Talkala Help Center

This is intentional security behavior. If Talkala clearly confirmed whether an email has an account, attackers could use that answer to guess who uses the product.

That is why some account screens use neutral wording. You might see `check your inbox` even when Talkala is not saying whether the email is new, already verified, or already attached to an account.

Some public account and contact forms can also ask for a quick bot check before sending an email or message. That step slows automated abuse. It is not there to collect extra personal data.

Talkala can also temporarily stop new account creation when many accounts appear to come from the same source, or when the request does not provide enough basic source signal to apply that protection safely.

Some people start with Google sign-in and later prefer to sign in with an email password. Talkala uses the password reset flow for that change.

Enter the same email address on Reset password. If that email belongs to a Talkala account, the email link lets you choose a password. After that, you can sign in with email and password instead of Google.

For security, the reset screen still uses generic wording. It does not confirm whether a specific email exists.

Talkala uses the same password rules for sign-up, password reset, and in-app password changes. Long passwords and passphrases are allowed.

Before accepting a new password, Talkala also checks whether it has appeared in known data breaches. If it has, you need to choose a different password.

Talkala uses this storage to keep the app working. Authentication cookies keep you signed in, policy and admin-verification cookies support short security handoffs, and browser storage remembers settings such as theme, layout, profile, and country preferences.

The public site does not use advertising or ad-tracking cookies. It uses hosted, privacy-preserving analytics for aggregate page-view measurement without third-party analytics cookies. If Cloudflare Turnstile is configured, public and account-security forms can also use it for bot checks.

If you clear or block required storage, you may get logged out, lose saved preferences, interrupt Google sign-in when returning from Google's page, or fail a bot check on a form.

Signing in with Google does not lock your Talkala profile photo. You can upload a Talkala-specific photo from Settings, and Talkala will show that photo in the app instead of the Google image.

The remove action only removes the photo uploaded to Talkala. It does not delete or change your Google account photo.

The notifications page has cleanup controls for old alerts. You can remove one notification, clear only the ones you have already read, or clear everything.

Opening an unread notification marks it as read. If you want to clean up without opening each one, use the row delete button or the bulk actions at the top of the inbox.

Email/password accounts get a verification email first. Talkala sends the welcome email only after that email address is verified. Google sign-up uses Google's verified email status, so the welcome email can be sent when the Google account is first created.

Notification emails follow your Settings at the time the event happens. If email alerts are off for that category, Talkala does not send the email later. If alerts are on, Talkala can email you about wallet top-ups, referral rewards, Smart Auto Top-up results, inbound SMS billing issues, number events, expiring saved cards, and failed calls.

Referral reward emails may include the invited user's display name or masked email so you can recognize which invite paid out. They do not include the invited user's payment amount, card, or payment details.

Notification emails include a footer link back to Settings so you can manage notification email categories. The first-signup welcome email does not include that notification settings link.

Some events stay in the in-app notification inbox only. Completed calls, accepted inbound SMS, and number release/removal notices are in-app only and are not sent by email.

There is no separate checkbox. The sign-up screen links to the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy next to the account creation buttons so you can read them before you create an account.

That covers both email/password sign-up and Google sign-in. Talkala stores the accepted Terms version, Privacy Policy version, acceptance time, and source so support can tell which policy set applied when the account was created or continued.

Having an account is only the first step. Before the dialer can connect, you need to verify your email, allow microphone access, and dial a destination Talkala supports.

Most calls also need wallet balance. The limited exception is the free first minute: eligible zero-balance accounts that have not topped up yet can place one 60-second call when that call's rate is $0.99/min or less.

The rate can depend on the caller ID used for the call. The public rate directory shows the default published catalog; the signed-in dialer confirms the actual rate for your selected caller ID before dialing.

Some public country-code pages link to a call setup preview. That preview helps you confirm the country code, enter the number, and understand the next step before creating an account.

