4 min read
Why Threads asks for a phone number
Threads asks for a phone number to slow down fake accounts: at sign-up, after a login from a new device, or when it decides an account needs checking. The code arrives by SMS.
Can you skip the phone on Threads?
Many social apps let you start with an email and ask for a phone only later. If Threads offers email or Google/Apple sign-in, try that first.
Your options without a SIM card
Social networks often reject VoIP numbers and numbers already linked to other accounts. On free receive-SMS sites, anyone can read the code and take the account.
- Email or Google/Apple sign-in, when the app allows it. Free, and no number at all.
- A second SIM or eSIM. Costs a monthly plan, but the number stays yours.
- A private temporary number from CoveSMS. Only you see the code, and you pay nothing if it doesn’t arrive within 20 minutes.
Step by step: get the Threads code online
- Buy a Threads number in your dashboard.
- On Threads’s phone screen, pick the country and paste the number.
- Ask for the code by text message.
- Enter the code from your dashboard.
If the code doesn’t arrive
- “Try again later” is a limit on your device or connection. Waiting helps more than buying new numbers.
- If the number is refused, cancel after 2 minutes for the full price back to your balance and try another country.
- No code within 20 minutes means the number closes and the price goes back to your balance.
After you’re in: stop depending on the number
A temporary number is single-use. Set up another way in before it closes:
- Add your own email to Threads and confirm it.
- Turn on two-factor authentication with an authenticator app, not SMS.
- Turn off “find me by phone number” if the app has it.