t want them to call forever? Well, now there’s an app for that too.

Recommended Videos

Officially launched today, Burner for iPhone (iTunes link) lets you create as many disposable phone numbers as you like. And each number only works for a limited amount of time. Just to be clear, these numbers are not “fake” numbers — they work just like your regular number, and accept both voice calls and text messages. The difference is, each disposable Burner number expires after seven days, or 20 minutes of talk time, whichever comes first.

“Phone numbers are part of an old network that is getting dumber, in relative terms, by the day,” said Greg Cohn, founder and CEO of AdHoc Labs, which created Burner, in a statement. “You give out your number, and it’s all or nothing; it’s out there forever. And in the era of Facebook and social networking, we know the phone can be a lot smarter. Burner is the first piece of this vision.”

In addition to both sending and receiving calls and texts through a disposable Burner number, users can also label each number with the name of whomever you gave the digits to, share the number through Facebook or Twitter, and turn off all notifications from each number individually. It’s also possible to “burn” a number (delete it) at any time.

So, when would one want disposable phone numbers? Giving out a number to strange, smitten bar patrons is one obvious example, or if you’re selling something through Craigslist or another classified ad service. Perhaps you’re a secret agent attempting to rendezvous with an Uzbek drug lord. Maybe you are a drug lord! Really, anytime you want to make sure a relationship is temporary, Burner’s got your back.

Burner is available now to users in the U.S. and Canada through the iTunes App Store for an initial cost of $2, which gives you one Burner number. Each additional Burner number costs $2 more.

Andrew Couts
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Features Editor for Digital Trends, Andrew Couts covers a wide swath of consumer technology topics, with particular focus on…
Apple uses giggles to highlight new Apple Intelligence features
A screenshot from an Apple ad for Apple Intelligence.

On the same day that Apple started rolling out Apple Intelligence to iPhone 16 handsets as well as iPhone 15 Pro devices, the tech giant dropped two videos showcasing some of the new features.

The first one (below) highlights the new Apple Intelligence Writing Tools feature, which, in Apple’s own words, is designed to “help your words sound more professional, friendly, or more concise.”

Read more
iOS 18.2: How to use ChatGPT with Siri
Siri offloading user query to ChatGPT.

Ever since Apple announced the AI stack known as Apple Intelligence earlier this year, one of the most highly anticipated features has been the ChatGPT-Siri camaraderie. In a nutshell, the queries presented to Siri will be offloaded to ChatGPT if it can't provide a satisfactory answer.

Read more
Apple Intelligence features are finally available for everyone
Apple Intelligence & Siri screen on an iPhone 16 Pro

Apple has begun rolling out Apple Intelligence to those with eligible iPhones through the latest iOS 18.1 update. Apple Intelligence was originally shown off during WWDC 2024 in June and has been available to those on the developer and public betas. However, as of today, iOS 18.1 is available to everyone, though Apple Intelligence is only available for the iPhone 15 Pro models and the entire iPhone 16 lineup.

With iOS 18.1, those users can now access several Apple Intelligence features, including Writing Tools, a more natural and capable Siri, summarize notifications, a smarter Photos app, and priority messages in Mail. Be aware that these are just a fraction of Apple Intelligence features — there are even more AI tools coming in iOS 18.2, which is currently in beta.

Read more