It is not an open public dialer. Talkala does not request microphone permission, create a browser-calling session, reserve wallet balance, or place a phone call from that preview page.

When you choose to continue, Talkala sends you through sign-up or sign-in with the destination attached. After your account is ready, the real dialer opens with the country and number prefilled where possible.

When you hit dial, Talkala checks the route, your account, and your wallet before creating the real phone connection. If one check fails, the call stops before any phone rings.

This is why two numbers can behave differently even when your browser and microphone are working.

A listed destination is not always a callable destination. Talkala can keep a country visible while coverage, carrier support, or an operations review is still in progress.

Unavailable means the country stays listed, but Talkala is not taking live calls there. Pricing stays hidden until the destination is reviewed and made available again.

This is different from a blocked route or low balance. In this case, Talkala approved the call, but the browser connection failed before the real phone call started.

Common causes include microphone permission changes, privacy extensions, VPNs, or browser security settings. The fastest test is to try a clean browser profile or a different supported browser.

For step-by-step microphone permission fixes, see Microphone access and troubleshooting.

Yes, in most cases you can restore it. Change the site permission from Block back to Allow (or Ask), then reload Talkala so the browser picks up the new setting.

Talkala can only trigger the browser's normal microphone prompt while the site is still allowed to ask. If the browser has already saved Talkala as blocked, Enable Mic and Call will fail immediately until you change the site permission first.

Before a call, the dialer uses the microphone pill as a readiness check. If it says Enable Mic, you can click that pill first, or press the main Call button and allow microphone access when the browser asks. Talkala will not connect the call until the browser confirms the microphone is ready.

If you are still stuck after trying the steps below, contact us with your browser and device, such as “Chrome on Mac” or “Safari on iPhone.”

In Google Chrome on desktop, use Settings → Privacy and security → Site settings → Microphone. You can also click the lock or tune icon in the address bar while you are on Talkala.

More detail: Google Chrome microphone help.

After the call is connected and the dialer shows you are in the call, the keypad works like phone-menu buttons. Press the digits the other side asks for, such as 2 for English, an extension, an account ID, \*, or #.

Before the call connects, the same keypad is still used to enter the destination number. Talkala does not send phone-menu tones while the call is still connecting or ringing.

The warning is there to explain what Talkala can see from your browser while the call is still active. It does not stop the call, change the price, or press any phone-menu buttons.

If the connection recovers, the call can keep going normally. If the browser connection drops completely, the call can still end because the phone call depends on your browser staying connected.

Talkala will not silently redial the other person or start a second call without you pressing Call again.

This is how prepaid calling works. When the call starts, Talkala looks at your available balance and the per-minute rate. It then calculates the longest call you can afford and uses that as the limit.

If you need a longer conversation, the balance has to cover it before you dial. Topping up after the call already started won't extend the limit on that call.

This prevents accidental call drops. If you click a sidebar link during a call, Talkala asks whether you want to leave the dialer.

If you stay, the call continues. If you leave, Talkala ends the call first, then opens the page you chose.

Before a call starts, Talkala checks the Talkala rate shown to you and verifies the phone network cost for the number and caller ID used on that attempt.

If that check is unavailable or the route needs manual review, Talkala blocks the call before dialing so you are not charged the wrong rate.

If you use a caller ID from another supported country, Talkala needs a published rate for that caller ID country too. It does not silently reuse another country's price.

When Talkala can calculate a safe number-specific price, the signed-in rates page and dialer show that Talkala price for the full number. That price is not the phone network cost, markup, or margin.

If the rate changes during the final pre-call check, Talkala updates the visible rate and asks you to press call again instead of connecting at a higher unseen price.

Listed country rates are useful for browsing, but some specific phone numbers can cost more because carriers route them differently. Entering the full number lets Talkala show the final rate for that number before calling.

Talkala also blocks premium-rate, shared-cost, pager, and voicemail number types for price review instead of asking you to accept a higher charge.

