Want to Use Your Phone Number On Multiple Devices? AT&T Finally Has a Plan

It seems kind of silly that you can only use your phone number on a single device. An upcoming AT&T feature called NumberSync will let you use one set of digits for your smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches.

AT&T hasn’t provided a specific timeline for rolling out the service to customers. The company will only say it will be available “fairly soon” on an initial device, with more coming “later this year.” Still, Recode reports that the end game is to make it eventually available on as many devices as possible, including plans to work to bring it to connected car systems:

Many existing smartphones will be able to support the feature through a software upgrade; the company’s goal is to work with all manufacturers to support the feature going forward in both phones and connected devices, such as tablets and watches.

This will help fix an annoying problem for people with Wi-Fi connected wearables. NumberSync will let you SMS and make calls to people with one of your secondary devices (like a smartwatch) from your normal cell number, instead of a unique number assigned to that device. Right now, people who use a secondary device end up looking like a random caller—rather than like your close friend.

Sadly, you won’t able to use NumberSync to connect multiple smartphones together. You’ll only be able to connect your number to a single smartphone. The number can then be linked up to five secondary connected devices: “Up to five watches, up to five tablets, etc.,” an AT&T spokesperson told Gizmodo. One step at a time.

Author: Kate Knibbs
Source: Gizmodo