Summer Romasco
Everything you need to know about Burner’s ...

We’ve been working behind the scenes to collect user feedback and perform user testing to see how we can improve Burner for you.

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Burner Gets Contact Muting, Photos, and Notes

Released today for iOS and Android, Burner 3.6.1 introduces fine-grained controls for muting, as well as adding photos and notes to Contacts.

Now it’s easier than ever to keep track of and manage conversations with friends, business colleagues, and casual acquaintances.

We hope you enjoy these improvements!

Mute a Contact

This update introduces the ability to Mute contacts one by one. Muting prevents notifications from firing when a specific person messages you. Incoming calls from a muted contact don’t ring through to your phone. You’ll still be able to access messages and missed calls and voicemails from a muted number as normal.

Mute serves a different purpose than the ability to Block a contact, which we’ve had for a while. Blocking mutes and hides all calls and messages sent from a specific number—use Block when you no longer want contact with a person, but don’t want to burn the Burner. Use Mute when you want to filter out their notifications without turning off all notifications for the line.

Muting a contact

Contact Photos and Notes

You’ll find two new fields on the Contact details screen:

Photo: Upload an image from your library for anyone in your Contact list.

Notes: You can take free-form notes in this field, such as where or how you met a person or other details like email and address.

Keep in mind that if you delete a contact, notes and photos will be deleted as well.

Add notes and images to a contact

Improved Notifications

For those of you using prepaid lines, the time frame in which the Burner app notifies you of lines that are close to expiration has been improved.

Users will now be notified as early as 5 days out that a Burner line is about to expire. That way you will have more notice if you need to extend your line, and less chance that the prepaid number will expire before you have a chance to do so.

Push notification from Burner

Copy Your Burner Number from the Inbox

For Android users, we’ve made it easier to find your Burner numbers right in the inbox. You can see and copy your number in one tap just by opening the app. This is coming soon on iOS.

Copy your Burner number from the inbox

Other Accessibility Alignments

Finally, in addition to some small performance updates and bug fixes, we improved some of our labeling in the inbox and throughout the app to improve accessibility for our customers using screen readers with Burner.

Need phone lines for the long term, for a side project or business? Consider upgrading to a Burner subscription (tap this link on your phone, and it will open to the offers screen in the app). You can have up to three auto-renewing lines, unlimited calls/texts/pics, robocall blocking on all lines, and more.

Most of the improvements to Burner are built in response to your feedback and requests, so we look forward to hearing your thoughts. If you have feedback or questions about Burner or today’s updates, feel free to email us at support@burnerapp.com.

Slack Integration for Mobile and a Dialer That Will Make You Say “WOW.”

The Slack Connection is one of our most popular, so we’ve included two small but important updates in this release (3.2.7).  As before, you can connect any Burner line to Slack, and inbound texts, pictures, and voicemails to that Burner will appear in the selected channel for everyone on the team to see and reply to. As a new option outbound texts sent from the mobile app, can now also be sent to Slack.  

Visiting the settings screen of your Burner number (click the gear icon). After you have connected Slack to your phone number the  above options will appear.

Visiting the settings screen of your Burner number (click the gear icon). After you have connected Slack to your phone number the  above options will appear.

We’ve also improved our handling of links emojis, and other formatted elements on outbound texts sent from Slack to another phone number. Yes, that is correct:  you can text people directly from slack, and you, or you and your team can see the results (choose wisely).

We’re also excited to announce the first in a series of updates centered around enhancing the way inbound and outbound calls work in Burner. The most noticeable change in 3.2.7 is a completely redesigned dialer, which we love the look of, and should be easier for those of you with small hands or big phones (or both!) to use, as we’ve positioned the keypad towards the bottom of the screen.  One beta tester’s response to the dialer was “wow,” and the whole Burner team loves a wow factor, so we are pretty happy. Try it out and have a guaranteed “wow” moment.

Underlying the new design of the Dialer is another big change that we’re keeping under wraps for now, but will start rolling out over the next few weeks. Stay tuned for more!

 

 

Revolution and Evolution in Mobile Messaging

 

At Burner we are always releasing features and bug fixes, but we don’t always talk about it. We tend to alternate between revolution and evolution. Today we are launching a new interface for texting, and one of its key features is the ability to view multiple lines when composing texts.  It is always feels good to make the product a little better, and to know that our customer experience is always improving.  


In all we will be releasing five new features (some are obvious and others harder to see) and nine bug fixes.  Improving Burner is a never-ending experience, and that is the way we like it.  Expect some significant new features in the coming months, but also relax and enjoy the little improvements that are being released regularly.

Click Here to Download Burner Today!