This does not mean your number is invalid. It means Talkala needs to review the price before offering that call safely.

Some number types do not behave like ordinary landline or mobile destinations. Premium-rate and shared-cost numbers can be priced differently by carriers, and pager or voicemail destinations are not normal person-to-person call targets today.

When phone-number data identifies one of those types, Talkala blocks the call before dialing instead of asking you to accept the higher landline or mobile rate.

This is a pricing safety rule. It avoids starting a call where Talkala has not published a specific safe price for that number type.

Toll-free service numbers are different. Clear toll-free numbers, such as US 800 numbers, use the non-mobile landline pricing path unless a future service-number price category is added.

In many countries, calling a mobile costs more than calling a landline. Talkala first checks phone-number data to see whether the number is clearly fixed-line or mobile.

Toll-free service numbers, such as US 800 numbers, are treated as non-mobile service numbers for this pricing check. They should not trigger the mobile-versus-landline warning just because they are toll-free.

Some ordinary hard-to-classify number types, including numbers that may be fixed-line or mobile, unknown, internet-based, personal, or universal access numbers, can still continue when Talkala has not confirmed landline or mobile.

If the number type is still unclear and landline/mobile rates differ, Talkala uses the higher active rate instead of showing you a price that might be too low.

When that higher rate is used, you will see a confirmation before the call starts so you know which rate and minimum balance apply to that attempt.

Price benchmark page compares Talkala against published carrier rates from a checked research set. It shows that the savings claims are grounded in source-linked comparisons. It does not promise the same savings for every destination, carrier, or number type.

Your actual quote comes from the live rate directory and the number you are trying to call. Mobile calls can cost more than landline calls. If Talkala cannot confidently detect the number type before dialing, it uses the higher active rate instead of showing a price that might be too low.

Talkala does not take the final amount the instant you press dial. It first places a temporary hold. That lowers your available balance while the call is active.

After the call ends, Talkala charges the real amount based on the calling network's final duration. Any unused hold returns to your available balance.

Billing rounds up to the next full minute. A 2-minute-and-12-second call is billed as 3 minutes. The rate comes from the published per-minute price for that route, not from your browser timer.

This is a limited first-call offer, not an open-ended free trial. It only works if your available balance is zero, you have never completed a paid wallet top-up, you have not already used the offer, and the rate for the call you are placing is $0.99/min or less.

The destination must have at least one published callable landline or mobile rate at or below $0.99/min in the rates that apply to your account. Landline and mobile rates can differ. Your call uses the rate for the line type you dial.

Talkala may limit this first-call offer when account signals need review. If that happens, you can still add credit and call normally unless the account is separately blocked.

If the call connects, Talkala records the normal first-minute charge in your wallet history, then adds a matching promo credit so you pay $0. Because billing rounds up to the next full minute, even a short connected call uses the whole offer. If the call never connects, the offer stays unused.

If a call dropped, barely connected, or had poor quality, the billing result depends on the calling network's final call status and duration.

Talkala does not offer self-serve refunds or an automatic quality guarantee for every failed, short, or poor-quality call. If a charge does not match what you expected, contact support with the timing and destination details. Where the records confirm a service issue or incorrect charge, Talkala may return the affected credit or add make-up credit.

Credit appears only after Talkala receives a successful payment confirmation. No confirmation, no credit.

If a top-up looks delayed, the checkpoint is payment confirmation, not the moment you started checkout.

Where tax applies, Stripe calculates it during checkout and adds it on top of the wallet credit amount. The amount you select is the wallet credit face value; tax is not added as wallet balance.

Payment history dates use Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), so a payment made late in your evening may appear under the next calendar day in the app.

When a manual top-up succeeds, Talkala creates an in-app notification and can email you the top-up confirmation if Wallet email alerts are enabled in Settings.

For team wallets, top-up and Team Auto Top-up email alerts go to the team owner.

