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.

Some account screens therefore 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.

Changing or resetting an email password signs out existing email/password sessions. Sign in again with the new password on each device. Google sessions are not affected by an email-password change.

Talkala uses this storage to keep the app working. Authentication cookies keep you signed in, short-lived cookies support policy acceptance and protect access to staff-only tools, and browser storage remembers settings such as theme, layout, profile, and country preferences.

The public site does not use advertising or ad-tracking cookies. Vercel provides cookie-free aggregate traffic measurement. Google Analytics loads only after you choose Accept in the privacy banner, with advertising storage and personalization disabled. 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, received 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 SMS, browser-call outcomes for calls to your Talkala number, 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: qualifying accounts with no available credit that have not topped up yet can place one 60-second call when that call's price 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.

If Phone says calling is temporarily unavailable: Follow the current service notice. Adding credit or changing your microphone settings will not resolve a service-wide interruption. You can still check your balance and call history.

If there is no service interruption shown: Read the message for your attempted call. Check that your email is verified, microphone access is allowed, and the full destination number has an available rate. Most calls also need enough balance; the free first minute has separate eligibility rules. See what you need before calling.

A notice disappearing does not by itself prove that a call will connect. The dialer still checks your account, destination, and available balance before starting a call.

If the message is unclear or the problem continues, contact support with the message you see and the approximate time of the problem. Do not add more credit unless the dialer specifically says your balance is too low.

Talkala may show a notice across signed-in pages or only on Phone. It can share general information, a warning, or an urgent update.

Some notices can be dismissed. Your dismissal applies only to that version; if Talkala publishes changed information, the new version may appear again.

A service notice is an explanation, not a service control. Hiding or dismissing it does not enable calling, change a rate, spend credit, or alter your balance.

If calling is paused, Phone can keep showing a basic non-dismissible safety notice even when another notice is switched off or dismissed. That safety message remains until Talkala verifies that calling is available again.

When you hit dial, Talkala checks the destination, 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 available for calling. Talkala can keep a country visible while coverage, carrier support, or a service 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 microphone and Call will fail immediately until you change the site permission first.

Before a call, the Phone page may show a small Enable microphone prompt, and the microphone pill remains available on the dialer. Use either one, then allow microphone access when the browser asks. After browser permission is allowed, the pill may show Mic Allowed until Talkala opens an active microphone stream and switches to Mic 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 drops for a moment, Talkala may keep the call open for a short reconnect attempt. 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.

If Talkala says the browser media connection failed, the call reached the browser but the audio path could not stay connected. Check Wi-Fi, VPN, firewall, and privacy-extension settings, then try again from a stable browser tab.

After a bad call, Talkala tries to say what happened in plain language: browser connection failed before dialing, browser connection became unstable during the call, no one answered, the line was busy, the call reached its time limit, or the call ended after it connected.

For billing, calls with no connected-call evidence show no charge. Calls that did connect are charged only for connected time, and History remains the source for the exact final duration and charge.

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.

You can open Dashboard, Wallet, History, Contacts, or another signed-in Talkala page while the same call continues. A compact active-call banner lets you return to the call or end it.

Refreshing the browser, closing the tab, signing out, leaving the signed-in app, or opening another website can end or disconnect the browser call. Talkala warns you before those actions when it can.

If you choose to leave, Talkala tries to end the call before opening the next page. If you stay, the call keeps going.

Before a call starts, Talkala checks the destination, full number, selected caller ID, and current Talkala rate for that attempt.

A carrier or number prefix can route differently from the country rate. If Talkala cannot confirm the route safely, it pauses the call before dialing.

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 price the full number, the signed-in rates page and dialer label the result "Final rate for this number."

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.

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 "Final rate for this number" 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.

The live rate directory shows starting country rates. A carrier or number prefix can route differently. Enter the full number while signed in to see "Final rate for this number." 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 per-minute rate is the signed-in result labeled "Final rate for this number," not a public starting rate or 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 landline or mobile price at or below $0.99/min in the rates that apply to your account. Landline and mobile prices can differ. Your call uses the price 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 the call failed or went unanswered before it connected, Talkala releases the full temporary hold and does not create a final charge. If it connected before dropping or having poor quality, the charge follows the calling network's final connected 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.

Opening checkout or pressing Pay does not add credit by itself. Talkala adds it when the successful payment confirmation arrives.

If a top-up looks delayed, first check whether Stripe completed the payment.

