One of the key features that happen to be paid for is their Firefox Relay service, which offers users the ability to create virtual email addresses that they can use to sign in to websites. This saves them from sharing their real email information and ensures they don't receive any potential spam mail in the future. Users can then sort the incoming mail and forward potential important emails to their original accounts.
Now, they are looking to expand this service by adding the ability to generate virtual phone numbers as well. These virtual phone numbers can be used on platforms that require OTP-based two-factor authentication. Such platforms often sell these phone number lists to third-party marketing firms, which eventually make their way into the hands of spammers, who then inundate your phone number with spam calls and text messages.
With this service, you can easily avoid all that and only respond to actual inquiries for authentication. Like the email service, the platform will enable you to block these potential spammers and then respond to valid inquiries through your phone number. The key difference is that while the email service lets you create multiple fake email accounts, the phone number service will only let you create one, which won't be changed once you finalize the phone number you want.
Another key difference is the price of the service itself. While the email service comes with both a free and paid tier, the phone service will be paid right from the start. Moreover, it will also be more expensive, as the premium tier of the email service only costs $1.99 per month, but the phone service is expected to cost $4.99 per month. In addition, it will offer limited usability, with only 50 minutes of incoming calls and 75 text messages per month.
You should also note that users will only be able to respond to existing incoming messages and not actually make outgoing phone calls or send text messages. This severely limits the usability of the fake number. However, the company plans to expand this to a two-way platform in the future. Those who still want to use the service despite its limitation can sign up for it, as long as they are from the US and Canadian regions. The company will expand to more countries in the coming months.
