Streamlining Messaging and Upgrading the Inbox with Android 3.6.2

Old Inbox (Left) and New Inbox (Right)

We’re excited to share our latest Android release with you, Burner 3.6.2. We’ve made a lot of improvements to streamline the most commonly used parts of the Burner app.

This update makes the Inbox cleaner, offering you a view of all your messages at a glance. Messaging is much more fun and legible. And the new Settings screen makes it easier to customize your Burner with fewer taps.

Upgraded Inbox

The new Inbox view features:

• More visibility into Burner expirations with banners that let you know when a line is low on minutes, texts or about to expire

• A condensed message view so you can see more of your incoming texts and calls at a glance

• The ability to change your Burner color by dragging down on the Inbox (we call them "pull down" actions). You can also mark all messages as read or delete them all here too.

Streamlined Messaging

We’ve punched up the contrast of the message bubbles for easier reading. Your contact photos are also included so you can tell who’s talking.

Redesigned Settings

The Settings screen has been redesigned to make it more clear how you can set up your lines. We’ve also renamed some of the options you see here:

Core Settings
- Important functionality including rings, notifications, voicemail greeting, and caller ID

Connections
- Try a new Connection and get more out of your Burners. Archive messages and voicemails to Google, respond to texts on Slack or crowdsource voicemails for your podcast.

Advanced Settings
- Richer control over how you receive calls (with in-app calling and forwarding)

Thanks to everyone who has beta tested, answered our questions, and submitted feedback about your experience with Burner. We hope these improvements make Burner more useful.

Let us know what you think about the updates by leaving a review on the Google Play Store or by texting feedback to (310) 919-5060.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

How an Interior Designer Uses Burner for Business

Meet Katie Smith, an interior designer based in California. She runs a freelance interior design consultancy called The Design Smith, works remotely, and strives to maintain a healthy work life balance.

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Katie relies on Burner’s phone numbers for her business, using them to communicate with her clients, store important photos and information, and protect her personal information. If you’d like to watch the interview in full, audio and video versions are embedded below.

Tools for Designers

As an interior designer, Katie is pretty comfortable with technology. Her suite of tools for her design work revolve around visual design tools like CAD, and several means of effective communication.

“I use my CAD programs for design,” Katie told me in our short interview. “I use Pinterest a lot to convey ideas back and forth. Obviously we use email and video chatting. And then I love my Burner app, I use that every day.”

Communication is Key

Effective design work relies almost as much on good communication as it does on visual design skills. Katie has both in spades, and it was interesting to hear how she communicates visual concepts to her clients.

Katie uses the Burner app to send photos to, and receive photos from, her clients when they’re trying to decide on a certain style or decoration for the room she’s designing. And while she does speak to them on the phone or over video calls, Katie’s communication happens primarily over text and picture messages once a project gets under way.

Using Burner Connections for Peace of Mind

Katie also uses the Dropbox and Google Drive Connections in Burner to sync and store an archive of communications for her clients. Dropbox syncs all the photos her clients send to organized folders in the cloud, where she can easily access them if needed, and where they’re safely backed up.

She uses the Google Sheets option for the Google Drive Connection to log text messages. Katie called it a “security blanket,” a metaphor we appreciate.

“It is invaluable to be able to go back and have something in writing,” Katie says, “that says this is what we decided on.” In a long, expensive design process like remodeling a house, a lot of decisions get made, and these decisions can have a huge impact on the end result.

Professionals Draw Clear Boundaries for Their Work

Katie is very passionate about her work, but she knows it’s not only passion that makes her successful. Discipline also plays a role.

One decision that enabled her success—and a piece of advice that all freelancers and remote workers can apply in their own job—is to set clear boundaries and use methods and tools like Burner to achieve a healthy work life balance.

“And for me, being able to have a separate phone number and not carry two phones with me was an amazing way to do that. So that's been fantastic.”

Thanks for sharing your habits and tools with us, Katie! We’re happy to hear that Burner has played a small but significant role on your journey to building a successful design business.

Interview with Katie Smith, Interior Designer

Audio interview on SoundCloud:

Interview with Designer Katie Smith about how she uses Burner

YouTube video of the same interview:

An interview with Designer Katie Smith about how she uses Burner

Transcript of Katie’s Interview

Matt: Hi everyone! I'm here talking to Katie Smith, a residential designer who runs her own business, The Design Smith. She also does interior design work and creates blueprints and plans for new homes. Welcome Katie, how are you doing today?

Katie: I'm good, how are you?

Matt: Great! So before we get started, I'd love to hear a bit about your background. How did you become an interior designer?

Katie: I stumbled upon it when I was going through school, taking basic classes for General Ed. And I ended up taking a design class that was really a lot of fun, and I had never considered it as a career choice. The more classes that I took, the more that I realized I really loved doing design and was surprised I could do something that fun as a career choice!