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.

The restriction applies only to the personal account or team connected to the disputed payment. It does not pause calling for unrelated customers or other teams.

Talkala restores the affected wallet automatically after Stripe reports that every open dispute for it was won. A lost or still-open dispute keeps the restriction in place. Contact support if you believe the payment or restriction is attached to the wrong account.

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.

If you turn it on while your balance is already below the threshold, it waits for the next qualifying balance drop.

Balance drops that count include final charges for calls you make, answered calls to your personal Talkala number when receiving is set up, and accepted SMS on a Talkala 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.

When Stripe reports that a wallet payment is disputed or reversed, Talkala stops new calls, number purchases, automatic top-ups, and new caller-ID verification for the personal account or team connected to that payment.

The restriction does not delete the account. You can still sign in and view history, contacts, wallet records, billing records, and support.

Other Talkala customers are not affected. If Stripe closes the dispute as won, Talkala can restore provider spending for that account or team. Contact support if the payment status shown by your card provider and Talkala do not match.

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 monthly number charges 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 person who starts the team becomes its owner. The owner can change admin and caller roles, transfer ownership to an active administrator after confirming their identity, close the team, and use every team-management area.

Admins can manage team credit, members, numbers, contacts, and settings where the product allows it. Callers can place team calls and use shared contacts, but they cannot manage the team or its billing.

Team Messages is receive-only and available only to owners and admins. Caller-role members can call Team Contacts but do not see a message action.

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.

Owners and admins buy and manage team-owned numbers from Team Numbers. The current finder covers available U.S. and Canada numbers. After Stripe confirms the monthly payment, Talkala adds the number to the selected team instead of the buyer's personal number list.

Owners and admins can rename a team number, schedule cancellation for its paid-through date, release it immediately with an irreversible warning, and choose one default. The default is the team's preferred owned caller ID and the inbox that opens first in Team Messages.

The default team number is a Team Messages and caller ID preference, not a routing rule. Texts still arrive in the inbox for the team number that received them. When you open Team Messages, Talkala shows the default team number inbox first when it is available.

Received SMS is saved to the team and charged from Team Credit. If Team Auto Top-up is ready, a received-SMS charge can trigger a refill from the saved team card.

Team numbers cannot receive browser calls yet. Incoming calls for teams need a separate future team-calling design.

Team Contacts are shared inside one team. Active 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 shared list. Caller-role members can use the contacts but cannot change them.

Team contact notes are visible to 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 Team Credit from a saved card after a qualifying balance drop. Only the team owner can manage the threshold, refill amount, and pause or resume setting from Team Wallet. If the team has no saved card, the next manual Team Credit checkout can save one.

Owners and admins can set a monthly calling limit for individual members. An admin cannot change the owner's member settings. Talkala checks the member's finalized team call charges and active call reserves for the current month before another team call starts.

Member limits apply only to team calls. They do not change the member's personal Talkala balance or personal calls.

Your balance covers calls you make, received SMS, and answered calls to your Talkala number. The number itself is a separate monthly rental that keeps it assigned to you.

Talkala numbers can receive SMS in the browser while Receive SMS is on for that number. Each SMS Talkala accepts still costs wallet balance. 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 monthly number rental, and an active number rental does not include free received text messages or free incoming-call minutes.

When receiving calls is set up for your personal number and Receive calls is on, only answered connected time can use wallet balance. The price is based on your Talkala number, not where the outside caller is calling from. US and Canada local Talkala numbers are $0.02/min when answered; US and Canada toll-free Talkala numbers are $0.04/min when answered.

Missed, declined, busy, unavailable, unanswered, and low-balance calls do not cost you anything from Talkala. The outside caller may still pay their own phone company separately for the call.

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

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

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

A selected number can occasionally become unavailable between checkout and final provider activation. If Talkala cannot safely finish activation, it cancels the subscription so it will not renew and refunds the verified charge tied to that checkout.

The refund can take time to move from processing to completed at Stripe and your bank. Talkala keeps the failed activation under review until the refund succeeds and any temporary provider resource has been cleaned up.

No number is added to your account when activation fails. Contact support if the refund remains pending or your bank does not show it after its normal processing time.

When someone calls your Talkala number, it can ring right in your browser. You need a Talkala number first because that is the number people call back. You answer from Talkala, not your personal phone, so your personal number can stay private.