Fun with Webhooks: Text Us for A Chance to Win a Blink(1) Indicator

 

We decided to have a little fun with our Burner Developer Connection webhooks and the internet of things! We purchased some of ThingM's new blink(1) LED indicators for our team to play around with and test with phone numbers. These open-source lights were designed to give you glance-able notice of anything on your computer, the internet, and now: A PHONE NUMBER! It packs three dimensions of information (color, brightness, and pattern) into a single tiny package that fits into any USB port on nearly every device. So... Text us and tell us why you want one!

 

(310) 879-1899
All texts automated to a Google Sheet.
Winner selected noon PST Wednesday, December 23rd!

 

We won’t delve too deep into the specifics of our telephonic sorcery but it involves some basic online tools to put the internet (and phone numbers) to work for you!

Using IFTTT we created a Maker recipe for our blink(1). In doing so we created a webhook where our light flashed a certain color pattern based on a “triggered event.”

Burner_IFTTT_Blink1

 

Next, we used Zapier’s webhooks to automate entries on a Google Sheet. Zapier matches the data sent from my Burner phone numer to the corresponding fields in our Google sheet:

Burner_Zapier_Sheets

So we have now created two separate webhooks (one on IFTTT and one on Zapier) that we want to work simultaneously through a single triggered event (an inbound text to our Burner). Using Reflector.io, we are able to power multiple pass-thrus with a single webhook: 

Burner_Reflector_Blink1

Final step is to add the Reflector webhook URL to our Burner phone number's Developer Connection

And VOILA! So send us a text at (310) 879-1899 to add your entry to our random drawing. Good luck!

Burner_Blink1_Animated

Introducing Burner 3.0 for Android

We’re excited to announce that we’re launching a brand new look and feel for Burner on Android! This is our biggest design update for Android and builds upon a ton of feedback that we’ve heard from customers. The goal is always to make Burner the easiest way to stay in touch with people without compromising your personal information or phone number, and we think Burner 3.0 does just that. Here are some of the highlights:

Unified Inbox

Managing more than one number in Burner just got much easier! With the unified inbox you can view and respond to all of your recent conversations from different Burner numbers in one place. To help you stay organized, we now give each of your Burners a unique color, so when you’re viewing conversations quickly in the inbox, you know exactly which Burner someone is contacting you through. If you ever need to go through your older messages, or you only want to view the messages on one of your Burners you can easily filter by that Burner and view your entire history.

Material Design

Again, this is our biggest design update for Burner. You’ll see the use of colors, animations and transitions throughout the app, fully embracing material design principles. Navigation and design patterns should feel familiar and blend right into your workflow with all the apps you love!

Android Wear

We know that our customers are busy, managing work and personal lives and anything we can do to make Burner more accessible when you’re on the go is huge win! Burner now supports use with your smartwatch so you can quickly view your notifications and messages and respond in an instant with voice commands.

Stay tuned

This is just the beginning of a ton of new features that will be coming to Android so stay tuned and connect with us on Facebook and Twitter to get all the latest news!

 

Why Burner is the Perfect Utility for Social Media Managers, Part 2

Hello, Xavier from SocialSoundSystem again! In our first blog post we discussed how we rely on Burner for social media management and community management for the band Iration. Today I’d like to share how we’re using the app for direct-to-fan engagement.

A PRIVACY LAYER FOR THE PUBLIC LIFE

Burner is a privacy layer for your life. For artists, celebrities, and other public figures this is a huge value proposition. To expand on our use-case in the music industry, Burner gives artists and band members the ability to engage with fans and the general public without compromising their personal phone number. Our artists can now create and manage multiple phone numbers for press interviews, calling contest winners, saying hi to sick fans in the hospital, or even ordering a pizza from Papa John’s if you so desire.

Fan Q&As

The easiest way for public figures to engage with fans and followers is through Q&As. Reddit AMAs have become hugely popular and more celebrities are starting to use Meerkat, but all of the platforms that enable this kind of engagement still require fans to be a member of whatever network they are using. With a Burner number, you’re able to use the one thing that everyone has, a phone number! Simply create a new number and post it to your sites and socials. Answer fan questions or calls that come in. Then burn the number when you’re done! PS you have the ability to turn off notifications in the app for calls/texts so the artist’s phone doesn’t explode when posting

I came across this use-case the other day and thought this was a pretty ingenious way of using the app. The CTO of Citrix, Gunnar Berger, was giving a presentation at conference and included a Burner number to field questions:

In October, Burner added support for MMS and you now have the option to create an MMS specific number. So far we’ve heard a lot of positive support for this feature from the Etsy community and other online stores. For Iration, MMS gave us the ability to run some flash fan engagement campaigns. While off tour Iration started recording their new album in Santa Barbara. Iration posted lyrics to an unreleased song they were working on in the studio and asked fans to send us pics of what the lyrics meant to them. It helped pass the time as they responded to fans and enjoyed learning what the fans thought of the lyrics.