So I majored in it in college. I did some independent study work on eco-friendly design and more green interiors, so I have a little background in that. From that point on, every place that I worked, I gained a little more knowledge in this or that...so I also became a certified kitchen designer and a certified bath designer. And it snowballed and turned into what it is.

Matt: So what's it like working for yourself as opposed to a larger firm? Do you work with clients every day and do you work with other teams and architects?

Katie: I've done both. When I first started out, I worked at firms or with other designers. That's interesting because with their experience you gain so much insight and knowledge into how things are done. That experience is invaluable. But a lot of times when you put several creative people together there are definitely creative differences. So I enjoy working for myself now that I have the background and knowledge to move forward with larger design projects on my own.

So I do like working for myself. And now that I'm a mother, it's great to be able to work from home and take care of my kids, and do work. So I don't see clients every day, but that's by choice. It works really well.

Matt: So since you're working remotely, working from home, apart from using CAD what other technology do you rely on to communicate with people?

Katie: I use my CAD programs for design. I use Pinterest a lot to convey ideas back and forth. Obviously we use email and video chatting. And then I love my Burner app, I use that every day with them.

Matt: Some people might say that in a world powered by email and chat apps, like Messenger and Slack, that phone-to-phone communication isn't as important anymore. Based on your experience, how would you respond to that?

Katie: I do use text more frequently than I actually use voice calls. Emails are nice when I have more information to convey or attachments. But for the most part I use texts and text photos back and forth. That seems to be my primary method of communication.

Matt: What advanced features do you use in Burner, if any?

Katie: I use the Dropbox feature to save voicemails and to save photos that are texted by my clients. And then I also use the Google function that you can save the texts.

Matt: Yeah

Katie: I'm sorry! I don't know what it's called off the top of my head. But that's super useful. In the past, when I was just using my regular phone number, I really wished I could have saved texts or had some sort of way to archive them for business purposes—and there is no way. And so when I found that you could do that with the Burner app it was fantastic.

Matt: We just call it the Google Drive Connection that allows you to save contacts and text messages to Sheets. So what does that look like, your workflow with the Dropbox Connection and the Google Drive Connection. Once you get the voicemails and the photos or the text messages, what do you do with them afterwards?

Katie: For the most part, I don't necessarily have to go back to them to reference them all the time. But in a business like mine where people are making decisions...there's a lot of money involved and there are a lot of decisions being made. So if somebody makes a decision and forgets about, it is invaluable to be able to go back and have something in writing that says, this is what we decided on.

Or sometimes they just forget. I haven't remodeled my house—hopefully some day!—but when you're doing an entire house sometimes they just forget. And it is great to be able to have that to go back and reference. But on a daily basis I wouldn't say that I access it all the time. It's more like a security blanket.

Matt: Yeah, peace of mind, absolutely. So you use Burner to keep your personal and your work life separate. Do you ever use Burner for personal stuff?

Katie: Right now it's just my second line for work. Before I got married I tried running my own business, and having my clients call my cell phone at all hours and not necessarily being able to tell who was calling really was disruptive. So when I decided to do my own business I promised my family that I would take every step to keep it to Monday to Friday, 8 to 5, and keep it separate from our personal lives. So it has been perfect for that.

And now that my kids are getting older and making phone calls, I can see how it would be really helpful. We don't have a land line, and they're not quite old enough to have their own phone, so I can see how it would be an inexpensive for them to have their own phone number that they can use to keep it separate from my information.

Matt: And to protect them.

Katie: Yeah, definitely.

Matt: As a freelancer, do you have any recommendations for other creative professionals who are doing what you're doing—to start their own business, to work with clients in that way?

Katie: I think that the most important thing—and I also learned it from other individuals in my field that work on their own—was to set clear, divisive boundaries between your work and your personal life. Including setting your own schedule and abiding by it.

I let my clients know that if there is an emergency, if there's something that's super important, I'm not going to ignore you call. Just let me know. But outside of that, those are my family hours. So I would recommend, to be successful, that you also preserve that time for yourself and your family.

And for me, being able to have a separate phone number and not carry two phones with me was an amazing way to do that. So that's been fantastic.

I also do the same thing in my house—I have a separate area where I work and that's all that happens there. Working from home, it can kind of get a little tricky sometimes. You'll want to work on your bed, or out in the living room. It sort of works well to compartmentalize it and to have those boundaries and say, this is what this is for and at this time it's over.

My first time around I didn't do very well with that, the second time around I was much more successful.

Matt: Well thank you Katie, it was great to hear about your experiences, that was great.

Why a Licensed PI Uses Disposable Phone Numbers at Work

Many professionals and small business owners rely on Burner to run their business, so we thought it would be interesting to showcase some of our most compelling customers, people who rely on Burner and our commitment to personal privacy to help run their day-to-day operations.

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The first person we thought of was Marc Bourne, a cyber intelligence expert and licensed private investigator from the Know It All Intelligence Group. His expertise has been featured on ABC News, Fox Business, and Marc Cuban’s Cyber Dust app.

