Even if it’s surveillance Overreach (abortion bounty hunting, police use of facial recognition) doesn’t make you want to ditch your smartphone for something less connected, you might still consider a recorded phone, a prepaid mobile device practically d ‘single use that does not have a contract with a wireless carrier. .
Yes, the prepaid cell phones that were popularized by brands like Boost Mobile and Cricket in the media, and in pop culture by their frequent use on television. the wire, they are still around. In fact, tens of millions of customers are still looking for recorded phones, whether they’re cell phones or Android or iOS smartphones from providers like TracFone, Simple Mobile, or Verizon-owned Total Wireless.
What’s the attraction? The idea is that a cheap phone with pre-paid calling minutes and data is disposable, free of any contract commitments and more private. For someone who uses a cell phone or data plan infrequently, it could be much cheaper than a typical cell phone plan.
Prabhat Agarwal, senior director of research and trends at the Consumer Electronics Association, says that while wireless companies are driving customers toward postpaid plans with higher-margin 5G data plans and longer commitments, prepaid phones ” they’re not going away anytime soon. There are a lot of groups for whom prepaid makes a lot of sense,” he explains.
If you’re paying cash for hardware and service, theoretically you won’t be on the phone with your bank account, credit card or home address. Of course, that anonymity vanishes the moment you start using a burner phone to log into your Facebook account or commit a crime serious enough to warrant that the authorities investigating who used a burner phone to, for example, plan a Ocean’s 11casino style robbery.
However, going off the grid isn’t the only reason to get a prepaid phone. Maybe you want a dedicated second phone for a side hustle like Lyft driving that won’t get used all the time because you won’t be subject to monthly use-it-or-lose-it fees. You might be someone who wants to keep your online dating or personal email completely separate from the premium smartphone you use for work. Or you can use a cheap, locked phone that lets your kids call friends and grandparents and play games. A cheap prepaid device won’t cause as much stress if the screen cracks or the phone ends up in the toilet.
In all of these cases, a phone recorder may allow you to be reachable by phone, but with a different phone number than your primary phone number. If you value keeping your primary cell number non-public, but still need to be accessible to a large number of people, a prepaid phone may be simpler than getting a second line or using a service like Google Voice.
How to choose a recorder phone
If it sounds interesting to you, the first thing you need to decide is how a lot burner phone you really need. If it’s just phone calls and light data communication, you could go retro with a flip phone and hope you remember how to use T9 text messages.
Especially for smartphones, depending on the model, there may be limited built-in memory for applications, video and other data. You may also need to supply your own SIM and SD cards to use the mobile network and expand your phone’s memory. Be sure to remove both of these cards before getting rid of the phone, or at least wipe the SD card memory first.