Persistent vs. temporary numbers for teams and tests
A number is an identity as well as a place to receive a text. Choose its lifetime from the account or workflow it belongs to, then decide how people and software will share it.
Match the lifetime to the identity
| Use | Useful lifetime | Ownership decision |
|---|---|---|
| Company service account | Ongoing | Company account owner and backup |
| Repeatable sign-in test | Stable test identity | QA workflow owner |
| Parallel verification worker | Assigned for its independent flow | Runner allocation / serialization |
| One-off exploratory check | Enough for the check and follow-up | Person responsible for the result |
Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
A persistent destination lets an account keep its phone identity across sessions and handoffs. A temporary destination can fit a disposable experiment when the account will not need that number later. Understand the destination's control and privacy model before attaching a company account.
Separate number continuity from message history
Keeping a number does not require retaining every received text forever. Phonekit's default message retention is 30 days from receipt. Put durable account ownership, recovery references and successful-check dates in the company inventory.
Releasing a number does not restart the message retention clock or invalidate codes at the sending service. Before a number is released, review accounts still using it and update their destination through each service's supported process.
Give assistants an identity they can find again
An assistant session can end while the company account continues. Store the account-to-number assignment in the workspace and give each execution environment a scoped connection. The next session or a teammate can then use the same identity.
For QA, persistent assignment also makes failures easier to compare. Use separate assigned numbers for independent concurrent work rather than relying on a new session to distinguish messages arriving in a shared inbox.
Complete a lifecycle record
Write down the number's purpose, account dependencies, responsible owner, permitted readers, software connections and release condition. A number with a clear release condition is easier to manage than one whose original purpose has been forgotten.
Questions you may have
Should every test run get a new number?
Choose based on test-account lifecycle and concurrency. Existing-account sign-in often benefits from a stable number. Registration needs a resettable account or intentional new identity. Independent simultaneous verification flows need isolated destinations or serialization.
Is a persistent number a permanent SMS archive?
No. The number assignment and message retention are separate. Keep account inventory outside short-lived SMS history and retrieve messages while they remain within retention.
What should happen before we release a company number?
Identify the accounts that reference it, update their phone destination or close them through the supported service process, and review readers and software credentials. Record completion so another person can understand the change.