More importantly, the company he co-founded is a “premier corporate and legal investigative services firm,” and he, his clients, and his licensed private investigators rely on Burner in their work to protect themselves and their clients.

“I love Burner,” Marc told me in a short interview (audio and video embedded below). “I think that Burner app is one of the greatest inventions. We use it on a daily basis in almost every aspect of our investigations.”

Using Burner to Stay Organized

When I inquired about Marc’s ideal setup, he told me that not only does it help protect his personal information, but it also keeps him organized. “Usually, we will create a separate Burner number for every investigation that we're doing. This helps keep our investigators organized with who they are speaking to in regards to a specific investigation and who is calling them back.”

How Carrier Numbers Expose Your Personal Information

I was also very interested in the chance to dig into how carrier phone numbers can expose people’s personal information. At Burner, we often encounter people who have no idea that their personal information has probably already been exposed through nonchalant usage of their carrier phone number online.

Marc’s background in cyber intelligence gives him unique insights into this danger.

Matt: As a cyber intelligence expert, can you tell us a little bit about how carrier phone numbers—which are the numbers that the carrier assigns to someone when they give them a phone plan—are associated with public and private records of people's personal information?

Marc: It's very interesting, and it's more publicized than most people know. If you have a regular phone number from any one of the top cell carriers, I can usually find subscriber information in just a matter of minutes. Prepaid phones, it's a little bit harder. Apps like Burner, it's virtually impossible to find subscriber information because of it being such a private app and using disposable phone numbers.

But you also have to look at marketing. Every time you go to a supermarket and apply for these reward cards, the first thing they ask you for is your phone number. The next thing you're doing is getting all kinds of bulk commercial mail, advertisements, they're getting your email address—which, that's another story is they can grab that kind of information from your cell phone number.

When you use Burner, you're completely cutting that off. You're completely limiting the marketing, you're completely limiting the advertising people will do because they don't know who that number belongs to so they can't sell that information to third parties who then prey on people to try to sell them things.

Thanks for taking the time to speak to us, Marc. We’re proud to be your number one provider of temporary and disposable phone numbers to protect you and your clients.

Visit Marc’s website to see more of his excellent interviews at PrimeTimePI.com.

Interview with Marc Bourne, Cyber Intelligence Expert

Audio on SoundCloud:

Interview with Marc Bourne, a cyber intelligence expert and licensed private investigator from the Know It All Intelligence Group, about how he uses Burner

YouTube video of the same interview:

Interview with Marc Bourne, a cyber intelligence expert and licensed private investigator from the Know It All Intelligence Group, about how he uses Burner

Transcript of Marc’s Interview

Matt: Marc is a licensed private investigator and cyber intelligence expert, and he's the vice president and co-founder of the Know It All Intelligence Group, a national investigative services company based in Philadelphia, PA. Before we get started, can you just tell us a little bit about your background? How did you get into private investigation and cyber intelligence?

Marc: I've always been curious about investigation, security, law enforcement. Growing up, I wanted to get into law enforcement. Then as I started working in the security and investigative end, I saw that there was a complete industry in the private sector that pretty much dealt with the same thing that police and law enforcement agencies deal with on a daily basis. So it was at that time that I decided to take that road down the private sector.

Know It All Intelligence Group is entering its eighteenth year this year for all types of investigations. Business to business investigations, as well as private, personal investigations such as missing persons, cheating spouses, insurance fraud, stolen items—you name it, we do it.

Matt: So we're here today to talk about Burner. How do you use Burner, specifically, in your job?

Marc: First of all, Matt, I've got to tell you—I love Burner. I think that Burner app is one of the greatest inventions. We use it on a daily basis in almost every aspect of our investigations.

Usually, we will create a separate Burner number for every investigation that we're doing. This helps keep our investigators organized with who they are speaking to in regards to a specific investigation and who is calling them back in regards to a specific investigation.

We utilize some of the virtual phone numbers for what we call pre-texting, which is an investigative industry term that basically means that we hide our identity when we call places to obtain information. For instance, if I knew you were in Maryland for a conference, and I started calling around to hotels to try and find you, I would use a Burner number so that my number couldn't be traced back to our investigative firm. We utilize that when we're making certain deals on Craigslist, when we're searching human trafficking, things like that. So Burner really plays an important part in our everyday investigations.

Matt: So it protects you and it protects your clients.

Marc: Yes, absolutely.

Matt: Are there cases where you have your clients set up a Burner number, too?

Marc: Yeah. In cases where people are looking for privacy, we have had a couple instances where some of our clients are adult webcam actresses and actors, and they want to keep their private life completely separate from their webcam life. They have come to us for consultation when their personal life has gotten exposed. So the first thing we tell them is get a Burner app, make sure that anything you use for your professional life is on the Burner app. Any phone numbers that you're giving our for your private life, that can be your personal phone number. Along with any other security tips that we give them. Yes, we definitely recommend Burner to all of our clients that are seeking privacy.

Matt: So as a way to separate your personal life and your work life, and as a way to protect your personal information.