Choose `I need an invoice` before starting checkout. Stripe then collects the billing address and supported business tax ID details during checkout. Talkala does not collect or store those tax details in its own form.

The invoice is created only after the payment succeeds. Once it is available, you can find it in Billing under Payment history and in Wallet activity by opening that top-up row.

If Wallet email alerts are enabled, Talkala's top-up email also includes the invoice or receipt link when Stripe provided one.

For team wallet top-ups, those receipt or invoice links are included in the team owner's email alert when Stripe provides them.

If you do not ask for an invoice, Billing and Wallet fall back to the Stripe receipt when one is available.

A wallet promo code lowers what Stripe charges you at checkout. It does not lower the amount of calling credit you selected.

For example, if you choose a $50 top-up and use a 20% off promo code, Stripe charges $40 and Talkala adds $50 of paid wallet credit after the payment succeeds.

When Talkala can read the Stripe coupon math, the wallet screen shows an estimated payment before tax before you open Stripe Checkout. Stripe still calculates the final tax-inclusive total at checkout.

If the selected top-up qualifies for a Talkala bonus, the bonus is added separately on top of the selected top-up amount.

Promo codes can have limits such as expiration dates, redemption caps, minimum amounts, or first-time-customer rules. Stripe checks those rules during checkout.

This can be surprising if you turn on auto top-up while your balance is already low. Smart Auto Top-up is not a one-time rescue charge. It waits for a new balance drop that counts.

If you enable it when you're already below the threshold, it waits for the next eligible balance drop before it kicks in.

Eligible drops include final call charges and accepted inbound SMS charges on an owned number. The saved card is charged only after the wallet balance crosses from at or above the threshold to below it.

Successful and failed Smart Auto Top-up attempts create in-app notifications and can also be emailed when Wallet email alerts are enabled.

For Team Auto Top-up, success and failure emails go to the team owner.

Smart Auto Top-up uses the same bonus tiers as manual top-ups. A qualifying automatic refill creates the paid auto top-up credit plus a separate bonus-credit entry after Stripe confirms the payment.

Remaining unused paid balance from a wallet top-up can be refunded within 14 days of purchase. Credit already used for successfully completed calls is not refundable.

Talkala treats wallet top-ups, usage charges, and number subscriptions as different kinds of charges, so the answer depends on what happened.

The rule is support review, not a blanket money-back guarantee. If you think you were charged incorrectly, contact support with the details.

When support corrects a wallet balance, the correction appears as its own wallet-history entry. Support credits and balance corrections do not rewrite or hide the original payment or usage record.

A team starts when the first team credit Checkout succeeds. The buyer becomes the team owner, and Talkala adds the purchased credit to the team balance.

Team credit has its own bonus tiers: no bonus below $400, 5% at $400 or more, 10% at $1,000 or more, and 12% at $2,500 or more. The same ladder applies to qualifying Team Auto Top-up refill amounts. Promo codes are for manual Checkout only and discount the Stripe payment, not the selected team credit face value.

Team calls use the team balance when you place them from the team phone screen. Personal wallet credit, personal Smart Auto Top-up, and the personal free first minute do not apply to team calls.

When you call from a team, the caller ID menu is scoped to public caller ID, team-owned voice-capable numbers, and external caller IDs verified for that team. Personal numbers and personal verified caller IDs stay in your personal workspace.

Owners and admins can set optional monthly calling limits for members. Talkala checks a member's current-month team call captures and active holds before allowing another team call to start.

The owner is the person who starts the team. Admins can manage team credit. Callers are members who can place team calls but should not manage billing settings.

Owners and admins can invite an email address. Talkala sends the invite by transactional email when email delivery is configured, and the invited person must sign in with that same email address before Talkala activates the membership.

The team sidebar keeps team work separate from personal Talkala pages. In a team, use Phone for team calls, Wallet for shared credit, Members for access, Numbers for buying and managing team-owned phone numbers, and Activity for recent team wallet movement.

