Review Insights · App Store
Sideline: Private 2nd Number
Pinger, Inc. · 14,425 ratings · ★ 4.4
4.4
★★★★★
14,425 ratings
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Top complaints - extracted from 36 negative reviews
Recurring phrases mined from 1-2★ reviews. The bigger the percentage, the more users have the same problem. Fix the top 2-3 in your version and you have product-market fit on day one.
1
"service"
10 negative reviews mention this · 28% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Spam. Even with their spam blocker I get about 20 spam calls a day. Now I’m returning calls from people who said they never called me. Junk service. The company then acts like they are surprised by spam on their public facing answer. Totally disi…" - Rob Gangsta
2
"phone"
9 negative reviews mention this · 25% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worthless. I needed an app to provide me a second phone number for my part time job. I paid for the subscription and set up my account. Before I was even able to make a call or text there was a restricted notification. I reached out to them for help. …" - Yourannoyingneighbor
3
"number"
8 negative reviews mention this · 22% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worthless. I needed an app to provide me a second phone number for my part time job. I paid for the subscription and set up my account. Before I was even able to make a call or text there was a restricted notification. I reached out to them for help. …" - Yourannoyingneighbor
4
"work"
7 negative reviews mention this · 19% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No service. It’s been now 4 months & I still don’t have service. Renewed as returning customer & account paid in full with still no access. Reached out to customer service/tech support & seems like you are talking to AI, not a human. You ask a question…" - USMC Santiago
5
"calls"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Spam. Even with their spam blocker I get about 20 spam calls a day. Now I’m returning calls from people who said they never called me. Junk service. The company then acts like they are surprised by spam on their public facing answer. Totally disi…" - Rob Gangsta
6
"call"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "okay but the push notifications spam. I’m using this to manage my church calling so I don’t ignore texts or voice on my main line, but can you do something about having your daily tips and tricks as push notifications? i think they’re helpful but i don’t want the distraction of…" - joezen777
7
"free"
6 negative reviews mention this · 17% of all complaints
★★★★★ "NOT FREE!!!. $129 a year!!! WTF!?" - Supergirl69
8
"spam"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "okay but the push notifications spam. I’m using this to manage my church calling so I don’t ignore texts or voice on my main line, but can you do something about having your daily tips and tricks as push notifications? i think they’re helpful but i don’t want the distraction of…" - joezen777
9
"account"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worthless. I needed an app to provide me a second phone number for my part time job. I paid for the subscription and set up my account. Before I was even able to make a call or text there was a restricted notification. I reached out to them for help. …" - Yourannoyingneighbor
10
"text"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "okay but the push notifications spam. I’m using this to manage my church calling so I don’t ignore texts or voice on my main line, but can you do something about having your daily tips and tricks as push notifications? i think they’re helpful but i don’t want the distraction of…" - joezen777
11
"customer"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "Worthless. I needed an app to provide me a second phone number for my part time job. I paid for the subscription and set up my account. Before I was even able to make a call or text there was a restricted notification. I reached out to them for help. …" - Yourannoyingneighbor
12
"been"
5 negative reviews mention this · 14% of all complaints
★★★★★ "No service. It’s been now 4 months & I still don’t have service. Renewed as returning customer & account paid in full with still no access. Reached out to customer service/tech support & seems like you are talking to AI, not a human. You ask a question…" - USMC Santiago
📋 All 36 negative reviews
Every 1-2★ review we fetched. Use the copy button to grab them all for your own analysis (paste into ChatGPT/Claude with a prompt like "summarize core user problems, group by theme, ignore bugs, focus on missing features").
Spam
Even with their spam blocker I get about 20 spam calls a day. Now I’m returning calls from people who said they never called me. Junk service. The company then acts like they are surprised by spam on their public facing answer. Totally disingenuous.
Worthless
I needed an app to provide me a second phone number for my part time job. I paid for the subscription and set up my account. Before I was even able to make a call or text there was a restricted notification. I reached out to them for help. They told me I violated the terms. I NEVER USED THE APP! So how could I violate any terms and all I did was simply set up my account. They told time to reach out to Apple for a refund. Apple denied my request. So money was stolen on an app that I could not use. Both companies completely failed to provide customer service to right their wrongs.
Stop
Do not download this app they will charge you $31 even if you stop in the middle of signing up before payment was asked
NOT FREE!!!
$129 a year!!! WTF!?
Excuse me????
When I read the reviews before downloading this, I saw somebody say something about being banned for abusive language and they weren’t sure why, I thought I’m just gonna use it for to get authentication codes and stuff like that so I don’t have to worry about nothing. I haven’t sent a single text message or made a single phone call with this app. In fact, I’m barely even signed in, and already I am banned Until the 26th for abusive language. How do you get banned for abusive language when you haven’t used the app at all? Not a single text not a single call. This was a dumb experience. Thank you for wasting my time. Those are minutes of my life. I’m never gonna get back.
No service
It’s been now 4 months & I still don’t have service. Renewed as returning customer & account paid in full with still no access. Reached out to customer service/tech support & seems like you are talking to AI, not a human. You ask a question & receive a question as an answer. When you provide info you are asked the same questions over & over. They expect you to respond within a day or case is closed and you have to start again. Now I am locked out of many things and this account because it was being used as this number. No one seems to want to fix or an actual human working there!
NOT FREE
Need to pay for it. Would be nice if it said that before signing up and giving my information.
Endless Spam Calls
They recently implemented a spam filter that helps a little, but I get upwards of 10+ spam calls per day. All random numbers, they leave a 9 second blank voicemail. I’ve disabled notifications from the app and will just be adding a second line to my phone plan when my subscription expires.