DIGITAL MEETS PHYSICAL

Using Burner allows us to bridge a gap between the digital and real life. Iration doesn’t always hide behind the phone number. I’ve seen them use the app to find surfboards, a copy of Cabin Boy, want to know where to go for a local hike or play golf, or even local “greenery” because everyone knows you NEVER carry anything across any I-10 border checkpoints from Arizona to Texas (SERIOUSLY). In all instances, it’s a chance for the band to connect with local fans and hook them up with tickets.

Another fun way we like to use Burner reminds me of all the old rave days. Remember when you used to have to call a phone number to call another number to meet at a certain place/time to follow someone to that underground party? No? Well, it was a thing. In any event, sometimes we like to do similar promos using Burner. Since you can add custom voicemail greetings for every number, it’s very easy to create a new number in any tour market for fans to call in to find out what the “Burner mission” of the day is (should you choose to accept it). We’ve had fans meet us at a certain local landmark, bar, or restaurant to give away merch, autographs, or tickets. When the guys are on the East Coast and the waves are firing, they’ll tell fans to meet at a certain beach and bring boards for them. They once asked for a copy of Cabin Boy for the tour bus that only had a DVD player. A new favorite is doing flash ticket giveaways. We’ll post a Burner number with the stipulation that we will delete the post once someone has claimed the tickets.

 

 

SOURCING FAN CONTENT

This is one of the main reasons SocialSoundSystem started working with Burner. One of the first campaigns we developed with Burner allowed us to source fan content using voicemails. Burner helped us build a direct integration with Soundcloud. Fans could call into a special Burner number and leave a voicemail. We QA the calls and upload our favorites to our official Soundcloud account. In doing so we are able to learn more about our fans while rewarding them with some social currency considering our Soundcloud account alone has 100K followers.

Over the years we have received messages from sick fans telling us how our music is helping them. Sadly it’s occurring more and more frequently. Jorge Santana (from above) is an example one of these fans. He won a pair of tickets for the Fillmore San Francisco show and couldn’t make it because his doctors wouldn’t let him out of the hospital. He sent his kids instead and the lead singer, Micah, gave Jorge a call in the hospital telling him to fight the good fight. We’ve since stayed in touch and they’ve been out to a few shows. I met him in person last year at the Greek Theatre Berkeley where he and his wife told us backstage that he was 100% cancer free. It’s the little things like this where we can give back to our fans that really makes an impact on what we do. The smallest bit of effort on our part really can change a life

A more recent experiment we’ve been playing with is a Burner Message Board. We set up a basic site on subdomain Messages.IrationMusic.com and attached a Burner number. One of the band members recorded a voicemail inviting fans to text, send a pic, or leave a voicemail for them. Text and audio are transcribed and show up almost instantaneously on the page. Fans receive a notification if someone favorites or leaves a response. Everything occurs anonymously on all sides. The band loves how easy it is to use and fans love seeing their messages on one of our official sites.

 

CONCLUSION

For all the hoopla over the latest and greatest apps (we’re looking at you Meerkat), we truly believe that phone numbers will continue to play an important part of our personal and professional lives. They have the lowest barrier to entry, fans do not need to download anything, and 99.9% of the world knows how to make a phone call or send a text.  

This concludes our posts here on the Burner blog, but you can always keep up with new projects and new ways we’re using Burner by following us @socialsound1982 or @iration.

 

 

Burner is now available in Australia!

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G'day G'day how ya goin' Burner! Today we have some big news for you!

We know the world revolves around communicating via SMS, and it’s hard when you’re living or traveling outside the US to stay in touch without incurring crazy long-distance charges. To help with this problem we’ve made Burner available, for the first time, outside the US and Canada. You can now download Burner in Australia and buy a US and Canadian number for texts and voicemail to text anyone in the US and Canada, long distance charge free!

Once you create your number you’ll have access to tons of great Burner features like reminders to stay organized and of course you can create as many numbers as you would like and burn your number any time to take it out service.

Why Burner?

There’s tons of other messaging apps out there that you can use to message with friends or family in the US, but they’re a hassle. Once you decide what service you want to use and create an account, you then have to get everyone you want to talk to to create an account as well. And then you have to find and connect with everyone -- search your address book, connect Facebook, sign in with Twitter -- just to send a simple message.

Burner makes messaging dead simple, with the one thing everyone has -- a phone number.

These are text-only numbers, so you won’t be able to make or receive calls, but if someone does call you they’ll be able to leave you a message that you can listen to in the app!

This is only the beginning and we know we have tons of Burner fans that want the app available in their country. Please feel free to reach out to us on Facebook, Twitter or through support and let us know where you are and where we should expand to next. You can also stay up-to-date with all of our news by signing up for the newsletter.