Owners and admins buy team-owned numbers from Team Numbers. That page searches available U.S. and Canada numbers, starts the regular number subscription Checkout, and returns to the team after Stripe confirms payment. Talkala provisions the number under the selected team instead of the buyer's personal number pool.

Owners and admins can also rename, cancel, and choose one default team number from Team Numbers. The default team number is the team's preferred owned caller ID and first Team Messages inbox.

Inbound SMS received on a team-owned number is saved with team scope and charged from the Team Wallet. If Team Auto Top-up is armed, a team SMS charge can trigger a refill from the saved team card.

Team Contacts are shared inside one team. Active team members can search and use them from Team Contacts or Team Phone. Owners and admins can add, edit, favorite, delete, import, export, or copy personal contacts into the team list.

Team contact notes are visible to team members who can access that team. Personal contacts stay personal unless an owner or admin explicitly copies them into Team Contacts.

Team Auto Top-up can refill from a saved card after a qualifying balance drop. Owners and admins can manage threshold, refill amount, and pause/resume from Team Wallet. If no team card is saved yet, the next manual Team Credit checkout can save one.

Owners and admins can set member monthly calling limits from the Members page. Owners can also change admin/caller roles, review recent member-linked wallet activity, and remove members or revoke pending invites where permitted. These limits apply to team calls only.

Team Settings stores team name, low-balance threshold, default team caller ID, billing contact details, default invite policy, and team-specific verified caller IDs. Closing a team is owner-only.

Your wallet covers prepaid usage such as calls and inbound SMS. The number itself is a separate recurring Stripe subscription that keeps the number assigned to you.

Owned numbers support inbound SMS in the browser. Each received SMS still costs wallet balance before Talkala accepts it. US Talkala numbers cost $0.02/SMS, and Canada Talkala numbers cost $0.03/SMS. Prices are shown per SMS for readability, but wallet billing is per SMS segment. A short plain-text SMS is usually one segment. Longer texts, or texts with some special characters, can count as multiple segments.

These charges are separate. Wallet balance does not pay the number subscription, and an active number subscription does not include free inbound SMS.

Where tax applies, Stripe calculates it during subscription checkout and adds it on top of the displayed monthly base price.

Only plain-text inbound SMS is charged. MMS with photos, videos, audio, contact cards, or other media is not supported and doesn't create a wallet charge or inbox message.

Number activation, renewal, scheduled cancellation, and subscription payment failure can also be emailed when Numbers email alerts are enabled in Settings.

This is an important limitation. Buying a number does not make Talkala ring in your browser when someone calls you.

A Talkala number gives you inbound SMS in the app and the ability to use that number as your outbound caller ID where supported. Inbound voice calls and voicemail are not supported.

Billing and access do not end at the same time. When you delete a number, the app removes and releases it right away. The Stripe subscription is set not to renew.

If keeping the number until a specific date matters to you, do not delete it and assume access continues until the billing period ends. Deletion means immediate removal.

Caller ID matters because people are more likely to answer a number they recognize.

Verified caller IDs can have labels in Settings. If you skip the label, Talkala shows the full phone number, and you can add or change the label later.

You can remove an external verified caller ID from Settings. Talkala removes the provider-side verification before it deletes the caller ID from your account; if that provider cleanup is temporarily unavailable, the caller ID stays visible so you can retry safely.

You can also remove a verified caller ID as your default caller ID without deleting it.

When you haven't configured your own verified or owned caller ID, Talkala falls back to a shared service number where that path is available.

This is more than a local form. The verification step has to complete successfully outside Talkala, so it can fail or get temporarily limited for reasons Talkala does not control.

If the calling network already recognizes the number as verified, Talkala can mark the caller ID ready instead of asking for another verification call.

