Having multiple Facebook accounts can be useful for separating personal and professional contacts, maintaining anonymity online, or accessing features only available to new users. However, Facebook’s terms of service only allow one account per person. So how can you create multiple Facebook accounts with one phone number?
Why would you want multiple Facebook accounts?
There are a few reasons why someone may want to have more than one Facebook account:
- Privacy – Keep personal and professional lives separate by having distinct accounts.
- Security – Isolate sensitive information from everyday use by compartmentalizing accounts.
- Anonymity – Use alternate accounts to browse Facebook without revealing identity.
- Accessibility – Access Facebook features like games and promotions reserved for new users.
- Organization – Separate interests into discrete accounts for a more focused experience.
Having distinct accounts for personal and professional use is one of the most common motivations. This allows you to manage friend requests and privacy settings differently depending on the account. An alternate anonymous account can be useful for logging in on public devices. Accessibility to “new user only” features like certain games and promotions requiring a new install is also a driving factor.
Is it against Facebook policy to have multiple accounts?
Facebook’s Terms of Service explicitly prohibit maintaining more than one “personal account” per individual. However, their policy does allow owning additional accounts for businesses, organizations, pets, or “legacy purposes.”
Here is the relevant excerpt from their Terms of Service:
“You will not maintain more than one personal account at any given time. We reserve the right to suspend or terminate any account we believe may be engaging in fraudulent, misleading, or unlawful activity. You will not create an account for anyone other than yourself without permission.”
So while you cannot have multiple personal accounts as a single user, you can have secondary accounts for pets, fictional characters, or organizations you’re affiliated with. These types of additional accounts are permitted within the terms of service.
Steps to create multiple Facebook accounts with one number
While outright prohibited by Facebook’s policy, it is still possible to maintain additional personal profiles linked to your phone number. Here are a few methods:
Use email aliases
You can create email aliases or temporary email addresses to use when signing up for additional Facebook accounts. As long as you have access to the inbox, you can receive confirmation codes to register new profiles.
Some popular temporary or disposable email services include:
- 10MinuteMail
- Mailinator
- Temp Mail
- Guerrilla Mail
This allows you to have distinct email addresses to associate with each account, while using your main phone number for two-factor authentication and login confirmation codes.
Use SMS forwarding services
SMS forwarding services provide additional phone numbers that relay messages to your primary number. So you can sign up for new accounts using alternate numbers that route to the same device.
Some SMS forwarding apps and sites include:
- TextNow
- Hushed
- Second Phone Number
- TextPlus
With these secondary numbers, you can create completely separate Facebook profiles that still send SMS codes to your phone.
Leverage family plans and groups
For mobile plans that allow multiple lines for family members, you can take advantage of the extra numbers to make new Facebook profiles. Add the extra lines as secondary accounts. While an expensive option, this allows full use of all features linked directly to your device.
You can also join group plans to gain access to numbers not directly associated with your name. Some group phone plans like Circle Loop boast thousands of numbers operating on the same account.
Steps to creating a secondary Facebook account
Once you’ve established the extra email addresses and phone numbers, here are the steps to making a secondary Facebook profile:
- Clear cookies and cache – Prevent Facebook from recognizing your device
- Use an incognito or private browser window – Further anonymize your access.
- Navigate to www.facebook.com on the device and browser.
- Click Create New Account and select “For Myself.”
- Enter your alternate email address and confirm with the verification code.
- Fill in your name and chosen password. Use a pseudonym if desired.
- Enter alternate phone number and confirm with SMS code.
- Complete identity confirmation steps if prompted.
- Finish setting up profile with bio, profile pic, etc.
Once confirmed and set up, you now have an additional Facebook account linked to your phone number and email address. Repeat for as many accounts as desired while following Facebook’s terms of service.
Maintaining multiple accounts
To avoid account suspensions when using multiple profiles, keep these tips in mind:
- Use different profile pictures on each account
- Customize privacy settings individually
- Do not send friend requests between accounts
- Avoid linking accounts on any services
- Keep login sessions separate by using incognito windows
Actively using all accounts also helps avoid looking like duplicate or fake profiles to Facebook’s security systems.
Risks and downsides
While possible to accomplish, maintaining multiple Facebook accounts does come with some risks and downsides:
- Account suspension if discovered
- Extra effort to keep accounts separate
- Unable to easily share between profiles
- Features limited without valid ID confirmation
- Payment methods must be different on each account
Facebook tries to detect duplicate accounts through identifiers like IP address, device fingerprinting, and linked information. So keeping accounts truly distinct requires extra work.
Conclusion
Creating multiple Facebook accounts with a single phone number is possible through email aliases, SMS forwarding services, and multi-line plans. However, directly violates Facebook’s terms of service for personal accounts. Tread carefully to avoid losing access. For full functionality and convenience, most users are better off focusing on a single profile.