Marc: Yeah, absolutely.

Matt: As a cyber intelligence expert, can you tell us a little bit about how carrier phone numbers—which are the numbers that the carrier assigns to someone when they give them a phone plan—are associated with public and private records of people's personal information?

Marc: It's very interesting, and it's more publicized than most people know. If you have a regular phone number from any one of the top cell carriers, I can usually find subscriber information in just a matter of minutes. Prepaid phones, it's a little bit harder. Apps like Burner, it's virtually impossible to find subscriber information because of it being such a private app and using disposable phone numbers.

But you also have to look at marketing. Every time you go to a supermarket and apply for these reward cards, the first thing they ask you for is your phone number. The next thing you're doing is getting all kinds of bulk commercial mail, advertisements, they're getting your email address—which, that's another story is they can grab that kind of information from your cell phone number.

When you use Burner, you're completely cutting that off. You're completely limiting the marketing, you're completely limiting the advertising people will do because they don't know who that number belongs to so they can't sell that information to third parties who then prey on people to try to sell them things.

Matt: Do you have any other recommendations or tips for people about how to use your number safely online or in person?

Marc: The one thing I try to stress to college students is get a Burner number. With a lot of this online dating, meeting people in the bar scene, college girls have no clue about privacy and safety. They're not thinking of that. They go to bars, they have that false sense of security, and unfortunately sexual assaults in colleges are happening on a regular basis. And what we've seen is that people are getting information just by a phone number. You meet somebody at a bar and you give them your phone number...you can go online and pay $10 to these online companies and they can get a ton of information off of your phone number.

When you're meeting somebody for the first time and there may be a potential romantic interest, give them your Burner number. That way, if you're not feeling it you can delete or Burn the number and be done with it. Eventually, if things kick off you can give them your personal number. But I always stress that in the online dating scenes, Burner app is essential for safety when meeting new people as well.

Matt: Awesome, that's really great information. Thanks, Marc. I don't really have any more questions. Is there anything else you want to add?

Marc: Like I said, I just love the Burner app. I can't wait to seeing the upgrades that you guys keep coming up with it. It's a great app.

Hustle Harder with More Flexible Burner Subscriptions

We’ve had many productive conversations with customers who rely on Burner to make their living. These incredible people are entrepreneurs, freelancers, innovators, and networkers.

What all of our power users have in common is a need for more than one phone number to help them manage multiple side projects, or run a business, or manage complex social lives.

Their hustle is beyond question, but they also value their privacy.

So for these customers, due to popular demand, we’re pleased to announce that we’re expanding Burner’s subscription options. You can now get a 1 Line or 3 Line Burner subscription with flexible billing options.

All subscription plans include:

• Unlimited calls, texts, and picture messages
• Auto-renewing Lines
• Line swaps—change your number once a month per line
• Spam blocking on ALL lines with Nomorobo
• Priority support with faster response times

1 Line and 3 Line Subscription Plans

Formerly, we called our only monthly subscription plan Burner Premium. This term is now being deprecated in favor of the 1 Line Subscription.

So if you had a Burner Premium plan already, not much has changed except that now your plan is called a 1 Line Subscription. The price remains the same at $4.99 per month for unlimited calling, texting, and picture messaging.

What is new is the option to switch over to yearly billing, and save 20% ($3.99/month). Once you upgrade your app to Burner 3.6 for iOS or Android, look for the new 🔥 UPGRADE action in the menu.

In addition, we’ve also added a 3 Line Subscription for $14.99/month. This is where the power users mentioned above, those who need multiple lines to manage their side projects or business, to separate their work and personal lives in the Burner app, will really want to go. It means more auto-renewing Burner lines with less hassle, plus all the features you’ve come to expect from our subscription.

If you sign up for the 3 Line Subscription on a yearly basis, you’ll save about 22% ($11.67/month).

Zapier Enhances Functionality for Professionals and Idea People

Since the announcement of our Zapier integration beta last month, we've also added many more ways to enhance Burner's functionality for professionals.

If you’re looking for enhanced productivity in your communications, or a way to automate tasks or receive text-based notifications for important events, check out our list of recommendations.

New Zap templates include using Burner for managing event RSVPs, automating text messages to new clients, sending completed Asana tasks as a text message from Burner, or getting text messages when Calendly invitees cancel a meeting.

Burner Zapier Productivity Templates

Here are some of our favorite Zap templates.

You can see the full list of templates and read more about our Zapier integration for enhancing productivity at our Zapier + Burner page.

If you already have the Burner app, you can upgrade to a 1 Line or 3 Line subscription by clicking here.

New users get a free phone number with a 7-day free trial. Download Burner for iOS or Android.

Click for a 7 Day Free Trial

Unlimited calls, texts and pictures with a new number - Available on iOS and Android

Turbocharge Your Fundraisers with Burner Smart Phone Numbers

Whether it’s a walk-a-thon, Girl Scout cookies, gala tickets, silent auctions, or sub sandwiches, it always seems to be “that time of year” for the important causes in our lives and families.  