When a caller ID becomes verified, Talkala sends a Calls notification and an email if Calls email alerts are turned on. If verification fails after you leave the page, Talkala sends the same kind of alert so you know to retry.

Starting a verification call does not send a notification or email by itself.

One common stumbling block: if you already own a number inside Talkala, use it as an owned calling number. Don't try to re-add it as an external caller ID.

The Messages page is an inbound inbox, not a full texting tool. Texts sent to your Talkala number can appear there, but you cannot send outbound texts from the browser.

The inbox supports plain-text SMS only. If someone sends an MMS with photos, videos, audio, contact cards, or other file attachments, that message does not become an inbox thread.

Billing is split in two parts. Your dedicated number renews as its own recurring Stripe subscription, and each incoming SMS uses prepaid wallet balance before Talkala accepts it.

US Talkala numbers cost $0.02/SMS, and Canada Talkala numbers cost $0.03/SMS. Other number countries can differ, and the Messages page shows the active SMS amount when Talkala knows it for your assigned number.

Wallet billing is per SMS segment. A short plain-text SMS is usually one segment. Longer texts, or texts with some special characters, can arrive as multiple segments and cost more than one SMS.

Delivery is strict. New texts are dropped if the number subscription is inactive, the wallet cannot cover the next segment, or inbound pricing for that number is missing.

Texts with media are also dropped because the inbox supports text-only SMS.

When an accepted inbound SMS leaves your wallet below the next-segment minimum, Talkala creates a low-balance notification.

Talkala can also email that warning if Wallet email alerts are enabled.

For team-owned numbers, low-balance and dropped-message email alerts go to the team owner.

If more texts arrive while the same low-balance warning is active, Talkala records the drops without sending a fresh email for every single text.

The SMS inbox can only show messages for numbers Talkala can confirm are yours. If you do not own a Talkala SMS number, you do not get an SMS inbox.

If you own more than one SMS-capable Talkala number, Messages separates inboxes by the Talkala number that received the text. The same person texting two different Talkala numbers appears as two separate threads.

You can label owned numbers, for example Personal, Company Support, or General. Those labels help you recognize each inbox in Messages and on the Buy Number page.

Older SMS threads that do not have a stored receiving number can appear in a Legacy inbox. New inbound SMS goes to the exact number inbox that received it.

The inbox is receive-only. You can see inbound texts tied to your number, but you can't send general outbound texts from your browser.

Opening a thread marks its unread badge as read after the latest messages load.

When a thread is not linked to a saved contact, the thread header offers Save to contacts. That opens Contacts with the new-contact form and the thread phone number prefilled so you can save them without copying the number.

Every accepted inbound SMS also creates an in-app notification that links back to the receiving inbox. Talkala does not email you for every received text.

The inbox is also text-only. Standard SMS can appear in the inbox. MMS with photos, video, audio, contact cards, or other media is treated as unsupported instead of appearing in your inbox.

Talkala does not publish a detailed country-by-country SMS coverage list the way it publishes voice rates. Treat SMS as a narrower part of the product.

The inbox only accepts messages that fit the prepaid and text-only rules.

If the number subscription is inactive, pricing isn't configured, or the wallet can't afford the next SMS segment, the message does not appear in your inbox.

Messages with media also do not appear because the inbox is text-only.

That media rule is broader than photos alone. Videos, audio clips, contact cards, and other MMS-style attachments are also unsupported.

This is why a number can look set up but still miss new inbound messages until the billing or configuration issue is fixed.

Talkala can email low-balance and first dropped-message alerts when Wallet email alerts are enabled.

Repeated drops during the same low-balance state do not each get a separate email. The missing text itself is not stored for later delivery.

This is intentional. If one call is already active on your account, a second call attempt will be denied. Finish or end the first call before starting another.

Browser-based calling cannot guarantee the connection, location accuracy, or emergency routing that emergency-capable phones provide. If you need emergency services, use a mobile phone or landline.