Frequently asked questions
Shellphone is your go-to app to use your phone number over the internet. It integrates
seamlessly with Twilio to provide the best experience for your personal cloud phone.
Shellphone is still in its early stages and we're working hard to make it as easy-to-use as
possible. Currently, you must have a Twilio account to set up your personal cloud phone with
Shellphone.
Chances are you're currently using an eSIM-compatible device. eSIMs are a reasonable way of
using a phone number internationally but they are still subject to some irky limitations. For
example, you can only use an eSIM on one device at a time and you are still subject to
exorbitant rates from your carrier.
Some banks and online services refuse to send two-factor authentication messages to a virtual
phone number and we do not have a solution around this yet. Moreover, Twilio does not support
receiving incoming SMS from external Alphanumeric Sender IDs is to protect accounts getting
bombarded from spam messages from these IDs which are used to send one-way SMS.
With that said, we have successfully received 2FA messages from many services including WhatsApp
and Uber. We recognize this is a common problem for people who want to switch to a virtual phone
number and we are doing our best to find a long-term solution to receive 2FA messages.