If you’re collecting donations, pledges, RSVP’s or volunteer commitments, however, there’s no question that SMS is the modern way to do it. But it’s unwieldy—and noisy—to do on your personal phone line.

Here’s one way to automate fundraising and sales efforts—use a smart phone number app like Burner to build an automated order line. Not only can a 5-minute setup help make fundraising fun again, but you’ll be able reach a whole new audience online, automate some repetitive tasks…and maybe even have some techno-fun in the process.

Automate Sales with Burner’s Smart Phone Number Platform

When we say an automated order line, we mean a smart phone number with autoresponders and direct integrations to popular apps like Google Sheets.

This simple setup with help you move beyond a simply “autoresponder” into something more intelligent and useful. With a few tweaks, this can quickly become a new direct sales channel that works even when you’re not.

Burner’s smart phone number platform has been designed to make it easy to create your own order line. Using the Burner app, you can:

1. Create a new disposable phone number that conceals your personal number

2. Set up simple autoresponder text messages

3. Customize your voicemail greeting, notifications, and other settings (so you can unplug or be very involved, depending on your preference)

4. Integrate with apps like Google Sheets, Slack, Dropbox, etc.

5. Manage everything right from your smartphone

The Girl Scout Cookie Line

To illustrate this example, we’re going to show you how one of our founders used Burner to help his daughter succeed in one of the most popular fundraising movements in the country: Girl Scout Cookie sales.

Selling the nearly irresistible Girl Scout Cookies is one of the primary methods that local Girl Scout Troops use to raise funds for their activities, while also providing a great opportunity to teach girls about business, goal setting, ethics, and more. Traditionally, cookie season means Scouts go door to door, relying on Thin Mint-vs.-Samoa rivalries and the hankerings of their parents, friends, and neighbors, or set up tables in front of the local grocery store. The visit to Mom or Dad’s office with a well-rehearsed spiel and an order form in hand is also a time-tested tactic.

Girl Scout cookies being no more immune to change than anything else, the digital realm is now part of the playing field for modern young entrepreneurs, too. And what better way to reach friends, aunts, and uncles—while teaching tomorrow’s CEOs about marketing and technology—than by SMS?

Of course you could use your parental cell phone, but Burner enables girls make their own custom phone lines that will maintain their privacy (an important concern for any kid) and help them gather and organize incoming orders using tools like text auto-replies and integrations with Google Sheets.

More tools and more methods mean more sales, and that will lead to more funds for the Troop.

Here’s how it works.

How to Create a Simple Automated Ordering Line

With a few easy steps, you too can have your very own automated Girl Scout Cookie Line to take requests or reservations for cookie sales. Note that with a few tweaks this can also be used for school fundraisers (kids selling coupon books or wrapping paper), or direct sales of any kind.

When it’s set up, you simply post the number online to reach a larger audience, take requests from a phone or computer, and delete the number when you’re done—all the while protecting your privacy and personal phone number.

Here’s the process:

1. Create a Burner line

2. Name it “Cookie Line 🍪” or something else that you’ll remember

3. Set up an auto-reply for texts that shows what inventory you currently have on hand

4. Connect Google Sheets to collect all the requests and keep them in one place

5. (Optional) Connect Slack so you can reply from the desktop computer.

6. Post the number to Facebook, Twitter, or directly message it to your friends

Once the reservations/requests start rolling in, simply show up with cookies and make the sale. This is a great time-saver because you can schedule the sales, and find people with real intent to buy rather than knocking on doors and crossing your fingers, or waiting outside department stores in the hot sun all day long.

As a parent, you’ll be happy because it’s more efficient. As a Girl Scout, you’ll be happy because it will lead to more sales.

With Burner, you can create as many automated order lines as you need, for any venture. Whether you’re selling clients, dictionaries, or girl scout cookies, this method could help expand your sales efforts into new territories.

Don’t be afraid to get creative. Put the technology to work for you, and you’ll leapfrog ahead of the competition.

Good luck with the fundraiser!

Why You Need Burner for Activism

Using Burner for phonebanking, supporting campaigns, canvassing and calling your reps

This piece was originally posted on Medium. Icons from The Noun Project: Phone by Magicon, Capital by Fabien Jouin.

It’s not always obvious to people why they might need a Burner line. We talk about online dating, Craigslist and running your own business as incentives for setting up a disposable phone number. But what about activism?

Before we dive into these specific cases, I want to give a shout out to privacy during this resurgence of civic engagement. Burner is one of many services that can help you decentralize your personal data. Think about all the online forms you put your info into. Think about how terribly designed most government, candidate and nonprofit websites are, and how poor their security is. Remember healthcare.gov Version 1? Even with the best of intents, good people often put you at risk with weak passwords and unencrypted spreadsheets full of your personal information. Yippee!

Here are some ways you can keep your main phone number out of the mix and increase your personal safety when fighting the good fight.

