Text Vault vs Buddies Beacon
Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.
Text Vault
Protect your real phone number with a private, disposable number for texting. Send and receive messages, including pictures, with temporary or permanent numbers from various countries. Keep your personal information secret during online transactions or when texting strangers.
- Disposable burner phone numbers
- Private texting and SMS
- International texting
- MMS Picture Messaging support
- Message deletion for privacy
- Caller ID lookup
- Do Not Disturb scheduling
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Best Free Texting App with burner phone numbers for text messages. Add as many phone numbers for texting as you want. Text Vault is the best texting app for protecting your real phone number during texting by keeping your personal phone number private and secret. Text to strangers with a disposable temporary protected phone number. + Get a free private phone number for private texting & SMS. Sign up today to get a free phone number and text now. + Add as many burner phone numbers as you like from countries like USA, UK, Canada and Australia + Support phone number verification for services you do not want to reveal your real phone number when you text. + Supports text & MMS Picture Messaging + Delete individual messages or entire message to protect privacy + Set up do not disturb schedule or privacy to hide texts in notifications. + Lookup phone numbers & caller ID + International texting to a number of countries. + Temporary or permanent phone numbers available + Text free using our protected numbers. Text Vault texting app gives you a free private second phone number to protect your real phone number and caller id. Text now to someone in peace knowing that you can block them off anytime, burn your phone number plus get a new 2nd phone number when you download right now. With Text Vault Phone App, you can text freely to a date, someone you are buying and selling with on Craigslist, Etsy, Ebay, or any online ecommerce sites or listings. Protect your identity and caller id today with a new private text number. Text Vault offers a subscription plan for new alternate numbers for you and me. - Your subscription automatically renews unless auto-renewal is turned off at least 24 hours before the end of the current subscription. - Your account will be charged for a renewed subscription within 24 hours prior to the end of current subscription. - Your account will auto renew once a month, every 3 months or once a year depending on the subscription period you choose. - The subscription price ranges from $4.99-$79.99 and will vary depending on the type you pick but will be shown before you confirm purchase. - Payment will be charged to iTunes Account at confirmation of purchase and will auto renew within 24 hours prior to the end of the subscription period. - You can manage your subscription and switch off the auto-renewal by accessing your account settings after purchase. - You cannot cancel the current subscription during the active subscription period. - Any unused portion of a free trial period, if offered, will be forfeited when the user purchases a subscription to that publication, where applicable Privacy Policy: https://www.appsverse.com/privacy-mobile/ Terms of Use: https://www.appsverse.com/terms-mobile/
Buddies Beacon
This app allows users to send location-based signals to a select group of friends. Friends can respond with quick status updates, and location sharing is temporary and controlled by the user. It focuses on direct communication without public feeds or usernames.
- Send location beacons to friends
- Receive quick status responses
- Temporary and controlled location sharing
- Create custom buddy lists
- Plan future meetups with flares
- Signal presence in crowds
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Buddies is a small app for lighting a beacon when you're out. Tap the button and every buddy sees the signal. They tap back — on my way, twelve minutes, can't tonight — and that's it. No group-chat limbo. No public feed. No usernames, no search, no directory. You invite the people you actually want to see, and beacons stay between you. Buddy lists let you send to your golf crew, your poker crew, or all of them at once. Flares let you plan ahead — Sunday brunch, Thursday dinner — and they light themselves at the moment. Light a torch when a friend is trying to find you in a crowd. Everything you have live sits in one list. Your location is shared only when you light something, only with the buddies you chose, and only while it shows on your lock screen. Swipe that away and sharing stops. It is deleted when the beacon or torch ends. Made for the friends you'd actually want to show up.
Screenshots
Verdict
The clearest difference is rating: Buddies Beacon at 5.0 against Text Vault's 4.4. Buddies Beacon also leads on in-app purchases (none vs 10) and ads (none vs shown). Text Vault's advantage is ratings volume (23K vs 1) and device support (3 vs 1). On price there is nothing between them.
Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS
Both are free to download. Text Vault sells 10 in-app purchases, starting at $4.99 per month. Buddies Beacon asks for nothing beyond the download.
Buddies Beacon holds the better App Store score, 5.0 against 4.4. That said, the two scores are not equally well evidenced: Text Vault has 23K ratings behind it against 1, so its average is the more settled of the two.
Text Vault ships an update every 3 weeks, Buddies Beacon weekly. The most recent releases landed on November 3, 2026 and October 24, 2026 respectively.
| Parameter | Text Vault | Buddies Beacon |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free | Free |
| Rating | 4.4 (23K ratings) | 5.0 (1 ratings) — better |
| Positive reviews | 77.3% of reviews | — |
| Number of ratings | 23K — better | 1 |
| Update frequency | Every 3 weeks | Weekly — better |
| Ads | Yes | No — better |
| In-app purchases | Yes | No — better |
| Monetization | Free with in-app purchases | Free — better |
| Devices | iPhone, iPad, iPod — better | iPhone |
| Requires iOS | 13.0 — better | 17.0 |
| Further details — not scored | ||
| Size | 93 MB | 8 MB |
| Age rating | 17+ | 12+ |
| Developer | Phoner Holdings LLC | Liam Maxwell |
Customer experience
Text Vault
Buddies Beacon
Bugs and requests
Text Vault
Reported bugs
3 issues- Login screen freezes
- Incompatible with older devices
- Texts not always delivered
Requested features
3 requests- Voice messages
- Dark mode option
- Advanced analytics dashboard
Buddies Beacon
Not enough reviews yet to summarise bugs or requests.
In-app purchases
Text Vault
- New Number Offer$4.991 Month
- Different Number Monthly$9.991 Month
- Virtual Number$9.991 Month
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- Alternate Number$9.991 Month
- Different Number3 Days trial$14.991 Month
- 50 Text Credits$4.99
- Starter Credits$4.99
- 100 Text Credits$5.99
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- Number Level 4$9.99
- 250 Text Credits$14.99
Buddies Beacon
No in-app purchases