Not terrible but Not great
My biggest gripe… This app deletes your older messages. I’ve used many of these apps and this has never happened. Why not just stir the messages on the phone memory .. but I open the app to look up older messages from someone and the messages are gone. The chat is still there but after a specific time period it deletes the messages.
Contact sharing
You literally can’t share a contact so when you are trying to share your information with a client. Good luck
Won’t register
Gives error 6114, I think it was. Already deleted and went with someone else.
BARELY works
I use this app for work; I have disrupted service or a problem 4-5x per week. Use it for MFA and it takes 2-3 attempts every time to come through - the biggest issue is it will show a missed call without ever ringing and no way to answer.
Sometimes when trying to make a call, I simply get “call failed” errors for 30mins-1hour straight…then suddenly, SUCCESS.
Don’t use, try something else, this app is overpriced junk
Sometimes when trying to make a call, I simply get “call failed” errors for 30mins-1hour straight…then suddenly, SUCCESS.
Don’t use, try something else, this app is overpriced junk
Scam
This app is literally a scam , got the app to have a work cell and paid for a subscription. Paid for the subscription and made 4 calls to myself to test the service out and had my account restricted. Tried to contact customer support to no avail since they don’t have a number to dial. Tried to text them on the app to resolve and haven’t heard back in days. Burning the 16$ it costs to have this platform would have been a better use tbh.
Not satisfied
I received more spam calls than one would desire.
Doesn’t work
Tried several times to set up but doesn’t work.
Doesn’t work. Error 7063
Unable to create an account from the USA. The service doesn’t work. Error 7063.
Terrible. Do not use.
I downloaded the app and they let me go through the process to sign up, then denied my use. Said it was their protections against abuse. I never used the app to abuse it! 🤣 Lost a customer.
Spam
One of the things that drew me to the specific app is that it said it would avoid spam, but I received at least 30 spam calls a day and that’s usually on the low end. I reached out asking what they could do and they told me to change my number. I’ve already used this number on all of my business documents so I cannot change my number so I am just expected to deal with these spam phone calls. It’s not like this is a free service. I pay monthly for this and I shouldn’t be blown up by random numbers 24 seven. My information is clearly been sold and my phone is ringing off the hook with multiple different spam numbers so I can’t even just block the call and move on.
Save yourself the headache
I have had nothing but issues and when you reach out for help…they deflect. They don’t address a thing nor give you an explanation. The app is absolute garbage.
Does Not work
Won’t let me log in when I do it sends a code says error, keeps kicking me off I deleted and downloaded again created me account keeps saying error doesn’t work!!!!
Requires valid phone number
Whoever asked for this requirement kys
Trouble signing in
Am in another country and my husband paid to subscribe for me and now I can't login
It doesn't work.
I tried to get in and guess what? ERROR 2371. FIX YOUR APP.
Low quality
I tried using sideline for a business line as I start my new business. The audio quality was always poor (for the other caller) and choppy. I don’t normally leave one star reviews, but in an app like this I feel like call quality is everything, and on that basis I wouldn’t recommend this to anybody.
Customer Service
Can’t find a phone number to call to help get my number ported over
verification codes don’t work
like the title says, verification codes do not go through
Not Free
Sideline is recommended as a free app but it isn’t.
Lies with updates
I am receiving an in app notification about a critical update, but the release notes make no mention of this critical update nor what is critical about it.
False Advertising
I just got this app. I got it because it said it is NOT VoIP and usable for verifications. However, CashApp rejected the number as an “internet phone”.
Lower the price
The service is ok but the price is atrocious. This app used to be free when i started using it. Then the price gradually increased every year.
okay but the push notifications spam
I’m using this to manage my church calling so I don’t ignore texts or voice on my main line, but can you do something about having your daily tips and tricks as push notifications? i think they’re helpful but i don’t want the distraction of thinking i got a push notification from a real person
Clunky At Best & Expensive
I have been using Sideline for at least 5 years now. It has always been bare-bones but it generally served its purpose - a second phone line for my business through my iPhone. However, the pricing was increased in mid-2023 (from $9.99/month to $14.99/month) while also removing the ability to download texts, something I need for my profession for compliance reasons. In addition, the app often doesn’t notify me when I have a new text, usually b/c I have missed downloading an update to it (I have no idea why there are so many app updates when the service is so bare-bones). I find the service a necessary evil but will be looking at other alternatives to replace it in the near future b/c copying & pasting (or screenshotting) my texts is not a good long-term solution for me, especially not for the increased monthly cost.
High subscription
It’s a $15 a month subscription. You can a plan with this price that include calling data and text
Robocall nightmare
While the basic functionality is fine, I need to look for a different solution as there is an enormous volume of robocalling. Like, 99 percent of all calls I receive. And there is obviously no technology or desire to deal with this by Sideline despite my blocking every successive attempt.
Unreliable
I’ve been using Sideline for about a year for my business, and this is now the fifth time the app has either a) not sent my messages to clients or b) not delivered messages to me. This kind of glitch is incredibly detrimental to a small business-especially when clients think they’re being ignored.
When the app works, it’s great. But the issue is, I never know when it’s not working until a client DMs or emails me saying they’ve been trying to reach me for days with no response. That’s unacceptable and extremely frustrating when your entire business relies on that number. I’m at a loss for what to do because switching numbers isn’t easy when it’s tied to everything.
When the app works, it’s great. But the issue is, I never know when it’s not working until a client DMs or emails me saying they’ve been trying to reach me for days with no response. That’s unacceptable and extremely frustrating when your entire business relies on that number. I’m at a loss for what to do because switching numbers isn’t easy when it’s tied to everything.
Too Expensive
App works great but not much different that the free google app. Price keeps going up and is now not worth the amount to renew.
Sentiment summary
83%
Positive (4-5★)
4%
Neutral (3★)
12%
Negative (1-2★)