Phonebanking

During the 2016 Presidential election, we offered free Burners to anyone phonebanking to get out the vote. When we initially put it forward, we weren’t sure if people who had not yet used Burner would find it compelling — but the feedback was overwhelmingly positive. People were requesting several Burners at a time.

There are a few reasons you might want to use a Burner for phonebanking.

1. You’re calling an area whose area code does not match your phone number
   I called a lot of voters in other states using Burners created in local area codes. Anecdotally, our team had more answered calls when they called with a local area code than with an outside area code. This is particularly helpful for upcoming special elections and efforts to get out the vote for the 2018 election.
2. You’re calling lots of people you don’t know
   I’ve done a fair bit of phonebanking and I’m surprised how many people call you back or Google your number. If you use your main cell phone, it rings to your main voicemail message. Even worse, your personal information — like full name and address — can be found relatively easily by reverse searching online. If you use a Burner, you can destroy the line, control the voicemail message or turn off notifications per line — and no one can trace it back to you.
3. You want to track calls you’ve made and their outcomes
   Depending on whose behalf you are calling, you may have software that does this for you. Otherwise, you may be using good ol’ pen and paper. With a virtual phone number through Burner, you can connect your line to a Google Sheet and store all the numbers you’ve called for easy tracking. Then, you can mark their response in the Google Sheet.

Calling Your Reps

Many of us are calling to support or oppose bills across all levels of government. Perhaps you are calling your own reps (power to the people!), or maybe you’re calling other nearby reps or making cause-related calls. With a Burner, you can get some added benefits beyond your usual phone line.

1. You may not be on the same side as the rep you’re calling
   Politicians track their constituents and their support (or lack of). The more info you give them, the more they will document. If you’re concerned about any mismatch between your goals and theirs, set up a new number.
2. You can set up reminders to make calls
   If you’re like me, you don’t make phone calls often, and perhaps you forgot about that very important bill being proposed until it’s too late. Burner has a reminder feature to ping you to make calls. You just pull a call or message to the right and select when you want to be reminded of it. Now, if only it would remind your friends to call too…
3. Coming soon — Easier ways to add contacts
   Thanks to John Emerson at Backspace (and Burner’s Developer Platform), if you text your address to (520) 200–2223, you’ll receive a short list of your federal and state reps. Or you can look up representatives for other nearby districts. In the near future, we’ll have a fast way for you to save them to your contacts.

Leading and Organizing

“You mean I don’t have to get death threats on my cell phone?”
— Actual quote from a local leader when I told them about Burner

One of my favorite ways to use Burner is for organizing a group of volunteers or collaborators. Write your name and number down on a piece of paper at a meeting, and all the sudden it’s being emailed, unencrypted, to 1,000 people.

Whether you have started your own initiative or you’re joining an established crowd, a Burner can help you control who can contact you and when you can be reached.

1. Put a Burner number on business cards instead of your real cell phone
   I learned this one the hard way when people I didn’t know got ahold of my business card and started calling me for free advice. Use a Burner number and you can control when notifications are on or off — or you can destroy the number and start fresh if you have to. If you like the number, you can hold onto them indefinitely. (Insert plug for Burner subscriptions — seriously though guys, at $4.99 a month, it’s way cheaper than carrying around that second phone and paying for another carrier plan)
2. Call out from the Burner number when dialing on behalf of your cause
   People save your number when you call them. Call them from your new number so you can keep your personal and your community work separate. I find that my personal information gets spread so much more freely and rapidly when I’m working with a nonprofit or local organization. I’m so, so glad that I have given each cause their own line so I know who is calling and why. And if it gets too noisy, I just #burnit.
3. Save voicemails publicly and reuse them in social media
   This one is the odd man out but it’s a pretty cool, underutilized feature of Burner. Say you want to get people to share why they are passionate about voting. You can have them leave voicemails on your Burner line and then either save them to Dropbox or publish them to SoundCloud. Then, share them on social media to further build your momentum. Of course, make sure to let people know in the voicemail greeting that you’re going to do that.

I’m excited to see everyone out there working to improve our communities, our nation and our world. We, at Burner, support you 100% and are building additional tools to further propel your efforts. Please reach out to us on Twitter @burner or email me at lex@burnerapp.com if you are using Burner for civic engagement or if you have ideas in this space. We love hearing from passionate people and, obviously, from anyone using Burner.

Until then, keep up the great work.

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Built on Burner: Hostbot, a Case Study

This week we launched an exciting new addition to our virtual number platform for consumers: an API with the ability to authenticate using OAuth 2.0. Now it’s easier than ever to build an app on top of Burner, or integrate Burner’s contacts management, auto-reply, do-not-disturb, and texting functionality into an app of your own devising.

To accompany the launch, and give product managers and potential partners ideas about how the new platform can be used, we once again partnered with Voxable—the team that built Ghostbot.

This article is a case study of that project—how we found our audience, identified their needs, and built an app on Burner to help them run their businesses more efficiently. Follow along to learn how we did it, and how you can emulate this process to build apps of your own.

