Are you reluctant to subscribe to something online because you don’t want to give up your email address and/or phone number? Sometimes you find something online that looks interesting, like a free e-book or documentary. But it requires you to enter your email address into an opt-in form. You already receive enough spam and don’t want any more. So what do you do? Do you miss out or do you give up your contact info?
You have a third option. You don’t have to use your primary email address or phone number. An alternate will work just as well as long as you have access to it. Here Google is your friend. You can create a new Google account, even if you already have one.
Create an Email Address to Subscribe Safely
Go to https://mail.google.com.
If you already have an account and are logged in then you are probably presented with your email inbox. Click on your account icon at the top right corner of the page then click “Add account.” Now you should be at the Sign in page.
If you don’t already have an account or aren’t currently logged in you should see the Sign in page directly.
On the Sign in page all you care about is the “Create account” link before the “Next” button at the bottom of the form. Click it and choose “For my personal use.” Continue through the process to create a new account. You don’t have to use an alternate name or anything. Google doesn’t care if you have more than one account. They actually make it easy to switch between them when you are logged into more than one account at a time.
An Alternate Phone Too
Ok. Now you have a separate email address to subscribe safely into things that you want. That’s enough most of the time. The one I want to subscribe to right now, one for a personal development documentary called Illusion, requires a phone number too.
Google has that covered with Google Voice.
Log in to your Google account if you aren’t already and make sure your new account is the active one. Within Google you can look for Voice in the list of apps under the Apps icon next to your account icon, or just go to https://voice.google.com.
Go through the process to set up your new virtual phone number. You will have to enter your real phone number and authenticate it. But once you are done you can make sure that calls to your Google number will not go to your real phone. Keep reading for some of the settings you might want to configure.
If you don’t want to receive any calls that come in then set “Do not disturb” at the top of the main page. Then click on the settings gear icon a little farther to the right. The Account page shows all of the current settings, including your chosen Google Voice number at the top. This is the number you will use when you opt-in to lists that require a phone number.
Scroll down to the “Messages” section and make sure that “Forward messages to email” is on. This forwards text messages to your email. I use my Google Voice number for any of those services that send me a code to finish logging in to an account. The code now shows up in my email and I can just copy and paste it.
Then further down in the “Calls” section make sure that “Call forwarding” is off for your phone number. There is an option to “Get email alerts for missed calls” that I leave turned off. I get the voicemail transcription if they leave a message, so I don’t need to receive another notification. If they don’t leave a message then I don’t care. It’s probably spam.
Further down in the “Voicemail” section you can review and record your voicemail message if you want to. Here is also where you turn on the setting to “Get voicemail via email.” Be sure to turn that on along with the following one for “Voicemail transcripts.”
You can play with the other settings as you like. The “Payments” section doesn’t apply to us because we are using it for personal purposes, which if free.
I have been using Google Voice for more than 10 years for this. There is one more thing you need to know. Google Voice is a use-it-or-lose-it service. If you haven’t used it in a while Google will let you know that it is going to expire on some date. If you want to keep it active you will have to use it before that date. Once a month I send a short text message to my son that he replies to. That’s enough to keep Google happy.
That’s All
You no longer have to miss out on something because it requires your contact information. Now you have an email address and phone number that you can use to safely subscribe to things without impacting your important contact information.