Use the Receive calls switch to choose whether calls to that number should ring in Talkala. Some numbers may need setup before they can receive calls, and newly rented numbers still start with Receive calls off.

Talkala needs to be open in your browser to ring. If you are signed out, offline, or the tab is closed, Talkala cannot ring here yet. Answering may ask for microphone access if your browser has not already allowed it.

You only pay Talkala when an incoming call actually connects. Missed, declined, busy, unavailable, unanswered, and low-balance calls do not cost you anything from Talkala. The person calling you may still pay their own carrier separately.

Choose normal cancellation when you want the monthly rental to stop renewing. Talkala keeps the number active until the paid-through date shown in the app, then releases it and removes it from your account.

Choose immediate release only when you are finished with the number now. It cannot be undone, the number may not be recoverable, and already-paid subscription time may not be refundable.

Use My Numbers to buy a Talkala number, add or retry external caller-ID verification, rename numbers or caller IDs, remove external caller IDs, set SMS or caller-ID defaults, and clear the default caller ID.

Your SMS default is a Messages preference, not a routing rule. Texts still arrive in the inbox for the Talkala number that received them. When you open Messages, Talkala shows your SMS default inbox first when it is available; you can switch to another owned-number inbox anytime.

Settings > Calling Identity is summary-only. It shows your current SMS default, caller-ID default, inventory counts, and a Manage my numbers link. You can also clear the default caller ID there without deleting the caller ID.

The Dialer caller-ID picker can open My Numbers when you need a number or want to add a custom caller ID.

Team-owned numbers and team-specific verified caller IDs are managed from Team Numbers and Team Settings, not from personal My Numbers.

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

Verified caller IDs can have labels in My Numbers. 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 My Numbers. Talkala removes the outside verification before it deletes the caller ID from your account. If that cleanup is temporarily unavailable, the caller ID stays visible so you can retry safely.

You can clear a verified caller ID as your default caller ID from My Numbers or Settings > Calling Identity without deleting it, or change the default by choosing Set caller ID on another number.

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

Add or retry external caller-ID verification from My Numbers. Open the verified caller IDs section, choose Add caller ID, and complete the validation call when prompted.

Before a new validation call can start, your email must be verified and the applicable personal or team wallet must have completed a paid top-up. Accounts blocked or held for a high-risk review cannot start this call; contact support if you believe that restriction is a mistake.

Talkala limits verification attempts by account, phone number, and request source. One owner can have at most three active verification requests, and an unfinished request expires after two hours. If you are asked to wait, deleting and adding the caller ID again will not reset that waiting period.

The add or retry action may be temporarily hidden while Talkala or its calling provider pauses new caller-ID validations. Caller IDs that are already verified remain in My Numbers.

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 from My Numbers.

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

One common stumbling block: if you already have a Talkala number, use it as a Talkala caller ID. Do not try to add it again as an external caller ID.

The Messages page is a receive-only inbox, not a full texting tool. Texts sent to your Talkala number can appear there, but you cannot send 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. You rent the Talkala number monthly, and each received 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 rental is inactive, the wallet cannot cover the next segment, or Talkala does not have an SMS price for that number.

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

When an accepted 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 Talkala numbers assigned to your account. If you do not have a Talkala number that can receive texts, you do not get an SMS inbox.

If you rent more than one Talkala number that can receive texts, Messages separates inboxes by the Talkala number that received the text. The same person texting two different Talkala numbers appears as two separate threads.

Your SMS default is a Messages preference, not a routing rule. Texts still arrive in the inbox for the Talkala number that received them. When you open Messages, Talkala shows your SMS default inbox first when it is available; you can switch to another owned-number inbox anytime.

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

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

The inbox is receive-only. You can see texts tied to your number, but you cannot send general 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 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 smaller part of the product.

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

If the number rental is inactive, SMS pricing is not configured, or the wallet cannot 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 texts 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.

Talkala can also quietly drop a burst of repeated or distributed incoming texts to protect one attacked number. An abuse-dropped text is not stored, does not change its thread, does not use wallet credit, and does not trigger a separate alert for every attempt. Calling remains available.

The phone network may still charge Talkala for delivering an incoming SMS to its webhook even when Talkala drops that message locally.

If you already have a call in progress, Talkala blocks a second call. Finish or end the first call, then try again.

Calling from the browser cannot guarantee the connection, location accuracy, or emergency-service connection that emergency-capable phones provide. If you need emergency services, use a mobile phone or landline.