Finding Our Audience: Airbnb Hosts

When we first were developing Burner’s API with OAuth, we saw it as a way to enable developers and partners to build features and apps that we might not be able to build ourselves.

We wanted to build an app to demonstrate the capabilities, something that had a real impact on a real-world market. We had lots of possible directions. People use Burner for Craigslist, Airbnb, Tinder, Etsy, and much more. But we didn’t know exactly what the app would be.

After some discussion, we settled on an interesting fact: many Airbnb hosts are already using our numbers to manage their properties. They rely on Burner to help protect their privacy while still giving them reliable calling and texting with their guests across multiple properties.

We went forward from there, confident that we would be providing additional value to an active group of our customers.

Identifying the Pain Point: Wasted Time

Next, we needed to find out what kind of value a third party Airbnb app could add to a phone number already being used in the wild.

Through a series of interviews with Airbnb hosts using Burner, Voxable discovered that Airbnb hosts experience a high amount of call and text volume just to answer common questions from guests during their stay. Answering questions from one group of guests in a single property doesn’t take much time. But multiply that by several properties, and the time needed goes up by an order of magnitude.

Voxable landed on the idea of a simple auto-responder bot that could answer basic questions about a property, so the host didn't have to.

Minimum Viable Product: FAQ with NLP

Digging through the interview transcriptions, as well as Airbnb host data available in online forums, Voxable identified sixteen key questions that hosts get asked the most.

Once we had the questions worked out, our Minimum Viable Product (MVP) became clear: Voxable would create a simple online form that would allow hosts to answer those questions once, and then create a “smart agent” (bot) on Burner that auto-responds to common questions on the host’s behalf.

Enter HostBot

The result of this project was HostBot. It uses a Natural Language Processing (NLP) service called API.ai to help the bot identify multiple permutations of our sixteen common questions from guests.

Once it was ready, we sent it around to our Airbnb users for some testing. Our early beta tests found that while the bot handled many basic things well—and saved time for hosts—there were certain kinds of questions that needed direct human intervention.

Based on this feedback, we added a model where the agent auto-replies to questions it knows, but still passes the conversation through to the host so that they can listen in and intervene if they need to.

In subsequent builds, we plan on adding the ability for the agent to directly contact the host when it encounters a question it cannot answer or deems to be highly important. This kind of human monitoring is something only available because the app is sitting on Burner, which has a user interface through which to pass the message.

You can try HostBot out right now! (Make sure you sign up for Burner and create a number first.) Go to hostbot.burnerapp.com to get started.

Build Your App on Burner!

Anyone can create an app on Burner like this. Our new API has built-in text messaging, auto-reply, DND mode, and contacts management.

Using Burner, you get to the fun stuff faster than if you went with an API like Twilio or Broadband, where you would be required to build basic telephony functions from scratch first.

Burner is a natural fit for companies who want to help their users maintain control of their privacy while ensuring their own security quality. We can provide both peace of mind to you (with two factor authentication) and to your audience by allowing them to use the Burner app.

Read more about Burner’s API in the docs, about OAuth 2.0 specifically, or about the other OAuth examples and webhook examples we’ve put together on the platform.

Hostbot, a Burner Line for Vacation Rental Hosts

We’ve built a free utility for short-term rental hosts renting their homes through Airbnb, HomeAway, VRBO, and other vacation rental marketplaces.

We’re calling it Hostbot, and it is a smart agent that automatically interprets and answers the “frequently asked questions” all hosts find themselves answering again and again.

Hostbot is built on the Burner API, which was also announced today.

How Hostbot Works

Simply authorize Hostbot, attach it to a Burner, and give the number to your guests.

Then when they text common questions like “What’s the wifi password?” or “Where is the closest public transit?” the answers you wrote in advance will automatically be sent back to them.

We’ve identified sixteen common questions based on our research into Airbnb hosts. And if a question comes through that’s not in your script, no worries—just respond as you normally would.

Of course, using Hostbot for Burner comes with all the benefits of Burner itself—no one bothering you on your personal mobile, the ability to save contacts and customize the appearance of your lines, reminders, and much more. So after setting it up, all you have to do is sit back, relax, and enjoy your peace, quiet, and privacy.

We hope this example shows you how Burner can help people be more productive at work. Both hosts and guests benefit from automation workflows.

We think Burner is most useful for situations where people want to partition or control their identity. At work, at school, on dates, but also when you're renting out a vacation home, online shopping or looking for a new car.

Renting out your home and connecting Hostbot to your Burner is, of course, just the beginning of what’s possible when you take Burner—the phone number that lets you take control of your identity, privacy, and productivity—and turn it into an open platform.

See all the benefits of using Hostbot and how to get started here. If you have any questions about how to use Hostbot for your particular vacation rental business, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at support@burnerapp.com.

Build Apps on Burner: New API with OAuth 2 Support

Today, we’re launching the Burner REST API with OAuth 2.0 support, an important milestone for Burner as a consumer phone number platform.

