Can two different phone numbers be used to receive voice and text on one iPhone?
Can I have two different numbers asigned to the same iphone and receive text from both numbers on one device?
The short answer appears to be no - regarding an iOS 6 device. It certainly isn't possible without jailbreaking. Also iPhone's Phone.app and Messages are clearly designed for a 1 phone number type setup.
However, there may be some "hacks" that may work well for you. If I were you, I would look into Google Voice. It certainly isn't ideal, but may be the best you can get. What you can do is have things forwarded to your regular phone number.
Check out http://www.google.com/voice/.
I believe you could work it so that you port one number into Google Voice, and then have your main/regular number on your iPhone in a standard way. When you get a call from your alternate phone number I believe it will forward it to your normal number and allow you to take the call normally. You can get the Google Voice app to text and call from your alternate phone number. The catch with that is that you will need data service - not just voice signal.
The answer is absolutely yes, assuming you are in the USA.
I do this myself using Google Voice. In fact, I don’t even know what my iPhone number is, I only give people my Google Voice number.
Select a new phone number from Google Voice
Enter your official iPhone number into your Google Voice account
Be sure to mark your official iPhone number as a “mobile” number which will allow you to receive text messages at that number.
Text messages sent to your Google Voice number can either be sent as text messages or as push notifications through the free Google Voice app. I use push notifications and send/receive texts through that app.[1]
The only potential downside is that these text messages are not being sent through Apple’s iMessage system. But I have not found that to be a particularly important detail. In fact, I have setup iMessage to start messages using my email address, not my phone number, so people who send/receive iMessages from me never even see my official iPhone number. (People who do not use iMessage would, but in that case I choose to use the Google Voice app instead.)
Calls placed from your iPhone will show your official iPhone number in the caller-ID unless you use the Google Voice app, in which case your Google Voice number will appear.
The great thing about Google Voice is that you can filter incoming calls just like you filter your email. You can send some calls directly to voicemail. You can set it up so that calls from certain numbers get a “This number is not in service” message. You can set up different voicemail messages for different incoming phone numbers.
You can make it so that any call from someone not in your address book immediately goes to voicemail.
Read that last part again.
No more calls from telemarketers or people you don’t know.
You can also make it so that an unknown caller (someone with blocker caller ID and/or someone who is not in your address book) has to give their name before they will be connected. (Your phone will ring, a voice will tell you that you have a call from… and then you will hear their name, then you will either accept the call or send it to voicemail.)
Google Voice is my favorite and most irreplaceable service from Google right now. My only fear is that someday they’ll shutter it because it doesn’t make them any money. But in the meantime, it’s a great service.
If you do not use the Google Voice app and opt instead to receive Google Voice text messages as direct text messages, I believe that you can reply to texts in the regular Messages.app and have them appear (to the recipient) as if they were from your Google Voice number, but I haven’t tried that so I can’t say for certain. I find push notifications preferable, and I send/receive texts through the Google Voice app so I am sure my caller ID info is correct in texts too. ↩