2 phone numbers on Apple Account

badger09

For a while I’ve been using 2 phones. (Reasons irrelevant but I can explain if nec) 

Both are linked to my Apple Account  

Main phone: iPhone 13mini, Giffgaff SIM on PAYG & monthly ‘plan’ bought with EU roaming included, when on holiday in Europe - 2-3 times a year. 

2nd phone: iPhone SE, no SIM, just used at home on WiFi. Some apps work on both, some don’t. 

I want to try Smarty, on a monthly £6 plan which includes EU roaming but don’t want to commit to a switch until I’ve tried it. 

Can I just put Smarty SIM in the iPhone SE?

Will it cause any issues having 2 phones with different numbers linked to same Apple Account? 

Any drawbacks?

I have tried searching but I’ve been going round in circles. Appreciate any help. 

flaneurs_lobster

I don't think Apple cares about the mobile number on any SIM that's in an Apple device.

Standard Apple accounts need a phone number when created to receive OTP by SMS. This may well be a number on a SIM in an iPhone but not necessarily (I've Apple accounts but never owned an Apple device).

You could have a couple of SIMs in each of your phones so 4 numbers, Apple won't know or care. It's the devices that are registered to the account, not the SIM(s).

MyRealNameToo

flaneurs_lobster said:

I don't think Apple cares about the mobile number on any SIM that's in an Apple device.

Standard Apple accounts need a phone number when created to receive OTP by SMS. This may well be a number on a SIM in an iPhone but not necessarily (I've Apple accounts but never owned an Apple device).

You could have a couple of SIMs in each of your phones so 4 numbers, Apple won't know or care. It's the devices that are registered to the account, not the SIM(s).

If its a phone then it will ask if you if you want to add the number to iMessage so texts etc to other Apple devices go via internet rather than your network. Similarly if someone else goes to message you from iMessage it will check if your number is associated with an apple iMessage account and use that if it is and SMS if it isnt. 

flaneurs_lobster

MyRealNameToo said:

If its a phone then it will ask if you if you want to add the number to iMessage so texts etc to other Apple devices go via internet rather than your network. Similarly if someone else goes to message you from iMessage it will check if your number is associated with an apple iMessage account and use that if it is and SMS if it isnt. 

Ah, that makes sense. Presumably this sign-up to iMessage is optional?

badger09

@flaneurs_lobster
@MyRealNameToo

Thank you both, that’s really helped. 

MyRealNameToo said:

flaneurs_lobster said:

I don't think Apple cares about the mobile number on any SIM that's in an Apple device.

Standard Apple accounts need a phone number when created to receive OTP by SMS. This may well be a number on a SIM in an iPhone but not necessarily (I've Apple accounts but never owned an Apple device).

You could have a couple of SIMs in each of your phones so 4 numbers, Apple won't know or care. It's the devices that are registered to the account, not the SIM(s).

If its a phone then it will ask if you if you want to add the number to iMessage so texts etc to other Apple devices go via internet rather than your network. Similarly if someone else goes to message you from iMessage it will check if your number is associated with an apple iMessage account and use that if it is and SMS if it isnt. 

I sometimes have issues with iMessage being undelivered or taking ages to arrive. I don’t see any big advantage in adding new number to iMessage. 

J_B

In the distant past, Mrs B swapped (using a PAC) from Three to Lebara and for some strange reason, aPple associated her temporary Lebara number (that she only had till the port had succeeded) with I Message

It was most confusing as she would text some aPple users and would get a "who is this" reply!

Think she had to go into her message settings somewhere to alter this! 🙄

badger09

J_B said:

In the distant past, Mrs B swapped (using a PAC) from Three to Lebara and for some strange reason, aPple associated her temporary Lebara number (that she only had till the port had succeeded) with I Message

It was most confusing as she would text some aPple users and would get a "who is this" reply!

Think she had to go into her message settings somewhere to alter this! 🙄

Yes I’m expecting some confusion over the next few weeks while I decide. From my contacts & also from me!
Main factor will be how good the phone signal & download speeds are. Smarty runs on 3, Giffgaff on O2. 

MyRealNameToo

J_B said:

In the distant past, Mrs B swapped (using a PAC) from Three to Lebara and for some strange reason, aPple associated her temporary Lebara number (that she only had till the port had succeeded) with I Message

It was most confusing as she would text some aPple users and would get a "who is this" reply!

Think she had to go into her message settings somewhere to alter this! 🙄

When you put a new sim in a phone apple will identify its phone number and prompt you if you want to add it to iMessages or not. Presumably the new sim was put in before the transfer happened and she tapped "yes". 

You can have any number of phone numbers and email addresses associated with iMessages

Frozen_up_north

Myself and my OH share the same Apple account for the downloading/paying for apps. What you need to be careful about is not sharing contacts... it causes endless confusion if you do, we don't have "secret" contacts but mixing them up is not a good idea.

Our iMessages are completely separate.

I guess many families share an account, otherwise you can each end up paying for an app when there is no need to pay more than once.

MyRealNameToo

Frozen_up_north said:

Myself and my OH share the same Apple account for the downloading/paying for apps. What you need to be careful about is not sharing contacts... it causes endless confusion if you do, we don't have "secret" contacts but mixing them up is not a good idea.

Our iMessages are completely separate.

I guess many families share an account, otherwise you can each end up paying for an app when there is no need to pay more than once.

The normal operation is that you have an account each but setup a family group. The majority of apps allow Family Sharing and so you still only need to buy apps/subscriptions once and use them on each account. 

If you want to leverage the ability of iCloud there is no option but to blend contacts if you are sharing an account else there is no sharing across devices either and certainly I want my contacts to be on my phone, iPad and laptop. 

Before family sharing came in we did use one account but contacts were in one of three folders (hers, ours, mine). All devices had all contacts but at least you could limit scrolling by going into the relevant folder. It's not limited to contacts though as photos, messages, bookmarks etc are all the same. Similarly incoming calls come to my laptop as well as my phone and with account sharing her calls came to my laptop

I would hope most have moved over to family sharing rather than still being handicapped with a single account. 

badger09

badger09 said:

J_B said:

In the distant past, Mrs B swapped (using a PAC) from Three to Lebara and for some strange reason, aPple associated her temporary Lebara number (that she only had till the port had succeeded) with I Message

It was most confusing as she would text some aPple users and would get a "who is this" reply!

Think she had to go into her message settings somewhere to alter this! 🙄

Yes I’m expecting some confusion over the next few weeks while I decide. From my contacts & also from me!
Main factor will be how good the phone signal & download speeds are. Smarty runs on 3, Giffgaff on O2. 

Obviously I'd checked expected coverage before ordering SIM. Both indoor & outdoor said to be excellent 4G coverage.

13/10 I set everything up, including changing settings so I can use abroad. 
13/10 & 14/10 phone signal between 0 & 2 bars, download speeds on mobile data around 0.21 & and only once over 2Mbps. Frequently too slow to load Smarty help pages, so got either We're Sorry messages, or a blank white screen! GiffGaff 4G had 3 bars & 19.5Mbps around the same times
15/10 in nearby town, totally different. 4 bar phone signal, 40.7Mbps  
16/10 at home, 3 bar phone signal, 16.4Mbps

Was I just unlucky for 1st few days?