It’s now easier than ever to build on top of Burner as a developer or integrate with Burner as a partner. Do you want to create tools that empower users, protect their privacy, and make phone numbers more useful and usable? Do you want to connect your app’s functionality to a rich client that treats phone numbers like software because you know this is the future of phone communications? You’ve come to the right place.

For existing Burner customers who already love Burner Connections, the Burner API enables open and advanced third-party integrations that make Burner more useful and powerful. Applications that attach voice and messaging functions to Burner, rather than simply delivering “UI-less” texts or calls, can offer their customers more options and rich client features for handling communications.

Users, of course, have complete control to revoke access to any third-party integration from within the Burner app, and we will continue to protect users’ personal data and identity like we always do.

Introducing the New Burner API

Last July, we launched the Developer Connection that allows users to listen through incoming webhooks and communicate through Burner numbers with outgoing webhooks.

The Burner API, a series of REST-based methods (accessed securely via the OAuth 2.0 authorization framework) expands upon that functionality, allowing more fine-tuned control over Burners, Contacts and Messages.

Practically speaking, this means developers will have access to set or toggle features such as the ringer, notifications, and auto-reply messages on an authorized Burner line.

The API can also add and update Contacts, as well as manage their status (i.e. block or mute).

Text messages are also included in the API controls. Third party apps can now process incoming text messages (for instance, through a Natural Language Processing service) on a person’s behalf, take programmatic actions, and/or respond or initiate new outgoing messages.

For example, any developer can now build an app like Ghostbot, or add Burner controls to an app with access to Google Calendar so it can place user lines in Do Not Disturb mode during scheduled meetings. (You can have that idea for free – we’ve got plenty more where it came from.)

Read the full Burner API documentation online.

OAuth 2.0 and Integration

The Burner API uses OAuth 2.0 for user authentication. It’s secure for users, and any authorized apps can be managed or disabled via the Burner app.

What this means in practical terms is that developers—from solo hackers to large-scale partners—can integrate Burner directly into their applications, enabling their users to benefit from the tools Burner has built to help users protect their personal phone number, and therefore their identity.

Leveraging Burner’s app, along with all of the features, business model components, and back-office elements that come with it, will save developers time, lower barriers to adoption, and allow innovators and entrepreneurs to focus on building new apps and agents into consumer phone numbers.

Zapier

Since the Developer Connection update last year, you’ve been able to use Burner with Zapier by utilizing incoming and outgoing webhooks on the Developer Connection.

You can still do this, if you want to—but we’ve made it easier. Burner is now available as a first-class Zapier Integration enabled via OAuth. No developer experience required!

Zaps allow you to connect your Burner number to other apps like Google Calendar, contact managers, customer support tools like Desk, productivity tools like Trello, social networks, and much more. The Zapier integration literally adds thousands of potential workflows to Burner, with more apps coming online every week.

Examples of creative ways you could use this include…

Send Welcome Text to New Hubspot Contact

If you are using HubSpot as your CRM, you can use Zapier to have Burner send new contacts a customized welcome message when they are added to a list.

This could be a welcome message to a new client, for instance, “Welcome to Our Awesome Agency! It’s great to have you as a client, and we appreciate your business.”

Or it could be a welcome message to someone you met at a networking event. For instance, “Hey [name], this is Bob from Awesome Agency, and it was great to meet you at the event! Now you have my direct number, feel free to call or text me back.”

Since the message comes from your direct number, any responses they send will go straight to your phone in the Burner app.

One Click Do Not Disturb

Using the Zapier Chrome plugin, you can add one-push actions to Burner. For example, with one click you can turn off the ringer and notifications, and turn on your auto-reply with a pre-set message. With another click, you can turn the ringer and notifications back on and turn off the auto-reply. You could also set up a Zap with a custom auto-reply message.

RSVP to Wedding Zap

If you’re like many people using a website builder to create your wedding site, you probably have your RSVP page hooked into a Google Sheet. Now you can hook Google Sheets up to a Burner outgoing text message and be notified as soon as someone RSVP’s. You can even customize the message based on the fields in the Sheet.

For example, this is the guest’s name and the RSVP status:

Check out our updated Zapier page for detailed walkthrough of how to get started with Burner on Zapier.

Hostbot, a Bot-Enabled Burner Line for Vacation Rental Hosts

To further demonstrate the capabilities of our new API with OAuth, we also built a smart agent for short-term rental hosts to communicate with their guests. Once Hostbot has been authorized to a particular Burner line, the host answers sixteen common questions we’ve identified in our research of Airbnb, Homeaway, and VRBO hosts. Hostbot will then respond automatically to corresponding guest questions via text message. Learn more about Hostbot in this blog post.

In the API docs, we have more bot examples and webhook examples with which you can experiment.

We look forward to seeing what you come up with, and to hearing your questions and feedback. You can shoot us a text at (323) 391-4827 or email at developers@burnerapp.com.